Tod Dockstader

American composer

Tod Dockstader (March 20, 1932 – February 27, 2015) was an American electronic music composer and sound designer. He is regarded as one of the first American musique concrète composers.

Dockstader was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. and The Musical Quarterly. In the early 1990s, Starkland re released most of the content of Dockstader’s out of print Owl records, along with previously unreleased material. The two CDs brought new, significant acclaim to the composer. The Washington Post called Dockstader "a highly imaginative pioneer," and The Wire concluded, "The obsessive care with which Starkland have compiled these extraordinary recordings should ensure that Dockstader will be remembered as the innovative, visionary figure he undoubtedly was." Reinvigorated, Dockstader returned to music at the start of the 21st century, adopting computer composition in favor of tapes. New CDs appeared from Sub Rosa and ReR Megacorp. Work on a documentary about his life, Unlocking Dockstader, was begun in 2011, however lack of funding has stalled the project. He died in Arlington, Massachusetts, on February 27, 2015, at the age of 82. In 2016, Starkland released From the Archives, a CD that premiered 15 works selected from the unexpected discovery of 4,200 sound files found on Dockstader's private computer after his death. Created from 2000 2008, these were among the last pieces composed by Dockstader, before dementia made his studio work too difficult.

Alvin Lee of the band Ten Years After took influence from Dockstader when recording the band's experimental album Stonedhenge (1969); he said he was in a "musique concrete phase." Classic Rocks Hugh Fielder deemed Dockstader an "avant garde industrial composer".