Effective period / Period of releases: 2005 - 2006

Members: Lee Ranaldo, Christian Marclay, Alan Licht, Tim Barnes, Ulrich Krieger, William Hooker, Gregor Asch

The Text of Light group was formed in 1999 with the idea to perform improvised music to the films of Stan Brakhage and other members of the American Cinema avante garde of the 1950s-60s (Brakhage’s film ‘Text of Light’ was the premiere performance and namesake of the group).

The original premise was to improvise (not ‘illustrate’) to films from the American Avante-Garde (50s-60s etc), an under-known period of American filmic poetics. Members of the group include Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht (gtrs/devices), Ulrich Krieger (sax/electronics), Christian Marclay and DJ Olive (turntables), William Hooker and most recently Tim Barnes (drums/perc). Various combinations of these players attend ‘Text’ gigs, depending on individual schedules, so the group takes on various permutations—sometimes all members participate, sometimes not.