Fred Puhan

I was a college student in Munich, Germany when, at age seventeen, I was asked to perform my music over the American Armed Forces radio network.  After some work in the broadcast studio, I was invited to become the "house musician" for a startup nightclub.  However, my college career came first, I thought, and so the world has never heard me play a note since...

My early musical influences were the San Francisco Bay area bands, such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and of course, the Grateful Dead. I was also influenced by the British Rock "invasion" and then later by the "jazz fusion" supergroups, such as Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I also began to explore more eclectic groups and artists, such as John Abercrombie, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Go (with Stomu Yamashta, Klaus Schulz and Al Di Meola, among others) and haven't stopped exploring yet.

While I don't play as often as I used to, music is an integral part of my life. I have speakers connected to my computers, a world-class audio system in my car (which is itself world-class), and a top-notch audio system at home.  Rarely will you find me without music playing.  When I travel, my headphones are plugged into my laptop, which I sometimes carry expressly for that purpose.

Does any of this qualify me as a music reviewer?  Absolutely not!  As I am quick to tell anyone who asks, my opinions are only as valid as the next person's.

And since you pay nothing for my opinions, they are worth exactly what you pay for them.  Nonetheless, I have been asked a number of times for my recommendations, and Michael Foster is gracious enough to post them on Ambient Visions.

To pay the bills, I work as a computer database expert/consultant. I find the logical relationships between computer systems and music fascinating! Western music and many computer systems operate on a "base eight" principle. The mathematics of music didn't become apparent to me until I became computer savvy, even though I studied Music Theory in college, and have been playing music since I was eight (I guess I have my own "base eight"). Then, the Circle of Fifths, modes and cadences began to make sense.

I turned fifty a few months ago. Life is just beginning to get interesting!