Arthur Russell

Arthur Russell, American cellist, composer, singer and disco artist from New York wasn't prominent during his lifetime (1951 - 1992), but a series of reissues and compilations raised his profile in the 2000s. He was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa and studied the cello and began writing his own music. When he was 18, he moved to San Francisco and studied Indian Music and played with Alan Ginsberg. In '73 he moved to New York. He formed a band there called The Flying Hearts, then in 1979 began writing disco music under the name Dinosaur and Loose Joints. He died from AIDS at the age 40.
Russell was prolific, but was also notorious for leaving songs unfinished and continually revising his music. Ernie Brooks said that Russell "never arrived at a completed version of anything," while Peter Gordon stated, "his quest wasn't really to do a finished product but more to do with exploring his different ways of working musically". He left behind more than 1,000 tapes when he died, 40 of them different mixes of one song. (Wikipedia).
Arthur: "I said to him the thing that excited me about the piece was that you could pick up the needle anywhere and put it down and it always sounded the same. Not exactly the same, but you could plug into it for as long as you liked, then plug out and then plug back in again without losing anything essential unlike narrative music where your attention is required from beginning to end. He turned to me and said , 'That's the most unattractive thing I've ever heard.'" ["Echo Beach"; Melody Maker; April 11, 1987]