Robert Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was one of my favorites.  A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he attended the University of Michigan and founded the ONCE Group with Gordon Mumma, Roger Reynolds, David Beherman,"Blue" Gene Tyranny, and others.  Ashley also performed and toured with the Sonic Arts Union (Ashley, Mumma, Behrman, Alvin Lucier) in the sixties and seventies after the Demise of the ONCE Group.

He composed atonal music for conventional instruments, such as "In memoriam...Crazy Horse," (1963), but most of his compositions were for electronics, synthesizers, musique concrete, and experimental means.  Some of his best know pieces from the 1960s and 1970s included "She Was a Visitor," "Purposeful Lady, Slow Afternoon," and "Automatic Writing."  I've linked to "The Wolfman" (1964) here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Dd4Dki-b4

Ashley devoted much of his creative energy from the late seventies onward to music theater works for television and numerous electronic operas, as exemplified by the excerpt from "Atalanta: Acts of God" (1985)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EygYUYIx_sM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXgahc8XDXU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh_TC8j_JkE

Ashley died at his Manhattan home on March 3, 2014, of cirrhosis.  He was 83 years old.

Rest In Peace Robert  :\'(