Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) was a British composer who studied at St Johns Cambridge and Princeton and who later taught at various universities and conservatoires across Europe and North America. His psychedelic work Laus Deo has become a brilliant showcase for 20th century Organ music. Commissioned by Simon Preston in 1969 it was supposedly inspired by a dream in which an angel played the main themes to him on an Organ: Harvey said he finished the piece within 12 hours of waking from the dream. It has since become known for its ear-piercing dissonances and exciting cluster chords.
