Joshua Kosman December 14, 2020Updated: December 17, 2020, 1:28 pm
Composer Pauline Anna Strom Photo: Aubrey Trinnaman
Composer Pauline Anna Strom, who earned a small but devoted following in the early 1980s with a series of probing electronic soundscapes released under the name Trans-Millennia Consort, was found dead in her San Francisco apartment on Sunday, Dec. 13. She was 74.
Her death was confirmed Monday, Dec. 14, by record producer Matt Werth, who reissued her music in a 2017 compilation on his label RVNG Intl. No cause of death was given.
Working alone with low-tech equipment a few elementary synthesizers, a four-track tape recorder Strom created music infused with a keen spiritual edge and an appreciation of nature. Under titles such as “Mushroom Trip” and “Rain on Ancient Quays,” her compositions, which often grew out of marathon solo improvisation sessions, fused psychedelia with an expansive sense of time.
Christian Eede
, December 14th, 2020 18:23
The San Francisco-based artist had recently announced her first album in 30 years
Pauline Anna Strom has died, aged 74.
The news of her passing was confirmed today (December 14) by RVNG Intl., the label that had released a retrospective of her past work, called
Trans-Millenia Music, in 2017 and is due to release her first album in 30 years,
Angel Tears In Sunlight, early in 2021. No cause of death has been given.
A statement shared by the label says: A companion across time, our Trans Millenia Consort. Pauline Anna Strom, or Paula when you got to know her, was both made for our unusual present time and completely, cosmically out of step with it. She lived an intentionally hermetic and therefore extraordinary life in all that she accomplished, fiercely independent despite her visual impairment.