Technostolic mostly consists of Goffe Torgerson. There
is something about music that moves him, especially the music of the era prior
to around 1600 AD. This is the era of
chant,
counterpoint,
polyphonic
masses,
motets,
chansons,
chorales,
Lassus,
Palestrina,
Josquin,
Tallis,
Victoria,
Dufay,
Machaut,
Hildegard Von Bingen, as well as other
medieval and
renaissance composers. No, he doesn't walk around in robes saying things
like, "How art thee,
Nonny Nonny?" He just
likes
the music, and is devoted to it's qualities.
Born and raised in the heady music atmosphere of Nezperce, Idaho, Goffe was influenced early by such artists as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and the Torquays. There he began his tutelage under long-time music director John Jordan. Later, having moved to Lewiston, Idaho, Goffe studied under Dorothy Baker and Maestro Washburn, as well as the legendary Eddy Williams, rising eventually to achieve the honor of second chair French Horn.
Having achieved all he could musically at that point, Goffe joined the Navy, where he listened to as much of the Beatles, Moody Blues, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer as he could. He was also introduced to the mesmerizing sound of Kraftwerk there. After about eighteen months of Navy life, he went off and finished college under the watchful eyes of The Talking Heads and Supertramp. As he was leaving college, he began a new love for classical music, where The Planets became his favorite record. This led over the following decade to lots more classical music, from Bach to Stravinsky.
A singular moment happened in November 1991. Involved in a desperate, non-stop, painstaking task of rebuilding a database that had been scrambled while upgrading to DOS 5.0, he found solace and energy listening alternately to Gregorian Chant and Jesus Jones (don't ask why). This apparently etched in his brain an eternal devotion to chant, and piqued his curiosity for other "early" music. (It didn't etch in his mind any sort of devotion to Jesus Jones, though it did seem to do the trick at the time.)
Somewhere along the line, about 1994, he started
playing around with
MIDI sequencers and
synthesizers, being inspired by the computer game music of the time,
especially that of
George Sanger.
Various lame experiments in
the
beginning didn't discourage him (especially since he didn't know at
the
time that they were lame). Eventually, he combined his love of early music
with synthesis. In the fall of 2003, he was asked by his pastor,
Dave Banks,
to make available music for the preludes for a new alternate service at his
church, which was called Apostolic Worship. Pastor Banks described the
music vibe he wanted as "reflective
techno." Goffe jumped onto this seemingly contradictory idea, which suited
his eclectic nature, and invented
Technostolic music. So, where does the term "technostolic" come from?
Goffe was explaining the "reflective techno"
prelude music he arranged for the Apostolic
service to his good and talented friend
Tim Royal.
As you can see, Tim, in his uniquely fertile mind, combined the terms, and the
rest might be history some day.
