Doctor Nerve

by Jim DorschDoctor Nerve was formed by guitarist/composer Nick Didkovsky in 1984. Didkovsky studied electronic music with composers Christian Wolff and Gerald Shapiro, and continues to work in the field. He also studied at The Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. Unique in rock, Doctor Nerve is an exceedingly tight group that remains raw and vital. The groups first recording, Out to Bomb Fresh Kings, was self-released in 1984. Armed Observation was released in 1987 by Cuneiform. Both LPs were later combined on a single CD by Cuneiform. Doctor Nerve settled into an octet format, and toured Europe several times each year. The groups instrumentation includes trumpet, baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, vibes, bass, drums, and electric guitar.Doctor Nerves third release was the limited-edition live CD, Did Sprinting Die?, in 1990. The Cuneiform CD release adds three computer-generated pieces. Beta 14 ok (1991) featured several computer-written pieces, as well as 44 Nerve Events, musical snippets of short duration, designed to be programmed by listeners to play in unique sequences on their CD players. Didkovsky commissioned several musicians to create music based on sampling the Nerve Events. The results are presented on the Cuneiform CD Transforms: The Nerve Events Project. In 2000, the band recorded Ereia, a collaboration with the Sirius String Quartet.