Glaciation press release / bio

Patrick O’Hearn’s musical path has lead him through his many inspired eras – bassist for Frank Zappa, The Bay Area jazz scene of the mid 70s, the ensemble Group 87, and the new-wave band, Missing Persons. But, his latest inspiration was a chance encounter with a vintage 1937 electric Hawaiian guitar that shaped his new solo album, Glaciation.

O’Hearn, who had been working in his Nashville home studio toward the completion of an all-together different album, scrapped the year’s worth of work to meld the distinct character of his newest instrument to a host of other partners. Working from instinct, he brought aboard an 18th century acoustic bass, an Analogue Modular Synthesizer, fretless bass, piano, electric guitars and assorted vintage studio gear (EQs, Filters and Signal Processors) -- to record Glaciation in chronological sequence.

"Just why a Hawaiian guitar would act as catalyst to conjure up striking images of the arctic did not occur to me at first. It wasn't until well into making the record that I stopped to consider the irony: it made sense".

Glaciation continues O’Hearn’s path of evoking the sensations of different atmospheres through beautifully textured sounds. His last two albums Beautiful World and Slow Time painted different surroundings than Glaciation’s arctic beauty. The first illustrates a natural extension of his earlier work, while the second explores the slower and slightly more abstract.

A bit of ancient history:

- Joe Henderson 1975

O’Hearn’s varied discography began in the Bay Area jazz scene of the early 70s. His professional career started as a bassist for well established artists, Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Joe Pass, and others. He also worked with like-minded young musicians, Terry Bozzio, Mark Isham and Peter Maunu -- three of whom would later factor into O’Hearn’s musical development.

While on tour in Los Angeles in 1976, he met Frank Zappa, who offered him a job as bass player in his band -- a position he retained for the next 2 1/2 years.

-FZ 1976

With Zappa, he shifted away from acoustic bass to exclusively electric bass guitar and became interested in electronic music instruments (synthesizers), of which Zappa had a premium collection, and - importantly - who encouraged O’Hearn to explore them. Zappa also introduced him to the technical aspects of intricate physical tape editing to produce compositions, (in an era prior to home computers) as well as audio engineering and home studio recording equipment.

- group 87 1979

O’Hearn then teamed with trumpet player Mark Isham and guitarist Peter Maunu to form Group 87, an ensemble influenced by the early instrumental jazz fusion of Miles Davis and Weather Report as well as the electronic stylings of Kraftwerk, ambient minimalism of Brian Eno and general alternative rock that flourished in that decade.

Patrick next joined up with master drummer Tony Williams and spent the better part of 1980 touring the U.S. and Europe as bassist for Williams' trio.

In 1981, Terry Bozzio invited O’Hearn to join his emerging rock/new wave band, Missing Persons. The nature of the music called for a further shift from bass guitar to synthesizers. - by now of keen interest to him. Missing Persons recorded three acclaimed albums for Capitol Records before dissolving. O’Hearn then joined with Duran Duran guitarist, Andy Taylor and Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones for an album and brief touring.

- missing persons 1982

His transition to solo artist began in 1984 when former Tangerine Dream member, Peter Baumann, founded the Private Music record label. Patrick signed as a charter artist, and released his unique debut solo album, Ancient Dreams in early 1985.

O'Hearn followed Ancient Dreams with two more albums – the Grammy-nominated Between Two Worlds (1986) and Rivers Gonna Rise (1988). The fourth album, Eldorado (1989), ventured decidedly into the world music genre - infusing O'Hearn's signature sound with rhythms and timbres drawn from disparate sources such as South America and the Middle East. Commercially, Eldorado performed well among varied audiences and some tracks remain popular on jazz stations today.

He subsequently spent some time as a film score composer, working with Directors Sam Shepard, Roger Donaldson, Darrell Roodt and others before returning to solo albums, receiving another Grammy nomination for Trust in 1995.

Glaciation is the ninth release on O’Hearn’s eponymous label. It is available on iTunes, in stores and online.

-Kim Fowler