Will Cullen Hart, Elephant 6 Co-Founder, Dies at 53

Will Cullen Hart, a founding member of the Athens, Georgia, indie-rock collective Elephant 6, died on Friday, November 29, of a coronary heart assault, based on a press release on the Elephant 6 website. One of many musician’s Elephant 6 co-founders, Robert Schneider, shared that Hart died “instantly, peacefully, and in a really blissful temper across the launch of the 2 new OTC songs”—the just lately launched Olivia Tremor Control singles “The Same Place” and “Garden of Light.” Will Cullen Hart was 53 years outdated.

Born in Athens, in 1971, Hart grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, alongside Schneider, Invoice Doss, and Jeff Mangum. As youngsters, the 4 put out dwelling recordings below the Elephant 6 banner, and, after finishing highschool, Doss, Hart, and Mangum moved to Athens, the place they shaped the Olivia Tremor Management. Schneider ended up in Denver, Colorado, the place he based the Elephant 6 Recording Firm label to place out music created by his band Apples in Stereo. Hart, a visible artist, created many of the art work for his personal band and others related to the collective.

The Olivia Tremor Management launched their first correct album, Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, in 1996, the 12 months after Mangum’s departure from the group. Extra music adopted earlier than the group disbanded in 2000. The subsequent 12 months, Hart shaped Circulatory System and launched the brand new band’s debut album. Each of his bands remained dormant till 2009 when the Olivia Tremor Management reunited and Circulatory System shared their second album, Signal Morning. The Olivia Tremor Management’s resurgence was slowed, nevertheless, by Bill Doss’ death in 2012.

Hart’s final album with Circulatory System, Mosaics Within Mosaics, got here out in 2014. That very same 12 months, an Elephant 6 documentary was announced, and it could ultimately see a wide release, in 2022, as A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co.

“Will was infinitely chatty, infinitely humorous, infinitely expressive, infinitely inventive,” Robert Schneider wrote in his eulogy for Hart, “He was infinitely cherished by me, and by his bandmates and the Elephant 6 and Athens communities.”