"Tod Dockstader was born in 1932 in St.Paul, Minnesota. After majoring in psychology and art at the University of Minnesota, he went on to study painting and film, earning money by drawing cartoons for local newspapers and magazines. In 1955, Dockstader moved to California with his partner, Beverly, who had got a job teaching at an elementary school in Hollywood. He went looking for work and was rejected by Disney, but welcomed by United Productions of America (UPA) to work as an apprentice film editor, cutting picture and sound for animated cartoons including "Mr.Magoo" and "Gerald McBoing Boing." He then moved on to writing and storyboarding cartoons.Early Recordings

Dockstader moved to New York in 1958 and became a self-taught sound engineer and sound effects specialist and apprenticed as a recording engineer at Gotham Recording Studios. It was around this time that he started to use his off-work hours to experiment with mixing and manipulating sounds on magnetic tape (musique concrète). By 1960 he had amassed enough material to assemble his first record Eight Electronic Pieces which was released on the Folkways label in 1961 (this would later be used in the soundtrack of Fellini's Satyricon). The last of the eight pieces was later re-worked into his first stereo piece [Traveling Music]((/compositions/traveling-music/).

In 1961 he applied to use the facilities at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and was denied access by Vladimir Ussachevsky. Ussachevsky's official reason was the "overstrained" scheduling of the studios, although many suspect that Dockstader's lack of academic training was a factor in the decision.

He continued to create music throughout the first half of the 60s, working principally with tape manipulation effects. His last piece at Gotham was Four Telemetry Tapes in 1965, after which he left to work as an audio-visual designer on the Air Canada Pavillion at Montreal's Expo '67. It was around this time in 1966 that some of Dockstader's pieces were released on three Owl L.P.s, and his work became known to a larger audience. He achieved modest recognition and radio play alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, and John Cage.

Westport Communications

After leaving New York in the late 1960s he formed the audio-visual service Westport Communications Group along with business partner, and former Gotham executive, Fred Hertz. The company produced award-winning educational films for the American Heritage series, which Tod wrote, directed, and created sound for. By that time (late 60s) Tod and Beverly had a daughter, Tina who recalls her father immersing himself into each new project, becoming an expert on the subject at hand, be it the Civil War, the Roaring 20s, or some other aspect of American History.

Through his own company he was able to purchase the equipment, including at that time a Moog and two ARP Synthesizers. His only musical output of this period were two L.P.s of short, synth-based pieces released by Boosey & Hawkes and intended for film, radio, and television use.Late Recordings

In the late 90s, Tina, who was now starting a family of her own in Massachusetts, convinced Tod to get a computer so that they could keep in contact via email. He quickly realized the computer's potential for creating music and set about transferring hours and hours of DATs that he had accumulated over the years. During this time he released the three disc set Aerial and collaborated with David Lee Myers on two albums.

Later in his life, Tod cared for his wife Beverly, who suffered from Alzheimer's, and passed away peacefully at the age of 84 on February 27th, 2015 surrounded by his friends and family while listening to his own music."

"David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist who has lived and worked in New York City since 1977. Pulsewidth serves as the platform for his activities in the arts, particularly sound projects, a number of which have been released under the Pulsewidth record label.

From 1987 through 1993, sound projects were developed under the name Arcane Device. With the development of new devices in 2014, it seems fitting for the moniker to be revived.

Myers work stems from an enthusiasm for electronics and the world of electrons as it relates to the realm of vibration and sound. After a fine arts education and many years in music, in 1987 Myers' accidental discovery of "Feedback Music" led to a new appreciation of the unseen forces underlying audible electronics."