Keith Fullerton Whitman

Keith Fullerton Whitman started his path through music at an early age (9) by intentionally ‘versioning’ Commodore Vic20 basic sound programs to yield raw computer-speak skronk. Growing up at record-collector fairs throughout northern New Jersey in the late 80s, Keith was privy to just about every phylum of underground music imaginable… declaring allegiances early on to European free improvisation, progressive and psychedelic rock, breakdance-themed urban machine music, the post World War II orchestral avant-garde, and the early electronic experiments of the WDR and INA-GRM camps. Upon moving to the fertile creative ground of Boston in 1991 to study Computer Music with Richard Boulanger at the Berklee College of Music, he proceeded to form rock-based ensembles in a smattering of forms (the Fluxus-pranks-meets-Hasil-Adkins duo El-Ron, the Dub/Sahko/Jungle beep-vibes of The Finger Lakes, the electro-acoustic/freely improvising ‘power trio’ Sheket/Trabant), most rehearsing bi-weekly for months in preparation of a single gig (after which, mission being accomplished, the ensemble would break up). After barely acquiring his Bachelors in Music Synthesis in 1996 due to some… confusion regarding his final piece/thesis “Error” (three hours of broken DAT machine connections, skipping CDs, corrupt signals of all walks, DC offset, barely audible clicking, etc…), he set out on his own to bridge the gap between the academic avant garde and the fan of sound at large through a series of subversive tracks credited to dozens of homonyms… the main of which, Hrvatski, was lifted off of a billboard for the Boston Language Institute for its similarity to one of Keith’s favorites… the hip-hop collagist Steinski.