This event took place at the Tenderloin Museum on October 19, 2023 and explores the work of disco producer and electronic music pioneer Patrick Cowley, featuring Josh Cheon of Dark Entries Records in conversation with Maurice Tani, a prolific singer-songwriter who was an early and frequent Cowley collaborator and bandmate.
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Cowley’s chart-topping collaborations with Sylvester such as “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” immortalized the “San Francisco Sound” and illustrate the indelible influence of queer artists and club culture on the evolution of electronic dance music. He had a knack for creating up-tempo, “top-of-the-night” tracks meant to peak the energy of a room–”Hi-NRG” music–but Cowley’s output was quite varied, ranging from art songs to porno soundtracks and synthy ad-spots. While sonically adventurous, Cowley possessed a prodigious musicality that empowered him to thread new and experimental sounds into sinewy, euphoric tracks that not only transformed the dancefloor but also the future of pop music.
Cheon’s Tenderloin-based independent label Dark Entries Records has been instrumental in illuminating the richness and complexity of Cowley’s artistic legacy: over the past 15 years, the label has put out a series of reissue and archival Cowley releases replete with extensive liner notes and interviews. Join us for an evening celebrating this essential queer San Francisco artist on what would have been Cowley’s 73rd birthday.