Born in Michigan but for most of his life a true Californian, Robert Erickson (1917–1997) had a reputation as a maverick. His musical path was never a straight line, nor, really, a line at all but a landscape, with ranges of features rather than mere points of interest.

Composing was the central activity of his life. He was a profound and original musical thinker who embraced the expressive possibilities of all music, from the Western classics and moderns of his own early education to Indian and Balinese traditions and all manner of contemporary experimentation, as long as it served a musical purpose. When encountering his work, one doesn’t need to know more than one hears: what’s important are the sounds one encounters and the expressive journey they suggest for each listener.