Jerry Hunt was born in Waco, Texas, in 1943, and died in Canton, Texas, in 1993. He attended the University of North Texas and worked as a pianist through 1969, performing in concerts of contemporary music. He described the focus of his work after 1978 as "the production of a series of interrelated electronic, mechanic and social sound-sight interactive transactional system performances, work with and for other performers, and ineractive participant array installations." "Blue" Gene Tyranny calls Hunt "one of the most original composers of our time.[who].made a concert into an occasion that re-creates music's role in divination of all countries and ages." Stephen Hicken refers to Hunt's "sound-worlds" as being "complex and immediately compelling." After listening to Hunt's Cantegral Segment 18 (1976), Paul Demarinis writes of feeling "transport[ed] to an imaginary geographical place where speaking winds blow across a landscape marked with symbols."