Glaciation / bio

Patrick O’Hearn’s musical path has lead him through many inspired eras. 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.

"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 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.

A bit of ancient history:

- Joe Henderson 1975

O’Hearn’s varied discography began in the San Francisco and 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 local like-minded young musicians, Terry Bozzio, Mark Isham and Peter Maunu -- all three of whom would later factor into O’Hearn’s recordings and 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. By association, 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 (serious) home studio recording equipment.

- group 87 1979

O’Hearn then teamed with trumpet player Mark Isham and guitarist Peter Maunu to form the short lived Group 87, an interesting ensemble influenced by an amalgam of sources: from Miles Davis to Kraftwerk to Aaron Copland. Group 87's debut release was issued on CBS records in early 1980

Following Group 87 Patrick joined up with drummer Tony Williams and spent some time 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 in 1986.

- missing persons 1982

Patrick's 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. Patrick released five studio albums and two compilations before leaving Private Music in 1992.

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 (issued fall 2007) is the ninth release on O’Hearn’s eponymous label. It is available on iTunes, in stores and online.