Martyn Ware

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Martyn Ware
[[File: Martyn Ware |150px|alt=|]]
Background information
Born	(1956-05-19) 19 May 1956 (age 56)
Origin	Sheffield, England
Genres	Electronica
Occupations	Composer, Record producer
Instruments	Vocals, Keyboards
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Fast Product, Virgin Records, Mute Records
Associated acts	The Human League Heaven 17 B.E.F.

Martyn "Teddy Bear" Ware (born 19 May 1956 in Sheffield, England) is a British musician and music producer. He is the chairman of a local football team: PPA. As a founder member of both The Human League and Heaven 17,^[1] he was partly responsible for hit records such as "Being Boiled" and "Temptation". He has also worked as a record producer, notably helping to revitalise Tina Turner's career in 1983 with "Let's Stay Together" and producing Erasure's I Say I Say I Say album in 1994.

More recently, he has collaborated with Vince Clarke (as The Clarke & Ware Experiment) on two music projects; the Pretentious album (1999), and Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (2001).^[2] He has also contributed programmes to internet radio stations.

He is a Visiting Professor at Queen Mary College, University of London, a member of BAFTA, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a founder of 5D – the future of immersive design. He has also just received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from University of London.

Surround Sound Technology

Ware created a 3D surround sound auditorium for the National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield - a museum of contemporary music and culture, launched with £15 million of National Lottery money, which opened in March 1999 and closed in July 2000. BBC News described the centre as having been "shunned" by visitors, and, despite a £2 million relaunch, the Centre closed. Despite this, Ware later used the surround sound technology to launch an Arts Council subsidised touring project called "The Future of Sound".

Ware’s 3D music has also been used in an unusual noise suppression experiment undertaken in Brighton in 2011 on behalf of the Noise Abatement Society (NAS).^[3]

During this experiment, which was an entry for the John Cornell Technology Award, a six-point sound field was created using ethereal sound textures. This was played in the main shopping street in the city, West Street, with the intention of distracting people from the traffic noise.

In the meantime, film made of the street during the time the sound was being produced was analysed by the psychobiologist Harry Witchel to assess whether the ambient sound made any difference to their behaviour.

Early results suggested that it did have a beneficial effect for the public both during the day and anecdotal evidence suggested it served as a calming influence during the “clubbers rush” in the evening. Suggestions have been made that the experiment could be rolled out more widely in the future.

He is a Visiting Professor at Queen Mary College, University of London, a member of BAFTA, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a founder of 5D – the future of immersive design. He has also just received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from University of London.

Public Speaking

He speaks regularly on music policy from the perspective of a creative person. Previous speaking engagements include: February 11th 2011 at the British Library for Copyright for Creativity, a June 2011 dinner at the European Parliament, and events in May 2012 in the Library of the European Parliament.

Personal life

Ware was born and grew up in Sheffield, where he attended King Edward VII School. He now lives in Primrose Hill in London with his wife Landsley, and has two children; Elena and Gabriel.

References

External links

• Heaven17
• Human League
• National Centre for Popular Music
• Illustrious Company Illustrious Company is Ware's current ongoing project into 3D audio
• Martyn Ware RBMA lecture
• Twitter feed
• Facebook Page