Arthur Russell was the changeling prince of 1970s New York’s downtown music scene. A virtual unknown in his lifetime, the shy Midwesterner was a classical music student who found himself drawn to the transcendent possibilities offered by disco, after a mythical encounter at the Gallery venue in SoHo. From there, he went on to cut a string of the era’s most fantastically strange records, influential on the development of house and hip hop, in between more meditative works that skirted the fringes of folk, pop and the avant-garde.

Since his death from Aids-related illness in 1992, Russell’s legend has grown through a series of posthumous releases confirming his no-brow genius. But Event Horizon, a record released with short-lived power-pop ensemble The Necessaries in 1982, adds another layer of intrigue to this most multifaceted of talents. A partial rework of the band’s debut, Big Sky, the album sounds great – like a missing link between the ragged glory of the CBGBs era and 80s jangle-merchants like Felt and The Feelies. Sadly the band’s label, Sire, were more focused on breaking acts like Madonna and Talking Heads at the time, and the record was pressed up as a super-limited run. Russell, for his part, quit the band by hopping out of the tourbus en route to a show, a literal change of direction from an artist whose famously fickle muse prevented him from seeing all but a handful of projects to completion.

According to Bob Blank, Russell’s regular producer who oversaw the sessions for Big Sky: “Arthur was very happy to throw that monkey wrench in and have everything just be totally changed. I think one of the reasons he never wanted to finish a record was he was never 100-per-cent comfortable with saying this is the only way we could go.”

To mark the record’s re-release by Be With Records this month, we put together a rundown of some of Russell’s greatest moments on record, with insights from Blank, one of the disco era’s finest producers.

DINOSAUR – “KISS ME AGAIN”

Russell’s first foray into disco was also his most lucrative, a shapely, Chic-like groove that became a modest underground hit in 1977. Recorded under the Dinosaur moniker with Gallery venue founder Nick Siano, the track features rhythm guitar from Talking Heads’ David Byrne, whose band Russell came close to joining around this time (you can even listen to a version of “Psycho Killer” recorded with Russell on cello).

LOOSE JOINTS – “IS IT ALL OVER MY FACE?” (LARRY LEVAN MIX)

Russell formed Loose Joints with Steve D’Aquisto and Steven Hall in 1980 with the stated aim of creating the disco White Album, but only got round to finishing three tracks. The most enduring of these, “Is It All Over My Face?”, baffled regulars on NY’s downtown disco scene, until a Larry Levan rework transformed it into a staple at The Paradise Garage and a formative influence on Chicago house. “I think Arthur always felt more comfortable being the dissonant voice,” says Blank. “There were almost literal fistfights when we were working on Loose Joints, because he was (always) ready to say, ‘Erase that track, I don’t like it,’ or, ‘I’m not gonna keep that tape, let’s go somewhere else.’”

DINOSAUR – “GO BANG” (FRANÇOIS K MIX)

Dada goes to the dancefloor on this unutterably strange dub/disco/WTF mash-up must have sounded odd even by the out-there standards of 80s no-wave New York. Appearing on Dinosaur’s 24→24 Music, a disco concept album featuring rhythmic shifts every 24 bars, the track was remixed to orgasmic effect by François K, with the original’s gleeful vocal interjections bumped up in the mix.

THE NECESSARIES – “MORE REAL”

Russell contributes a clutch of highlights to Event Horizon, including this power-pop gem boasting the kind of effortless prettiness Big Star used to specialise in. His departure from the band came as no surprise to Blank: “I think Arthur always saw The Necessaries as something he evolved from, not necessarily as a finished thing. If you think about bands, success for them (usually) means performing their stuff, notoriety, adulation, and Arthur was not there for that. He wanted to produce work that resonated with people, but I don’t think any of his goals included adulation, or at least I never saw that from him. He was very much a guy who was OK to be an influence and not necessarily a celebrity.”

ARTHUR RUSSELL – “THIS IS HOW WE WALK ON THE MOON”

“Every step is moving me up,” sings Russell on this suitably transcendental number, hitting an unlikely sweet spot between disco-diva ecstasy and Nick Drake-esque introspection. A highlight of Another Thought, the first cache of Russell’s work to be released posthumously, think of this as the disco-folk crossover you never knew you needed.

ARTHUR RUSSELL – “THAT’S US / WILD COMBINATION”

On which Russell arrives at a hazy, homespun approximation of the Minneapolis sound popularised by Prince and Jam & Lewis, just because he can. Boasting one of Russell’s more memorable pop melodies, this sweetly romantic song appeared on Calling out of Context, a 2004 release drawing on a pair of unreleased album projects conceived by Russell in the mid/late-80s.

ARTHUR RUSSELL – INSTRUMENTALS VOLUME I

Much of Russell’s best music has a tendency to evade easy grasp, and this slow-burning instrumental beauty (written as part of an intended 48-hour composition) has that quality in abundance – it might almost be Radiohead channelling eccentric Viking composer Moondog. “What impressed me most about Arthur was that he was able to move among discordant elements,” says Blank of Russell’s gifts as a musician. “He would be fine when a bass player hit a bad note based on the chord changes, he’d be very happy to change his focus and look at that. I know he was a schooled musician and he was confident that way, but I think his ability as a musician was very similar to a top jazz musician. When music would unexpectedly move he was able to move with it.”

ARTHUR RUSSELL – “ELI”

Love Is Overtaking Me caught many off-guard on its release in 2008, a country pop-heavy set that might have come off as ironic if Russell didn’t play it so straight. Moreover, the songwriting is solid throughout – “I Couldn’t Say It to Your Face” might easily slot in among the era’s easy-listening standards – but it’s this curio, clocking in at a slight 1:56, that’s most quintessentially Russell, a literal shaggy-dog story with a weird, meditative vibe that seems to anticipate the foghorn poetry of Neutral Milk Hotel.

LOLA – “WAX THE VAN”

A killer 1987 cut recorded with Blank’s wife, Lola, and her six-year-old son(!), “Wax the Van” captures Russell’s ability to be loose and open-ended while never losing sight of the groove. “He was very comfortable hearing new ideas,” says Blank. “The bass part for ‘Wax the Van’, which was done by Ken Smith, is considered a poorly played bass part – but he loved it, because it was so stiff and uncomfortable-sounding it sort of made the record. If you look at the things he made, the most interesting were the ones that grooved and went a little discordant here and there – that’s the reason they sound cool. Anyone can do four bars of groove, but to have that evolve over a record and stay interesting is usually only something that jazz musicians can do.”

ARTHUR RUSSELL – “SOON-TO-BE-INNOCENT FUN / LET’S SEE”

When he wasn’t cutting eccentric dancefloor bangers like the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry of underground disco, Russell was a composer used to jamming with such leading lights of New York minimalism as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This lonesome-sounding gem from World of Echo, the only full-length solo album Russell released in his lifetime, is among the most mysterious and beautiful music he created, a nine-minute solo piece featuring Russell crooning softly over his signature plucked cello.