I’m Steve Bowman. I compose and perform electronic music in the tradition of 20th-century avant-garde music. I paint abstract art in the tradition of Kandinsky, Klee, Hans Hoffmann.
My music sounds like my paintings; my paintings look like my music.
Music samples begin on this page. Click on Paintings to see my art.
Music
I play electro-symphonic music. Styles range from ambient to noise, tonal to atonal—often in the same piece. All electronic, but borrowing inspiration from classical music. I drive the music from piano-type keyboards, and sometimes with an electrified clarinet
I sometimes use the stage name ThinAirX.
Sample tracks:
Albums
Kandinsky on the Radio
Electro-symphonic fantasias performed live in the studio. I’m playing keyboards, but all sounds and effects come from an iPad. (9 tracks; 65 min)
Mouth Feel
Electro-symphonic music created wholly with electrified clarinet–a regular clarinet with a pickup that feeds into guitar pedals for layering and effects. Sounds range from ambient to weird. I guarantee, you’ve never heard a clarinet sound like this. (6 tracks; 61 min.)
Flamed Amazement
Synthesizer music. The culmination of 20 years of playing hardware synthesizers. Each piece sounds different, generated from a different compositional idea. The title is from Shakespeare’s Tempest. (4 tracks; 34 min.)
Singles
I intended Very Like a Whale to be the last track on Kandinsky on the Radio. It’s the logical conclusion to all the compositional ideas and electronic techniques in the album. But it’s much longer and more intense than the other tracks, so I spun it off as a separate piece. Be prepared for an epic journey that keeps evolving, going deeper and deeper. The title is from Hamlet. The mood reflects my mood in October 2020, the final month of the U.S. national elections. (14 min.)