Patrick Gleeson

Patrick Gleeson (born Nov. 9, 1934) is a musician, synthesizer pioneer, composer and producer, from California, USA.

Gleeson began experimenting with electronic music in the mid-'60s at the San Francisco Tape Music Center using a Buchla synth and other devices. In 1968, "upon hearing Walter Carlos' Switched-On Bach", he bought a Moog synthesizer and opened recording studio Different Fur.

He worked with Herbie Hancock in the early 1970s, touring with Hancock -- thus pioneering the use of synthesizers outside the studio -- and appearing on the albums Crossings and Sextant. Hancock has credited Gleeson with introducing him to synthesizers and teaching him technique. Sextant and Headhunters were both recorded in part at Different Fur studios. Gleeson has worked with many other Jazz musicians, including Lenny White, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Earland and Joe Henderson.

Gleeson recorded a number of solo albums, starting with Beyond the Sun - An Electronic Portrait of Holst's "The Planets" in 1976, to which Walter Carlos contributed the sleeve notes. The album was nominated for a "best engineered recording-classical" Grammy in 1976. Beyond the Sun was followed in 1977 by a more commercial album, Patrick Gleeson's Star Wars.

He worked as an engineer on the 1978 Devo album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, part of which was recorded at Different Fur. He sold his interest in Different Fur in 1985.

Gleeson has been involved in the scoring of a number of film soundtracks, including The Plague Dogs, Apocalypse Now, Crossroads and The Bedroom Window. He has scored nine television series, including Knot's Landing.