Alan & Steve Freeman

• Genres: Avant-Garde

Biography

The Freeman brothers have been tireless in their championing music from around the world that runs counter to popular culture, from the more experimental and underground veins of progressive and Krautrock to avant-garde electronic music and industrial. As publishers of Audion Magazine, as well as one of the few reference guides on Krautrock, the brothers Freeman are a valuable source for information on music that is ignored by the mainstream media. Their own releases under many different guises have explored everything from noise, cosmic synth, industrial, musique concrete, audio collage, and improvised electronics.

Steve Freeman was born in England in November of 1956, and his brother Alan in May of 1959. Steve's interest in producing music was launched after listening to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music all the way through (a feat in itself) and thinking that he could do something similar. He began to make sounds with an incorrectly wired tape recorder, radio, and pocket calculator. By July 1977, he and Alan, who had played drums in high-school pop and jazz bands, decided to pursue their similar musical interests further, and they started an industrial noise project, Holy Atheist, in Loughborough, England. By the very early '80s, they had moved to Leicester, and decided to move in a more "musical" direction with their next group, Vrije. In the fall of 1981, they began to collaborate with Nigel Harris in another music project called Zircon & the Burning Brains. By 1983, Vrije had morphed into Alto Stratos, and both Freeman brothers had solo projects going as well, Alan under the name Xylem, and Steve as SF1 and then Scorpio.

Throughout these years, they had numerous cassettes releases, recorded and mixed from their home studio, under all these names and others like Biomechanoid and Electric Junk as well. In 1986, they had formed the label, Auricle, to put out their own work and material by like-minded artists. That same year, the Freemans, with their enthusiasm for experimental progressive music, launched Audion; originally a fanzine, it has since grown to become a respected resource for information on this music. The next step was to open a record shop and mail-order business, Ultima Thule.

By the early '90s, the Freemans music output had slowed as more time was consumed by these other endeavors, as well as work on their comprehensive encyclopedia of Krautrock and other German experimental progressive music, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, which was published in 1996. Near the end of that year, Alan Freeman finally found the courage to join the group Shapeshifter after repeated invitations from Shapeshifter's leader, Maureen Anderson. Whereas the Freemans own projects were mostly studio-oriented, Shapeshifter gigged regularly, and Alan sometimes opened with a solo performance under his old name, Xylem. In July 1999, Alan and Jim Tetlow, also from Shapeshifter, along with Steve, formed a new group, Endgame. Both Freeman brothers have also contributed to various albums by Volcano the Bear. Members of Volcano the Bear and Shapeshifter have returned the favor by appearing on the Freemans project, the Newt Hounds. ~ Rolf Semprebon, Rovi