A crucially important figure in the influential Cleveland pre-punk (and later post-punk) community, Allen Ravenstine was the synthesizer player with Pere Ubu, who abandoned melody and instead coaxed a variety of otherworldly sounds from his EML modular synthesizer. Ravenstine was born in Ohio on May 9, 1950. He grew up in a household of music fans: his mother was a classical pianist who favored Rachmaninov, while his father was a jazz fan who liked Erroll Garner. When he was in grade school, Ravenstine briefly studied the trombone, but he didn't enjoy it and dropped the instrument. He didn't start pursuing music seriously until 1971, after leaving college. Ravenstine met Bob Bensick, a visual artist who was experimenting with audio oscillators and guitar effects boxes. Working with Bensick, Ravenstine participated in his sound experiments and helped find a way to make lighting react to the audio. Bensick and Ravenstine did several performances at art galleries in the Cleveland area, and at the suggestion of a friend, Ravenstine purchased an ElectroComp EML 200 modular synthesizer, which he used to further his electronic experiments. He also bought a multitrack tape machine, and recorded an extended electronic piece titled "Terminal Drive," created in collaboration with Albert Dennis. After he was introduced to a creatively ambitious Cleveland band called Rocket from the Tombs, Ravenstine started recording their shows and occasionally performed with them. After RFFT broke up, the group's leader, David Thomas, soon formed a new band, Pere Ubu, and he invited Ravenstine to join. He participated in the recording of Ubu's debut single, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," but was initially hesitant to perform with the band. After seeing them play several times, Ravenstine changed his mind, and he became a full member of Pere Ubu. Ravenstine's abstract soundscapes, full of sculptured noises punctuated by bleeps and squalls, became one of Pere Ubu's aural signatures, and he remained an integral part of the band until Pere Ubu broke up following the release of 1982's Song of the Bailing Man. During his time with Pere Ubu, Ravenstine also worked with Red Krayola leader Mayo Thompson, appearing on the albums Soldier Talk, Kangaroo?, and Black Snakes. In 1987, Ravenstine reunited with David Thomas in his band David Thomas and the Wooden Birds, appearing on the album Blame the Messenger. When lineup changes in the Wooden Birds resulted in a group that was primarily made up of former Pere Ubu members, Thomas changed the name of the band to Pere Ubu, and the new edition of the group released an album in 1988, The Tenement Year. Pere Ubu landed a major-label record deal with Fontana Records, and they released a pair of unusually polished works, 1989's Cloudland and 1991's Worlds in Collision. After the release of Worlds in Collision, Ravenstine, having grown weary of life in the band, left Pere Ubu and retired from music, pursuing a career as a pilot. While Ravenstine stayed out of the spotlight, he did accept an invitation to perform with the Red Krayola in Los Angeles in 2004, and in 2012 he took part in an improvisational session with Robert Wheeler, another modular synthesist who took Ravenstine's place in Pere Ubu, for a documentary film, I Dream of Wires, and excerpts from the performance were released on a pair of EPs. In 2017, Smog Veil Records gave Ravenstine's Terminal Drive a belated release after the long-lost recording was rediscovered and restored. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi