Neill began working with La Monte Young in 1984 as a student of composition and Indian classical music after being introduced by Jon Hassell. He worked closely with Young to develop The Melodic Version of The Second Dream of the High Tension Stepdown Line Transformer, and led many performances of the piece as well as other works by Young throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. “Pure Resonance”, Neill’s essay on The Melodic Version, was published in Sound and Light, a book on Young and Zazeela published in 1996 by Bucknell University Press, and is included with the extensive program notes for the current concerts. Neill also presented Young’s Forever Bad Blues Band at The Kitchen in New York City, where he was Music Curator from 1992-99.

Since 2014 Ben Neill and Marco Blaauw have been leading a new series of performances of The Melodic Version of The Second Dream of the High Tension Line Stepdown Transformer. Performed by an international ensemble of 8 trumpets, the concerts take place in a light environment created by Marian Zazeela.

Washington Post article on 1985 concert
New York Times review of 2015 concert
Le Monde review of 2015 Paris concerts
Blog review of Huddersfield UK concert – discusses Neill’s essay on Young