Michael Garrison

  I met Michael Garrison at a performance on the slopes of Mt Shasta in the mid 1990s where he was performing live.  I was really impressed with his stage show, and his obvious mastery of electronic music. We hit it off immediately, and became fast friends. Michael passed on to me some of his great knowledge of the genre, and his business experience insights gained by running his label Garrisongs.  We kept in touch over the years.

Sadly, Michael recently passed away unexpectedly.  We never had an opportunity to jam together as we had hoped.  Michael's music touched many lives in addition to my own.  Some of his fellow musician friends and I are now working on a tribute CD of recordings made in his honor.  Along the way, I heard that Michael's music equipment was being offered up for sale to his friends.  Seeing that, an idea came to mind that I could not stop thinking about. What if I could record my contribution to Michaels tribute on his own instruments? In a very real way,  an electronic musician combines synthesizers and recording equipment into a single entity,  and most of us regard the entire studio as our musical instrument. Fortunately, I was able to make arrangements with Michael's brother to acquire the whole studio intact, with that specific idea in mind that I would record my tribute to Michael on his own instruments.

Here I am unloading some of Michael's equipment.  Time is of the essence, as the cut-off date for tribute CD submission is approaching fast. The equipment will need to be set up and the recordings done quickly.

The 16 channel 8 bus Tascam board is very heavy.  The analog tape machines will need to be demagnetized, aligned, and calibrated before use.  And I need to get some open-reel tape.

The MS-16 1 inch 16 channel machine is amazing.  I am sure it will sound excellent.

While it is always very exciting for any gear-head like me to get new equipment to learn and play, the feeling is bittersweet. I am very saddened by the circumstances that led to this point. I hope the tribute track and CD comes together very well, and that this project will serve as some sort of closure to my thoughts and feelings about the loss of Michael.  In my mind, I think that Michael might be pleased to know that his instruments went to a friend and admirer, rather than to a dealer.

My deepest sympathy goes out to Michael's family, and to his worldwide legion of fans. I also want to thank Mark Garrison for his vision, and EM fan Mike Valant of Florida for his assistance in turning this poetic idea into a reality.

The Garrisongs shall play on.........      Craig Padilla June1 2004

Our thanks to Ross Chandler for the photo of Michael at the top of this page.

New! Now purchase Michael Garrison recordings HERE