- John Richards (musician)
John Stephen Richards (born 1966 in
Bideford , England) is a musician and composer working in the field ofelectronic music . Since 1999, he has predominantly explored performing with self-made instruments and creating interactive environments for composition.In the mid 1990s, Richards’ works began to be recognised amongst the
electroacoustic community. He received a mention at the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges in 1997, and in the same year had a work performed atHuddersfield Contemporary Music Festival . In 1996, along withNick Fells ,Dylan Menzies ,Gabriel Prokofiev , andTimothy Ward , Richards formednerve8 : an experimentalsound diffusion group.Richards’ work with the
post-punk group Sand (Soul Jazz Records ) andkREEPA has also received international recognition. kREEPA was formed in 2000 withHilary Jeffery , who Richards met atDartington International Summer School in 1990. Key contributors to the work of kREEPA have been British saxophonistPaul Dunmall and contra-bass recorder playerCesar Villavicencio . Since 2004, the group has also worked closely withNicholas Bullen (founder member ofNapalm Death andScorn ), and have released material on Bullen’s labelMonium . Whilst working with kREEPA, Richards developed the kreepback instrument: an assemblage of self-built sound generating devices and discarded analogue audio hardware patched together to create a feedback labyrinth.John Richards studied at
Dartington College of Arts and theUniversity of York where he completed a PhD in electroacoustic music in 2002. In 1999, John Richards joinedAndrew Hugill andLeigh Landy as part of the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Group, nowMTIRC , atDe Montfort University where he helped initiate the Music, Technology and Innovation degree. He has written a number of academic papers and articles on contemporary electronic music that in particular coverpostdigital theory andhybridity . He coined the terms “dirty electronics ” and “punktronics ” to describe an approach within electronic music that shirks working with corporate technology and virtualness and focuses on ado-it-yourself ethos,found objects and the physical in relation to the human body.External links
* [http://www.jsrichards.com www.jsrichards.com] John Richards website
* [http://www.kreepa.com www.kreepa.com] kREEPA website
* [http://www.mrsapple.com www.mrsapple.com] Sand website
* [http://www.nonclassical.co.uk www.nonclassical.co.uk] nonclassical records
* [http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk www.mti.dmu.ac.uk] MTIRC, De Montfort UniversityReferences
*Ears: ElectroAcoustic Resource Site [http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk www.ears.dmu.ac.uk]
*Hugill, Andrew. "The Digital Musician: Creating Music with Digital Technology". Routledge: New York; London, 2007.
*Richards, John. "32kg: Performance Set-ups for the Post-Digital Age." "Proceedings of NIME 06", IRCAM, Paris, 2006. [http://www.nime.org/2006/proceedings.htm www.nime.org/2006/proceedings.htm]
*Sonic Arts Research Archive [http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk www.sara.uea.ac.uk]
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