Howard Stelzer has been active as a composer and performer of electronic music since 1992. His visceral music exploits the unique sonic and physical qualities of cassette tapes and tape players… such as gritty amplified hiss, the squeal and hum of taxed motors, plastic clatter, and play speed altered by pressure from fingers applied to the tapes’ reels. Stelzer’s music is sometimes improvised, though most of his recordings are carefully composed in his home studio in Cambridge, MA.

Stelzer is a member of the drone/noise group Skeletons Out, with Jay Sullivan. Both Stelzer and Sullivan are also in the trio Ouest, with their long-time friend Brendan Murray. Other collaborators have included Frans de Waard (for the multi-part “Torn Tongue” project, using source sounds from a spoken voice), Jason Talbot, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jazzkammer, The Cherry Point, Ben Hall, Dave Gross, Vic Rawlings, Greg Kelley, Jason Lescalleet, Will Guthrie, David Payne, John Olson/Spykes, AMK, and Seht (among many others). Stelzer also operates the Intransitive Recordings label for electro-acoustic and improvised music.

Selected Discography:

Swelter LP w/ David Payne (Middle James Co., Canada) 2010 – forthcoming

Blood Bath c20 (Whitechapel, US) 2010 – forthcoming

Apricot War Buffer Zone c20 (Razors & Medicine, US) 2010 – forthcoming

Ethnography CDr w/ Drive the Pieces Together (Carbon, US) 2010

Skeletons Out / nmperign Split 7″ (Editions Zero, Greece) 2009

Strangled Pairs 10 CDr w/ Spykes (American Tapes, US) 2009

Go On CDr (Banned Productions, US) 2008

Skeletons Out In Remembrance of Me CD (Students of Decay, US) 2008

Bond Inlets CD (Intransitive Recordings, US) 2008

Exactly What You Lost CD w/Seht (Intransitive Recordings, US) 2007

Mincing Perfect Words 3″CDr (Chondritic Sound, US) 2007

Tomorrow No One Will Be Safe CD w/Jazzkammer (Troniks/PacRec, US) 2007

Zondag CD w/ Giuseppe Ielasi, Roel Meelkop, Frans de Waard (Port, Japan) 2007

Untitled LP w/The Cherry Point (Troniks, US) 2006

Night Life CD w/Giuseppe Ielasi (Korm Plastics, NL) 2005

Songs CD w/ Jason Talbot (Intransitive Recordings, US) 2003

The BSC Good CD (Grob, Germany) 2003

Four Sides 2×7″ w/Jason Talbot, (CIP, US) 2003

The Idea of Northeast LP w/ Jason Talbot & Mike Bullock (Intransitive, US) 2001