Will Cullen Hart, Elephant 6 co-founder, has died aged 53

nme.com:

the Apples in Stereo frontman Robert Schneider. His death coincided with the release date of two new Olivia Tremor Control singles ‘Garden Of Light’ and ‘The Same Place’, which had marked their first new music in 13 years.“I am deeply heartbroken on this day of celebration of a new Olivia Tremor Control release, to announce that my dear friend and Elephant 6 Recording Co.

co-founder, W. Cullen Hart (Will to his friends), passed away this morning of natural causes, suddenly, peacefully, and in a very happy mood around the release of the two new OTC songs,” Schneider wrote.“Will was a genius experimental and psychedelic pop musician, a brilliant and prolific visual artist who sketched and made collage art every second of every day, on every object within reach.

He was a lifelong four-tracker, tape looper, spontaneous poet, sound collage constructor, deconstructionist of musical instruments, and a very talented composer of pop songs since we were teenagers.”Schneider went on to call Cullen Hart “my partner in crime in our teens and early twenties, my dear friend, roommate, bandmate, and we pursued a vision of art and music together our whole lives, to this very day, that we hatched as children – together.”“Will was infinitely chatty, infinitely funny, infinitely expressive, infinitely creative,” he continued. “He was energetic, sweet, tender, earnest, alternately totally chill and totally explosive.Will suffered from multiple sclerosis for almost two decades, which gradually reduced his mobility, his ability to play guitar, and his ability to tour – but he kept up his productivity, his songwriting, his recording and his art, and lived life in a state of heightened creativity.