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Toby Hrycek-Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Toby Robinson |
| Born | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Genres | avant-garde, experimental, Krautrock |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, producer, engineer |
| Years active | 1970 to present |
Toby Hrycek-Robinson is a British producer, composer, and recording engineer from London, UK.
Hrycek-Robinson began his career in Germany where he spent time as a sound engineer working for Karlheinz Stockhausen and Péter Eötvös in Cologne's Westdeutscher Rundfunk Studios. [1] By the early 1970s he had moved to Dieter Dierks' studio, where he recorded with a number of krautrock bands, including work on CAN’s Landed album in 1975. [2]
During this period he used spare studio time to experiment with visiting musicians, often working under pseudonyms such as "The Mad Twiddler" or "Genius P. Orridge". [3] He also teamed up with Fluxus artist Robin Page, creating the mythological Pyramid label to release the tracks under names such as Cozmic Corridors and Golem. [4] Much of this material was eventually released on the Virgin and Psi-Fi Labels from 1996. [5]
After returning to Britain, he opened Moat Studios in London and worked with a wide range of avant garde and rock musicians including The Monochrome Set, Acid Mothers Temple, Rhys Chatham, Bellowhead, David Sylvian, and Gong. [6] He also engineered a series of recordings with Derek Bailey from the mid-1990s until Bailey’s death in 2015. [7]
Apart from his work with musicians, Hrycek-Robinson has composed the themes and incidental music for television, including a number of audio plays for Big Finish Productions. [8]
Hrycek-Robinson served as producer or engineer on the following records: [6]
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
Can was a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The group used several vocalists, most prominently the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
David Sylvian is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly electronic sound made them an important influence on the UK's early-1980s New Romantic scene.
Holger Schüring, known professionally as Holger Czukay, was a German musician best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde", Czukay was also notable for having created early important examples of ambient music, for having explored "world music" well before the term was coined, and for having been a pioneer of sampling.
Gone to Earth is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter David Sylvian, released on 13 September 1986 on Virgin Records. A double album, Gone to Earth is the follow-up to his debut record, Brilliant Trees, and peaked at No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart.
Konrad "Conny" Plank was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was involved in releases by Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, Kraan, and other German groups of the era. He later produced for new wave acts such as D.A.F., Eurythmics, and Ultravox. As a billed performer, Plank also formed the group Moebius & Plank, releasing 5 studio albums between 1979 and 1986.
Secrets of the Beehive is a solo album by British singer-songwriter David Sylvian and it was released on 19 October 1987. The album peaked at no.37 in the UK album chart. The album was released in Japan on 21 November 1987.
Brilliant Trees is the first solo album by the British singer-songwriter David Sylvian, released in June 1984. The album peaked at number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
James A. K. Guthrie is an English recording engineer and record producer best known for his work with the progressive rock band Pink Floyd serving as a producer and engineer for the band since 1978. He is the owner and operator of das boot recording in Lake Tahoe, California. Married to Melissa Kathryn (Braun) Guthrie and parent of two cats, Bert & Jack. Original music and scoring.
Blemish is a solo album by British singer-songwriter David Sylvian, released in 2003.
Nine Horses was a musical collaboration between singer/instrumentalist David Sylvian, his brother and frequent collaborator drummer Steve Jansen, and electronic composer/remixer Burnt Friedman.
Snow Borne Sorrow is an album by Nine Horses, released in October 2005. Nine Horses is a collaboration between David Sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman.
Dead Bees on a Cake is a solo album by British singer-songwriter David Sylvian, released in March 1999. It was his first solo album in 12 years since Secrets of the Beehive.
Landed is the sixth studio album by the German krautrock band Can.
Bird on a Wire is the second full-length studio album released by Lava recording artist Toby Lightman. The album peaked at No. 30 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart on 11 August 2006.
Errol Brown is a Jamaican audio engineer and record producer.
Money for All is an EP released 2007 by the band Nine Horses, featuring David Sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman. The EP includes three new songs: "Money for All," "Get the Hell Out," and "Birds Sing for Their Lives." The others are remixes.
An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer... the nuts and bolts."
Manafon is a 2009 album by David Sylvian. It is an avant-garde work combining elements of free improvisation, experimental rock and chamber music. It reached rank No. 6 in The Wire's list of best 2009 albums.
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics, unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.
