Mark Van Hoen |
Mark Van Hoen (born September, 1966 in London, England) is an electronic music artist. He has created music under his own name as well as: Locust, and Autocreation. He was a founder member of the influential group Seefeel . He is a greatly admired and influential composer and performer that has inspired countless other musicians. The BBC said "in a brief listen one can hear the influence on Boards of Canada's damaged melodies and dense claustrophobia, more so even than usual suspects like the Aphex Twin."[1] His music is known for its distinctive blend of old world electronic music with the more modern strains of electronica, creating a rich and colourful body of work steeped in emotion and expression. His work has brought a deeply human and emotional depth to a genre of music that has been criticised as being sterile and mechanical. Mark Van Hoen has toured with Massive Attack and Orbital as well as opening for Slowdive He has also performed at many festivals worldwide, including Sónar in Barcelona. Milk Factory said "Mark Van Hoen remains an emblematic figure of the electronic scene. With an instantly recognisable sound, combining heavy electronics with guitars and pop sensibilities, Van Hoen has helped shape part of the electronic scene of today."[2]
Mark Van Hoen signed with Belgian Label R&S in 1993. The initial releases were as Locust, and they were distinct in their pure use of vintage analogue synthesizers and tape recorders to create a romantic and somewhat dark, broody sound environment in which his music could unfold along a current of beats and rhythms while escaping the mechanisation of many of his contemporaries. As the Locust sound moved towards and increasingly more vocal oriented approach in the late 90s, Mark Van Hoen began to release music under his own name and returned to the instrumental music of his early period which he continues today.
Biography
Born in Croydon, England (26 September 1966), grew up in Smethwick (part of The Black Country, an industrial area in the Midlands of England) and relocated to North London in 1988. He began to create electronic music in 1981. In 1983, Mark attained a diploma in electronic engineering, and then embarked on a career in radio until moving to London in 1988, when he worked in television as a sound engineer. In 1992, Mark shared a flat with friends Kevin Hector and Tara Paterson, who introduced Mark to new music, and recorded an album with him as Autocreation called "Mettle". In 1993, R&S records signed Mark Van Hoen after hearing a demo tape and a live performance. In 1994 Mark shared a house with Darren Seymour (Seefeel) and Neil Halstead (Slowdive), and then the following year Mark moved his studio to the Fortress studio complex in East London. During this time he also shared a house with 4AD artist Vinny Miller. In 2000, R&S records was sold to Sony and Mark Van Hoen was dropped from the label; at the same time, the Fortress studios were closed down, and he also lost his home due to demolition. Mark now lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and children.
Influences
The town where Mark spent his childhood, Smethwick, had an influence on his music. Smethwick had a number of steel and metal factories, and rhythmic sounds from these formed a soundtrack to his early life. Similar parallels with the music of Dusseldorf (Kraftwerk), Detroit (Techno) and Sheffield (Cabaret Voltaire et al.) can be noted here. Also, the town was possibly the first in England to be inhabited by a large number of Jamaican and Indian immigrants; Malcolm X visited Smethwick in 1965[3], on hearing about the social unrest caused by the native population's reaction to the incoming immigrants. Mark Van Hoen is of Indian, Jamaican and English descent, and was exposed to music from all these cultures during his childhood. This had a lasting effect on Mark Van Hoen's musical personality, particularly the rhythmic aspects of Reggae, and the drone keys of Indian music. Mark Van Hoen was originally drawn to electronic music though a love of Kraftwerk and other electronic acts from Germany such as Tangerine Dream and Can. Brian Eno, Cabaret Voltaire and other British electronic musicians also inspired him significantly. Classical Composers of Minimalism such as Steve Reich are also major influences on his style. Also, at the core of his inspiration lies the work of such great early electronic music from the likes of Delia Derbyshire, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edward Artemiev's soundtracks to Andrei Tarkovsky science fiction films Solaris and Stalker as well as the electronic innovations in the pop music world of early Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. In 1991, after a brief period of musical inactivity, Mark Van Hoen heard the more sophisticated post acid-house music that was to inspire him to make music again, the primary example being LFO.
1981 to 1987
Mark Van Hoen bought his first synthesizer and tape recorder in 1981, and immediately began making electronic music with influences from Brian Eno and Cabaret Voltaire. Most recordings were made at his home studio, but others were made at the radio stations he worked at during the 80s. In 1985, Mark Van Hoen met Mark Clifford, and together they formed a band inspired by their mutual love of Cocteau Twins' music.
1988 to 1990
Mark Van Hoen moved to London in 1988, and continued to make music both on his own, and with Mark Clifford. The band with Clifford was now called Seefeel and was heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine. Seefeel played live dates across London, and made recordings that were increasingly using more sequenced and electronic techniques.
1991 to 1993
Through his friends Kevin Hector and Tara Paterson (later to form the band Autocreation with Mark Van Hoen) Mark began to hear post acid house music, and inspired by LFO's 'frequencies' album, decided that the music he had been making in the mid 80's now had more relevance and potential popularity. He began to record music that would become the first Locust releases. Mark Clifford of Seefeel was also inspired by the early British techno releases, and made several recordings with Mark Van Hoen that sowed the seeds for Seefeel's first releases. One recording from these sessions 'Blue Easy Sleep', appeared on the first Seefeel EP 'More Like Space'. When it became evident that both Seefeel and Mark Van Hoen would soon be signed, Van Hoen left Seefeel, to be replaced by Darren Seymour, who further developed Seefeel's sound, along with Clifford. Mark Van Hoen continued to work with the band, mixing their live sound and collaborating on their early EPs. Meanwhile, Van Hoen had completed the bulk of what was to become Weathered Well, his first album. Tapes were sent out to a few labels, and Warp, Rephlex and R&S records all made offers. R&S was chosen, because of the enthusiasm of Renaat Vanderpapiliere, the owner of R&S. Mark Van Hoen performed live at the Quirky club, in Brixton, London, and the set would become the exact running order of his debut album 'Weathered Well', at the request of Renaat, who attended the concert.
1994
The release of the first Locust album "Weathered Well" gained many great reviews, and its opening track 'Prospero' was chosen as the years favourite by Mark Bell and Gez Varley of LFO in the Melody Maker music paper[4]. In the same year, many releases followed; 'Natural Composite' (included tracks from the Peel Session [5]) "In Remembrance Of Times Past" (Featuring recordings made between 1981 and 1987) and Autocreation's 'Mettle' (an album that sounds incredibly like contemporary Dubstep) all featured Van Hoen's trademark all-analogue synthesizer sound, and employed warm 'lo-fi' recording techniques. Live performances of this material were made all over Europe, as well as 'Britronica', a festival of British 'IDM' in Moscow, Russia. As well as Mark Van Hoen, the festival featured Aphex Twin, Seefeel, Autechre and many others. 1994 also saw the release of A collaboration between Van Hoen and Seefeel's Darren Seymour, entitled "Aurobindo:Involution". It was a mesmerising collection of drone tracks, released on Touch Records, which marked the start of a long relationship between Mark Van Hoen and the seminal British experimental label.
1995
Van Hoen decided to change his all-analogue instrumentation in favour of a more digital sound offered by the Kurzweil K2000 sampler and Digidesign Protools. "Truth Is Born Of Arguments" the 4th Locust Album, featured heavy use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques, pre-dating what would become known as 'Glitch' by several years. Autechre cited particularly the title track as influential to their late 90's output. The album featured emotive and lyrical titles to the compositions, that would also pre-date Boards Of Canada's of narration to their music. The message in 'Truth Is Born Of Arguments' music was that electronic music could be 'about' real and current life, as well as nostalgia. This is an obvious departure from most music in the genre having a fairly consistent sci-fi or futuristic theme.
1996
Seefeel had come to and end, and Mark Clifford began recording solo. The other members started a new band, Scala, who would release 3 albums and an EP, produced by Mark Van Hoen. Although credited as a producer, Van Hoen was actually a member of Scala, though his contract with R&S would not allow this to be stated. During 1996, Mark recorded demos for his next R&S album with various vocalists. The label liked the demos so much that they proposed to release them as an album, which became 'Morning Light', released in late '96. This album used the artist name 'Locust' and was a much more accessible and commercial record than previous Locust releases. It was distributed and released by Sony in Japan and Warner Brothers in the US. Mark's more familiar material that was from the same lineage as previous Locust albums was now released under his own name, the first of which was released in 1996 on Touch. 'The Last Flowers From The Darkness' was a compilation of instrumental recordings made between 1992 and 1996.
1998 to present
1998 saw the recording of the 6th Locust album 'Wrong'. Mark Van Hoen wanted to make a vocal album that was of a higher standard and more innovative than 'Morning Light' . He recorded with vocalist Holli Ashton, who had contributed to 'Morning Light'. However, R&S records were not happy with the results, themselves preferring the 'Big Beat' sound of the late 90s from acts like the Chemical Brothers. The album was shelved, and Mark instead submitted a new Mark Van Hoen album to R&S 'Playing With Time', possibly his most consistent and defining record to date. The album featured a distinctive cover from Touch's Jon Wozencroft. Opening the record was a masterpiece of electronic music 'Real Love', which features the cut-up and heavy processing techniques used on the earlier "Truth Is Born Of Arguments', but using a simple modal composition based on a syncopated percussion sample and a layered ethereal vocal from Holli Ashton. Dazed and Confused Magazine said; "Exquisite production ideas that are so expertly executed - at times it's hard to know whether you are listening or dreaming"[6]. The Sunday Times said that the album "has a positively spiritual quality about it" [7]
Later in 1998, Mark Van Hoen was invited to tour with his band Locust to open for Massive Attack on their European tour. The tour was a disaster, with the band spending excessive amounts of money, and to add to the records label's displeasure, Mark Van Hoen built the whole set on songs from the shelved album 'Wrong'. After the tour R&S record all but ex communicated Mark Van Hoen throughout 1999, until eventually dropping him from the label in early 2000.
Touch records release 'Wrong' in 2001, which enjoyed favourable reviews, but ultimately suffered from weak song writing, despite the production crafted again only from analogue synthesizers to dazzling effect. 2004 saw the release of a Mark Van Hoen album 'The Warmth Inside You' which also returned to Mark's 80s and early 90s all analogue approach. The album received good reviews, but the limited release meant that the album did not receive the media attention enjoyed by earlier albums.
Touch released 'Wrong' as a 2-disc set. The second disc consisted of ambient soundscapes, and the listener was invited to play both discs simultaneously and adjust the audio levels to produce an individualized mix. According to the liner notes: "This release is not a double CD, but a twin CD format. CD2 is not intended to be played on its own, but is an expansion to normal domestic playback possibilities. As a starting point, CD1 might be played on the living room's main CD system, and the second 'drone' CD on a ghettoblaster or home computer... maybe in another room. In an ideal world and with a little help from a friend, both CDs should be activated instantaneously, but an offset of +/- 3 or 4 seconds should still produce the anticipated intention. Relative volume level might be 3 to 1; listener feedback on any combinations is gratefully received."
Mojave 3 and other productions
In 1997, Neil Halstead of Mojave 3 asked Mark Van Hoen to mix and co-produce their second album for 4AD 'Out Of Tune'. Van Hoen then went on to work on the next two Mojave 3 albums 'Excuses For Travellers' and 'Spoon and Rafter'. The latter features Van Hoen in a more collaborative role, having several credits on the record for instruments. His influence on tracks such as 'Bluebird Of Happiness' is very evident.
In 1998, Emma Anderson of Lush (band) asked Mark to produce her new band Sing-Sing (band). Both albums 'The Joy Of Sing-Sing' and 'Sing-Sing and I' feature almost all instrumentation played and programmed by Van Hoen, in addition to Emma Anderson's guitars and Lisa O'Neil's vocals. Other notable Mark Van Hoen productions include the beautiful 'Seven Principles Of Leave No Trace' by Edison Woods (featuring an appearance from Cocteau Twins Simon Raymond, and two albums by Swiss performance artists Velma.
Discography As Locust
Discography As Mark Van Hoen
Web sources
External links
