B:1965 (UK)
Founding Member: LOOP and MAIN
After performing in various bands, Robert Hampson's musical career really started in the mid 1980's with the band LOOP. He had previously worked on more experimental musics with his 4 track tape machine, but wanted to try the dynamics of a more traditional guitar based music, loosely influenced by bands such as The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The MC5, but retaining an avant-garde and experimental edge from Can, Faust, Neu!, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca and minimalist systems music, to name but a few.
After the end of Loop in 1990, along with Scott Dowson (also of Loop) and with the guitar still as the central sound source, he returned to the more experimental styles of Electroacoustic and Acousmatic musics with the project MAIN.
Gradually, the themes Main created became less involved with the guitars, stretching further and further away from them, relying more on the field recordings and concrete sounds that had featured before, but were now pushed to the forefront.
With the departure of Dowson,
Hampson eventually abandoned the instrument altogether, feeling he had reached a point where he had explored all possibilities of it.
At this time, it was possibly correct to have also abandoned the Main project, because of it's strong associations with the guitar - that some, seemed unable to forget - but he carried on until early 2006, where he laid it to rest with the release of 'Surcease'.
'Parallax' (2005), 'Umbra' (2006) and 'Dans le lointain'(2008), were commissioned by the Group du Recherches Musicales (GRM) and had their debut performances on the Acousmonium in Paris.
HABITS...
FILM: Wes Anderson,Coen Bros.,Stanley Kubrick,Francis Ford Coppola,Jim Jarmusch,Andrei Tarkovsky,Sergio Leone,Hal Ashby,Terrence Malick,Sam Peckinpah,Akira Kurosawa,Robert Altman,David Lynch,Werner Herzog,Wim Wenders,Orson Welles,Bruce Robinson,Billy Wilder,Alexander Mackendrick,Martin Scorsese,Darren Aronofsky,Christopher Nolan
SOUND DESIGN/MUSIC: Alan Splet,David Lynch,Walter Murch,Masaru Sato,Eduard Artemiev,Bernard Herrmann,Ennio Morricone,Carter Burwell
IN THERE: Robert DeNiro,Al Pacino,Jason Robards,Warren Oates,Toshiro Mifune,Sean Penn,James Coburn,Steve Buscemi,John Turturro,Takashi Shimura
OUT THERE: Spike Milligan,Peter Cook,Bill Murray,Mitch Hedberg,Peter Sellers,Chris Morris
VISUAL: Gerhard Richter,Max Ernst,Man Ray,Francis Bacon,Barbara Hepworth,Bridget Riley, Jackson Pollock,Semiconductor,William Latham,Banksy
PAGE TURNING: Hunter S. Thompson,Thomas Pynchon,Harry Crews,Barry Gifford,Martin Amis,Philip K. Dick,Terry Southern,Samuel Beckett,Alan Watts,J.G.Ballard,David Mitchell,DBC Pierre,Tom Wolfe,John Kennedy Toole,Rick Moody,Haruki Murakami,Spalding Gray,Chuck Palahniuk
PLACES: The Moon,Antarctica,Zen Gardens,Mexico,Japan,Scotland,Italy,France and general remoteness
BAD: Too much Coffee and plenty of Cigarettes
MOST TREASURED POSSESSION: My Easy Rider DVD signed by Dennis Hopper (Simple, but pure)
CURRENT RELEASES:
Robert Hampson HEARKEN Vinyl LP
Label: Onement
www.myspace.com/onement
Description: Literally ONE COPY ONLY Vinyl Long Playing format with deluxe molded screen printed perspex sleeve, featuring Two 20 min pieces - Hearken I and Hearken II - to be auctioned through the Onement label.
You can view pictures of it in the Pics section
This is strictly the only release for these pieces, (the Master Soundfiles have been destroyed) they will not be reissued.
THIS ITEM HAS NOW BEEN SOLD
Robert Hampson VECTORS Compact Disc
Label: Touch
Description: Comprising of 3 pieces , Umbra (2006) Ahead- Only The Stars (2007) and Dans le lointain (2008)
VECTORS REVIEWS:
www.touchmusic.org.uk/catalogue
FORTHCOMING:
Split release: Cindytalk / Robert Hampson
Label: Editions Mego
10" Vinyl
Details to follow....
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