There’s a fine line between New Age — genteel musical wallpaper heard in Pier 1, lulling you to nowhere — and great experimental ambient-electronic soundscapes.

To stay on the good foot, one must understand introspection and be willing to show the scars. One must create radical noise and sensuous curves. People like Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hans-Joachim Roedelius understand this.

So does Tim Story. On CDs Three Feet From The Moon, Wheat and Rust (both on Uniton) Glass Green (Windham Hill — errgh) and Beguiled (Hearts Of Space), Story’s unsentimental blend of still-life piano and eerie synthetics conjures without explaining. Story’s instrumental music comes at the listener subtly yet subversively, leading you into a bright room, then pushing you into its darkest closest.

"‘Subversive’ is a great word," says Story from Maumee, OH, one of several spots he’s lived since leaving Media, PA, at age 4. "Music that appeals to me typically has great beauty tempered by ambiguity, irony, humor. I’ve never been drawn to overly dramatic music. It’s usually very personal, idiosyncratic, direct and appeals to me on an equal emotional and intellectual basis. I hope these preferences display themselves in my own music."

Story’s songs like "Careen," "The Color of Vowels" and his upcoming duet with Roedelius, "Carnickel and Pocketboat" (from Soundscape Gallery 3 on Lektronic Soundscapes) breathe avant-Euro influences. This attraction came about during his days amidst the rock ’n’ rolling all night of Michigan.

"After a Midwest diet of Bob Seger and Aerosmith, it was a revelation that there were iconoclastic artists doing personal, vivid music. As I was beginning my experiments in the late ’70s, these artists provided an aesthetic connection to a scattered musical community."

His most recent CDs, Abridged: Selected Miniatures and The Perfect Flaw, released on the tiny Hearts of Space label, are compelling organic works that draw listeners into their rickety acoustics and decrepit electronic swirls.

"I want to provoke listener imagination," says Story. "No Grand Canyon Suites for me."

This is why Story is fond of the indie-label route, before and after his work with Windham Hill in the late ’80s.

"I was so used to working on my own in my humble little studio that I was very surprised when I was offered a deal with Windham Hill," he says of his stay, which ended when the label deemed Beguiled too esoteric and electronic.

"My music always had an introspective, moody, edgy side that the New-Age-y labels weren’t fond of," explains Story. "The musical structures are quite austere, and some of those folks didn’t quite have a taste for it. Hearts of Space has always seemed to appreciate it, warts and all."

Story hates sentimentality. You feel each element is a seamless integral part of a whole, each detail irreplaceable. Story would rather write something simple and austere with true emotional integrity, than a "pretty, flowery, glossy lie."

Since Glass Green in the late ’80s, Story has moved from solitary synth composition to utilizing other skills and feelings, forcing him to encompass acoustic sounds other than stoic, fluid piano. Rather than trying to recreate ‘lifelike’ sounds on a synthesizer, he figured why not get them from someone who cares about the instrument.

This reasoning may have led him to work with one of his heroes (and now touring partner), a now-solo "Achim" Roedelius from Cluster. They met when Story was on tour in Austria in 1983 and became fast friends.

The two are now working on piano/keyboard pieces blending their own material with bits of Charles Ives, Pierre Henry, Xenakis and the like.

Invigorated by the collaboration, Story foresees further mutation of ambient, lo-fi music, a lessening of his devotion to technology and promises handfuls of surprises, both in studio and on stage.

"Lo-fi rules!" he screams. "I love technology but have never seen it as a goal in itself, only a tool."

Tim Story and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Sat., Oct. 9, 8 p.m., St. Mary’s Church, 3916 Locust Walk, University of Pennsylvania Campus, $20, 610-734-1009.

Join the
City Paper
Mailing List