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Janek Schaefer (born 1970) is a British avant-garde artist, musician, composer, inventor, and entertainer, known for performing and exhibiting his work around the world with sound and installation art. Schaefer has released 37 albums, runs Lucky Dip Disco, and his own label, audiOh! Recordings. [1]
Schaefer was born in England to Polish and Canadian parents. [2]
While studying architecture at the Royal College of Art (RCA) with tutor Ben Kelly, Schaefer recorded the stop start noises of a sound-activated dictaphone travelling overnight through the Post Office. The resulting work, "Recorded Delivery" [3] was made for the 'Self Storage' exhibition Time Out critics choice with former postman Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, and Artangel. [4]
After graduating from the RCA with the annual portfolio prize, Schaefer invented the Tri-phonic Turntable in 1997, to create new music from discarded media, and began performing and touring live. The turntable is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "World's Most Versatile Record Player". [5] Schaefer has performed, lectured, and exhibited in 30 countries throughout Europe (Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA), USA & Canada (The Walker, XI, Mutek, FIMAV, Princeton), and toured across Japan and Australia including a performance at the Sydney Opera House in 2003. [6]
His debut reverse play LP "His Masters Voices" was released in 1997 on his audiOh! Recordings label. His first studio CD Above Buildings (2000) was released on Fat Cat and was CD of the week in The Guardian . [7] He created the original random playing LP called 'Skate' in 2004, which evolved into an audio visual installation, which won Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in Austria 2004 [8]
Schaefer has collaborated on albums with Philip Jeck (Songs for Europe), Robert Hampson (Comae), Stephan Mathieu (Hidden Name), Charlemagne Palestine (Day of the Demons), and William Basinski (... on reflection). [9]
Schaefer is a visiting professor in sound art, and PhD external examiner.
In 2008, using prize money from the Paul Hamlyn Award, he set up the Lucky Dip Disco. [10] An all ages disco turning around the box of 7"s to invite the audience to search for their favourite music memories. In 2020 he won the 'Best Mobile DJ' National UK Award.
In 2009, the Bluecoat gallery in Liverpool mounted a five gallery retrospective exhibition of his career to date. [3]
He lives and works at 'Narnia' in Walton-on-Thames with two children.
Whitehouse were an English noise music band formed in 1980. The group is largely credited for the founding of the power electronics genre. Whitehouse was founded and ended as a duo consisting of electronics player Philip Best and vocalist William Bennett, however the group is perhaps best–recognized for their 20-year-tenure as a three-piece with synthist Peter Sotos as a member, who joined the band in 1983 and left in 2003.
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system and/or broadcasting equipment so that a wider audience can hear the turntablist's music. Turntablists typically manipulate records on a turntable by moving the record with their hand to cue the stylus to exact points on a record, and by touching or moving the platter or record to stop, slow down, speed up or, spin the record backwards, or moving the turntable platter back and forth, all while using a DJ mixer's crossfader control and the mixer's gain and equalization controls to adjust the sound and level of each turntable. Turntablists typically use two or more turntables and headphones to cue up desired start points on different records.
The twelve-inch single is a type of vinyl gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compared to LPs which have several songs on each side. It is named for its 12-inch (300 mm) diameter that was intended for LPs. This technical adaptation allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the mastering engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality. This record type, which is claimed to have been accidentally discovered by Tom Moulton, is commonly used in disco and dance music genres, where DJs use them to play in clubs. They are played at either 33+1⁄3 or 45 rpm. The conventional 7-inch single usually holds three or four minutes of music at full volume. The 12-inch LP sacrifices volume for extended playing time.
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica.
Raul Alejandro Viñao is an Argentine composer based in London.
Philip Jeck was an English composer and multimedia artist. His compositions were noted for utilising antique turntables and vinyl records, along with looping devices and both analogue and digital effects. Initially composing for installations and dance companies, beginning in 1995 he released music on the UK label Touch.
Mobile disc jockeys are disc jockeys that tour with portable sound, lighting, and video systems. They play music for a targeted audience from a collection of pre-recorded music using vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, or digital music formats such as USB flash drives or laptop computers.
Black Devil, or Black Devil Disco Club, is an electronic disco music project by Bernard Fevre, a French musician who also released synthesizer compositions on library music albums under his own name and under the alias Milpatte.
FatCat Records is an English independent record label based in Brighton. The label's output reaches into many styles including experimental rock, electronica, psychedelic folk, contemporary classical, noise and post-punk. Notable artists that have released music on the label include Sigur Rós, Múm, Animal Collective, Frightened Rabbit, Shopping, The Twilight Sad, Vashti Bunyan and We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Diskono is an independent record label comprising anonymous artists from Scotland north of the Antonine Wall. Continuing multidisciplinary art practices in non-disclosed Scottish locations, they are also rumored to operate out of Belgium, France, and United States of America. Diskono, and its offshoot imprint Penthouse Hotplate nurtured divergent forms of location recordings and sound art to minimal techno, sparse piano compositions to abstract explosive noise and angular punk pop. Known for the discovery of artists such as Felix Kubin, Janek Schaefer, and many more, they were also instrumental in the deconstruction of Detroit techno classics with releases such as V/Vm 'String Up Your Wife', as well as being involved in many controversial art world and performance based situations across the British Isles and Europe in the late 90's- early 2000s. Diskono were also the first and only Scottish artists to be awarded a major Scottish Arts Council grant from submission under pseudonym with the resulting exhibition, Revisionland with Alejandra and Aeron going on to win the 2002 Prix Ars Electronica award in Linz, Austria. Currently, Diskono are observing the reemergence of artist, Jan Van Den Dobbelsteen.
Goodiepal or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose given name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, is a Danish/Faroese experimental electronic musician, performance artist, composer and lecturer, as well as a fully educated horologist. His work engages with the past, present, and future of computer music, compositional practices and resonance computing, and his idea of Radical Computer Music. His tours have included 150 universities internationally.
Stephan Mathieu is a German mastering engineer and former musician. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany where he runs Schwebung Mastering, an independent studio for audio mastering and restoration.
Markus Wormstorm is a South African electronic musician.
Jorge Isaac completed his professional training under with Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2000. In 2002, Isaac received his Master's degree in contemporary performance and live electronics at the same institution. In 2006 he was appointed as Professor of recorder at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, carrying on the famous Amsterdam Recorder School.
Felix Kubin, is an electronic musician, composer, curator, sound and radio artist. He runs the record label Gagarin Records.
Robert Solheim is an electronic music composer from Norway. His styles are techno and deep/tech-house, downtempo and electronica with a strong emphasis on Nordic sound. Influenced by all kinds of electronic music, he has developed his characteristic style from his first ambient and ambient-techno releases in the 1990s, through down tempo and deep/tech-house and techno for clubs and home entertainment.
Joseph Robert Saddler, known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is an American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by elongating the drum breaks through the use of duplicate copies of vinyl. This technique gave birth to cutting and scratching. It also gave rappers better music with a seamless elongated bed of beats to speak on. He also invented the slipmat.
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, is an American DJ, radio host and curator, audiophile, and founder of the album listening event and content hub Classic Album Sundays. She is often a spokesperson about vinyl records.
Mariam Rezaei is an English composer, writer, performer, DJ and improviser. Mariam works predominantly with turntables, piano, vocals and electronics. She was formerly producer of TOPH, a producing mixed arts space in Newcastle, and is now Artistic Director of TUSK Festival.
Ed Chalpin was a record executive and producer. He is probably remembered for his association with Curtis Knight and the Squires which caused problems for Jimi Hendrix throughout his career. Chalpin is responsible for the recordings from that period, some of which appear on You Can't Use My Name: The RSVP/PPX Sessions.