Synth pioneer Patrick Gleeson dies at 91

Pioneering synthesist and composer Patrick Gleeson has died at 91. The Bob Moog Foundation confirmed on July 28, on behalf of the musician's estate, that Gleeson passed away on July 19. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Charmaine McClarie, and no cause of death has been given.

Gleeson's path into electronic music began while he was teaching English at San Francisco State University in the 1960s, when he started experimenting on an early Buchla synthesizer at the San Francisco Tape Music Center. By 1968 he was working with a Moog III modular system and had co-founded Different Fur recording studio with John Viera, a base he used for decades of session and production work that helped shape early electronic music.

He rose to prominence through his work with jazz musician Herbie Hancock, producing the 1972 album Crossings and 1973's Sextant before touring with Hancock's band, a partnership widely credited with helping popularize synthesizers in a live jazz setting.

Gleeson went on to work as a producer, engineer and composer across a wide range of projects, contributing to Devo's 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and to Brian Eno and David Byrne's 1980 collaboration My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. His 1976 solo debut, Beyond the Sun, earned a GRAMMY nomination the following year for Best Engineered Classical Recording, and through the 1970s and 80s he helped score film and television projects including Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and the soap opera spin-off Knots Landing.

Gleeson stepped back from film and television scoring in 2017 but kept performing live, both as a solo artist and alongside drummer Michael Shrieve and saxophonist Sam Morrison. The Bob Moog Foundation's tribute did not detail any memorial plans, and none have been announced as of this report.