Arthur Russell

Arthur Russell, born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1951, moved to New York in the 1970s and worked across every scene it had: avant-garde composition at the Kitchen, folk-pop songs, and disco records for the dancefloor. His instrument was the cello, played through echo and effects, with his soft, half-sung voice drifting over it.

World of Echo (1986) was the only album of his songs released under his own name in his lifetime. He died in 1992, little known, and the posthumous releases that followed from 2004 made him a touchstone for musicians from Caribou to Blood Orange.