Wikipedia has one of those graphical timelines for composers, in this case of the 20th century. I see Paul Lansky listed. I first heard his music at a CCRMA concert at Stanford's Frost Ampitheatre. It was the same night as the premiere of the opera The Voyage by Philip Glass. Back in the day, local commercial radio actually broadcast live opera so I brought headphones and a radio and listened to the opera during gaps in the concert. The only music I remember from the concert was an electronic tape piece by Paul Lansky, Table's Clear, I think. The work started from a recording of his family playing/banging kitchen items; the end result charms. Amazon samples. MP3 excerpts on Table's Clear here. Lansky describes the piece:
The piece had its origin one evening after dinner in October, 1990, when my two sons, Jonah and Caleb (ages 14 and 9 at the time) took our kitchen apart, recording the sounds of everything they could find which would make noise (including themselves). I ran the tape machine and Hannah ran for cover. I then transferred all the sounds to my computer, spent a few months working, and came up with this piece.
Wikipedia has a surprisingly good entry on Paul Lansky, including the fact that Radiohead's Idioteque uses a Lansky work as a source.
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