I know very little about his music.
Can anyone recommend anything?

Even recordings are regrettably hard to find--there were some Gramavision releases in the early '90s, which are now out of print and are commanding bizarre prices on ebay. I like The Second Dream of the High-Tension Step-Down Transformer ($8 used sometime in the mid-90s--take that, ebay profiteers). What I've heard of the Gramavision Well-Tuned Piano has some really engaging sections, though it's so long (five discs) that one's attention will inevitably wander.

Perhaps the best way to hear his work is to go to NYC and visit the Dream House when it's open. That way you can experience the acoustic phenomena in his drone music. Just tilting one's head, opening or closing your mouth, or even slightly changing the angle of the reading material you're holding will change the perceived sound of these unchanging drones.

A year or so ago, some enterprising person in Italy reverse-engineered a number of his drone pieces from the titles (which are actually the scores), and put out a Max/MSP patch which "performed" them, though sadly LMY very quickly put a stop to that.

Dunno what he's like as a person, but as a composer, not crap.

This guy is crap. He holds onto all of his recordings, only rarely allowing them to be released and (if you believe Tony Conrad) claims himself to be sole creator of the Dream Syndicates works, withholding any profits from the other members. It seems hard to believe that musicians as established as John Cale and Tony Conrad could have been a part of a group and had no compositional input.
Finding any recordings by Young is difficult. They show up on ebay for bigtime money occasionaly. The only thing I have heard of his is the 5 cd version of "The Well Tuned Piano." I borrowed it from the main branch of the Chicago Public Library around 3 years ago. Who knows if they still have it or if it "disappeared" like all of the other cd's their database claimed they had but were not there. I returned it, so don't blame me. It was one of the most boring things I ever listened to. I used to have interest in drone based works and attempted to get "The Day of Niagara" or whatever it is called that was released by Table of the Elements and claims to be an official recording of the Dream Syndicate. Supposedly Young did not authorize the release and is upset about it??? I had ordered it on Amazon, but after a while of not showing up, I cancelled it. I did see it in Laurie's Planet of Sound (Lincoln Square, Chicago) filed under John Cale a few months back. Maybe they still have it, maybe not. I've lost interest.
Tony Conrad's stuff is easier to find. Of his records, "Slapping Pythagoras" is the best. I'm pretty sure it was recorded by Steve.
The book "Ocean of Sound" by David Toop has a decent summation of La Monte Young's drone based works, and if memory serves, may even contain an interview w/ Young.
In short, Young was originally involved in Fluxus type performances (feeding hay to a piano, etc) and then become interested in drone based works. Sometime during this transition he seems to have begun to think he is from India, searched for the perfect drone and spent lots of money on legal services to ensure that his work doesn't get released. Whatever.

This is difficult, I admit. The legit/official La Monte Young releases, such as 'The Well-Tuned Piano' on Gramavision and 'The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath' on Just Dreams are absolutely fantastic. However, none of his recordings are currently in print. He seems to be absolutely meticulous and dedicated to his craft, and needs to have total control over every aspect of it, with a very, very high quality threshold. This, I think, is something to be both admired and respected.
Of course, his reputation is formidable, and there are many conflicting reports over what really happened between him, Tony Conrad and John Cale. Of this, I couldn't comment other than saying that I would agree with him in that the 'Day of Niagara' release on Table of The Elements was of a very poor quality, even for an 'archive' release.
So, NC.

Isabelle Gall wrote: He seems to be absolutely meticulous and dedicated to his craft, and needs to have total control over every aspect of it, with a very, very high quality threshold. This, I think, is something to be both admired and respected.

I agree these are good traits in themselves, it just seems that with Young they are used to justify acting in an unethical way (from what I can gather from reading about the situation, nothing I have heard from Young seems to convince me otherwise).
The overall impression I have of the situation, and I am open to the fact that the sources could be inaccurate, is that he keeps a lid on the recordings to prove he is true "owner/composer" of them. He wants control over the situation and claims it is about quality. Seems disingenuous. If the recordings are so important, let them out, let everyone draw their own conclusions, give Cale and Conrad their due and Young will still be respected, right? I don't buy it.
I'm sure there are others out there who know much more about the situation than I, any input?

John Cale must be either really tough to deal with or puts himself in difficult situations. I mean he's been involved in some great music, but he's been pushed out a couple of times in high profile way.

Christopher_Dragon wrote:I know very little about his music.
Can anyone recommend anything?

Do you know Harold Budd?
I enjoy very much some of his works.

rzs wrote:

Isabelle Gall wrote: He seems to be absolutely meticulous and dedicated to his craft, and needs to have total control over every aspect of it, with a very, very high quality threshold. This, I think, is something to be both admired and respected.

I agree these are good traits in themselves, it just seems that with Young they are used to justify acting in an unethical way (from what I can gather from reading about the situation, nothing I have heard from Young seems to convince me otherwise).
The overall impression I have of the situation, and I am open to the fact that the sources could be inaccurate, is that he keeps a lid on the recordings to prove he is true "owner/composer" of them. He wants control over the situation and claims it is about quality. Seems disingenuous. If the recordings are so important, let them out, let everyone draw their own conclusions, give Cale and Conrad their due and Young will still be respected, right? I don't buy it.
I'm sure there are others out there who know much more about the situation than I, any input?

My understanding is that it is an ego situation, much like Frank Zappa not wanting to release Captain Beefhearts Bat Chain Puller.

If you have the time, you really should go to the Dream House when you're in NYC.

http://www.melafoundation.org/main.htm

Give yourself at least a couple of hours.