Simeone Coxe, a figure from electronic music’s distant past, has died of a lung condition called pulmonary fibrosis. He was 82 years old.

Coxe was perhaps best known for his role in pioneering synth rock group Silver Apples. The band was previously called Overland Stage Electric Band, reports The Guardian – although all but one member remained after Coxe began to incorporate a ’40s-era oscillator into their music in the late ’60s. They changed their name accordingly and delivered a self-titled album via Kapp Records in 1968.

The raw, undulating melodies produced by “the Simeon,” as Coxe called his array, would prove ahead of their time in the decades to follow. Silver Apples would go on to influence the likes of Portishead, Stereolab and Spiritualized; their debut album was declared one of the greatest albums of the ’60s by Pitchfork.

Legal turmoil surrounding Silver Apples; sophomore 1969 album, Contact, largely derailed their momentum. After they broke up, Coxe relocated to Alabama to drive an ice cream truck. In 2019 he told The Guardian, “I thought, if I can’t be a Silver Apple then I don’t want to play music. I pretty much forgot about it. I figured it was a failed experiment that would never be resurrected.”

1996 brought a Silver Apples resurgence as the band developed a cult following in Germany – but Coxe would encounter an even greater setback. Two years later, he broke his neck in a tour van accident. Although doctors told him he would never walk again, through rehabilitation programs he was able to perform again by 2005. Sadly, his bandmate, Danny Taylor, died the same year.

Coxe would release Silver Apples’ final album, Clinging to a Dream, in 2016. Nearly 50 years after the group’s debut album was released, he had managed to keep alive the curious mix of rock instrumentals and avant-garde synthesizers that set them apart from other bands of their era.

Simeon Coxe is survived by Lydia Winn LeVert, his partner and longtime musical collaborator.