Cinder (previously known as Gordon Sharp; born 1961 in Linlithgow,

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...

, Scotland), sometimes known as Cinder Sharp, is a Scottish singer, musician and record producer. She has led several music projects since 1976, the most significant and long-standing being

Cindytalk Cindytalk is an experimental music project, founded in 1982. Cindytalk operated as a group for many years, but more recently has been a solo project by Cinder (previously known as Gordon Sharp), a Scottish performer and the only constant member ...

. Cinder has gained a reputation for an unflinchingly experimental approach to music and ideas.

Biography

Cinder started a punk band called

the Freeze ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

whilst attending

Linlithgow Academy Linlithgow Academy is a secondary school in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. The original academy was built in 1900 to a design by James Graham Fairley and replaced an earlier kirk institution, known as "Sang Schule". History The present ...

in 1976. The Freeze was active between 1976 and 1981. Cinder moved to London in 1982, changed the band's name to

and signed to the Midnight Music label. In 1983, Cinder sang with fellow Scots

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...

on one of their John Peel sessions and at selected live gigs, where she met

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD af ...

executive Ivo Watts-Russell. This led to her being invited to participate as one of the featured singers with 4AD collective This Mortal Coil on its first album. Early in her career, Cinder traveled from Scotland to London to attend a concert held by David Sylvian's band

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where she met

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar may refer to: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 *John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) (178 ...

and Nick Rhodes of

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

. After meeting Taylor, Cinder was repeatedly asked by him to join his

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

based

New Romantic The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...

band. Cinder briefly stayed at Nick Rhodes' parents house in Birmingham during Duran Duran's early rehearsals, but decided on her journey back to Scotland that Duran Duran's ambitions did not sit well with her own direction. Cindytalk released a series of group albums and singles in the 1980s and 1990s. An electronic side-project,

Bambule Bambule, a term of German prison sociolect, originally refers to a form of mostly non-violent prison protest, typically effected by banging hard items against the cells' metal bars. The term is derived from the African dance ''Bamboule'' or ''Bamb ...

, was started in 1994 by Cinder and Simon Carmichael. In 2002, Cinder started to write abstract electronic music using a laptop, and since 2004 has split her time between Japan and the UK, working on various projects. This has included Cindytalk performing live (solo or group), and a number of (mostly solo) recordings.

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based record label

Editions Mego Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by Peter ...

, which is known for releasing cutting-edge electronic music, released a series of Cindytalk albums focused on Cinder's primitive noise-poetry. No longer perceived only as a singer, this repositioned Cinder and Cindytalk within the musical establishment. ''Of Ghosts and Buildings'' (2021) was released on the Japanese label Remodel, and ''Subterminal'' (2022) on the UK label False Walls, both continuing Cinder’s integration of electronics with field recordings.

References

Living people Scottish rock singers Scottish electronic musicians 1961 births People educated at Linlithgow Academy LGBT people from Scotland Transgender musicians 21st-century LGBT people {{Scotland-musician-stub