Jonathan Sharp is an

electronic body music Electronic body music (acronymized to EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe as an outgrowth of bo ...

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

musician and professional sound designer from

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England, who has released music under the names New Mind, Bio-Tek, The Heartwood Institute, and others. He was also a member of the bands Cyber-Tec Project,

Hexedene Hexedene were an English electro-industrial group comprising vocalist Katie Helsby and guitarists Ian Palmer (musician), Ian Palmer and Jonathan Sharp (musician), Jonathan Sharp. They were recognized for fusing techno and Industrial music, indu ...

, and Hyperdex-1-Sect.

Career

Early life

As a child Jonathan was a classically-trained musician, having played piano and violin. As a teenager taught himself to play guitar and his interests began drifting from classical music towards experimental guitar oriented music in the vein of

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

, as well as early industrial and electronic music including

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

and

Helden Helden (; li, Helje) is a former municipality and a village in the southeastern Netherlands, located in the province of Limburg. In January 2010 Helden joined with other municipalities to form the new municipality of Peel en Maas. History The ...

. Drawing on a fascination with the work of the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electroni ...

, Jonathan eventually acquired a

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

synthesizer in order to make sounds of his own.

New Mind

New Mind was formed as a solo project of Jonathan Sharp in 1990. Prior to creating New Mind, Jonathan played guitar and sampler in an experimental band where he thought of electronic and industrial musics as being distinct. It was when Jonathan took a suggestion to listen to

Skinny Puppy Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial music group formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group is among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton ...

that he had a revelation that led to the creation of New Mind. The first New Mind demo, ''Bacteriophage'', was recorded on 4-track in 1991. This was followed by the EP ''Body Politic'' which was released by the Sadisque, an imprint of the UK-based

Vinyl Solution Vinyl Solution was a record label of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the offshoot of an independent London-based record store based at 231 Portobello Road (now known as Intoxica Records). The label signed many unconventional acts in a number of unc ...

label. New Mind was initially offered an expanded record deal with Sadisque but the deal fell through. Jonathan contributed tracks to several compilations during the following year including releases by Sentrax Records, Dossier, and The Empty Quarter before being signed to

Machinery Records A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...

in 1993. The first New Mind album, ''Fractured'', was released by Machinery Records in 1993. This was the only release on Machinery as the label did not find the initial material for the second album, ''Zero To The Bone'', to their liking. ''Zero To The Bone'' was eventually released by Fifth Colvmn Records in 1995. While ''Fractured'' displayed the obvious influence of Skinny Puppy with a more straightforward EBM and electro style, ''Zero'' explored a wider variety of electronic music styles infused with guest female vocalists. After setbacks with both Fifth Colvmn and Cyber-Tec, Jonathan sent initial demos of tracks from ''Forge'' to Stefan Herwig at Off Beat. This led to a multi-album deal with Off Beat.

Cyber-Tec Project

In 1995, Jonathan became a founding member of Cyber-Tec Project along with

Jean-Luc De Meyer Jean-Luc De Meyer (born 1957 in Brussels) is a vocalist and lyricist who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Belgian EBM group Front 242. He started singing in the experimental group "Under Viewer" with Patrick Codenys. Both joined Front ...

and

Ged Denton Crisis n.T.i. was the music project of United Kingdom-based composer Ged Denton, known for his work in The Cyber-Tec Project. Under the moniker Denton released the album '' The Alien Conspiracy'' for Fifth Colvmn Records in 1995. History Crisi ...

. Jonathan was unexpectedly replaced in the band by

Marc Heal Marc Heal is an English musician, television producer and writer. He is best known as an industrial music artist of the 1990s, noted for mixing metal and techno with more traditional industrial sounds. His extroverted onstage behaviour was unus ...

after the release of the band's first album.

Bio-Tek

Jonathan considered New Mind to be his main musical project and did not wish to constrain his musical output under that name to any particular genre or style. His affinity for "European" EBM, however, led him to develop a second solo project, Bio-Tek, as an outlet for that particular style. While he was releasing music as New Mind on Off Beat, Jonathan secured a deal with seminal German record label,

Zoth Ommog Zoth Ommog Records was a German Industrial music record label which was owned by the parent label Music Research. The company was established by German music producer Andreas Tomalla (aka Talla 2XLC) in 1989 and later handed over to producer Torbe ...

, to release music as Bio-Tek.

Hyperdex-1-Sect

The relationship with Zoth Ommog via Bio-Tek led to a collaboration between Jonathan and André Schmechta of

X Marks the Pedwalk X Marks the Pedwalk (sometimes written as X-Marks the Pedwalk) is a German band whose styles range from post-industrial dance to electronic body music. X Marks the Pedwalk’s influence in the industrial and electronic music scenes was consider ...

that became Hyperdex-1-Sect. Their album ''Metachrome'' was released by

Synthetic Symphony SPV GmbH (short for ''Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH'', "Vinyl Production and Distribution Company") is a German independent record label. Founded on 1 January 1984, it has slowly grown to be one ...

in 1997 and featured tracks that Jonathan had originally written for Cyber-Tec Project, reconstructed by André and reformatted with female vocals.

Hexedene

In 1997, Jonathan formed

with Katie Helsby and Ian Palmer. The band received praise for layering a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

sound with

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

leanings.

Production & Remixes

During the 1990s, Jonathan produced many remixes as New Mind for bands such as Aïboforcen, Birmingham 6, Scar Tissue, Inertia, Aghast View, and

Attrition Attrition may refer to *Attrition warfare, the military strategy of wearing down the enemy by continual losses in personnel and material **War of Attrition, fought between Egypt and Israel from 1968 to 1970 **War of attrition (game), a model of agg ...

. He also recorded many one-off compilation tracks under various names, including: Datura, Gunhed, Lashtal, Nova, Psionic, Tyrophex 14, Vent, and Zodiac.

The Heartwood Institute

Beginning in 2015, Jonathan began releasing 1970s-inspired, "haunting" music under the name ''The Heartwood Institute''. As Heartwood, Jonathan explores occult and magical themes in a more downtempo-oriented music format. Jonathan began performing live at themed events as Heartwood beginning in 2017.

Library music and solo recordings

By the year 2000, Jonathan discovered

library music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Background ...

and began making recordings for hire under his own name on behalf of many publishers including his own company, Summer Witch Music. Over the next several years Jonathan temporarily ceased his commercial music production in deference to his new career. Contemporary with his work as The Heartwood Institute, Jonathan embarked on recordings under his own name of "elegaic piano-led pieces" with an autobiographical theme inspired by photographs taken during his childhood. His release ''Divided Time'' focuses his childhood years of 1970—1977 when he would split his time between his parents' houses in London and Cumbria.

Discography

As New Mind

* ''Body Politic'' (12" EP, 1991, Sadisque) * ''Fractured'' (CD, 1993,

, Think Tank) * ''Zero to the Bone'' (CD, 1995,

Fifth Colvmn Records Fifth Colvmn Records was a record label based in Washington, DC. The label was founded in 1990 by Zalman Fishman, owner of the nightclub FIFTH COLVMN, located in Washington D.C. The label's first release was Chemlab's debut EP Ten Ton Pressure. ...

) * ''Forge'' (CD, 21 October 1997,

21st Circuitry 21st Circuitry was a record label based in San Francisco, California, that was founded in early 1991. The label released music from genres, such as electro-industrial, industrial rock, and other similar styles of music. The label signed a number ...

, Off Beat) * ''Deepnet'' (CD, 1998, Off Beat, Gashed!) – #18

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

RPM Charts, U.S. * ''Phoenix'' (CD, 2001, Doppler Effect)

As Bio-Tek

* ''A God Ignored Is A Demon Born'' (CD, 1996,

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

) * ''Darkness My Name Is'' (CD, 1997, Zoth Ommog) * ''Punishment For Decadence'' (CD, 1999, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions) – #15 CMJ RPM Charts, U.S. * ''The Ceremony Of Innocence'' (CD, 2002, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)

As Barking At Butterflies

* ''Disappear With The Stars'' (CD EP, 2008, Lakeland Records) * ''Armor Plated'' (digital, 2011, Doppler Effect)

As The Heartwood Institute

* ''Astercote'' (CD, 2015, Reverb Worship) * ''The Wild Hunt Of Hagworthy'' (CDr, 2015, Reverb Worship) * ''Calder Hall: Atomic Power Station'' (CDr, 2016, Reverb Worship) * ''Mix Tape One'' (Cass, 2017, The Heartwood Institute) * ''The Whispering Knights'' (CDr, 2017, Reverb Worship) * ''Secret Rites'' (LP/digital, 2018, Polytechnic Youth) * ''Barsham Faire'' (7" single, 2018, Polytechnic Youth) * ''The Divided Self'' (EP, 2018, Sleep FUSE) * ''Tomorrow's People'' (LP, 2019, Polytechnic Youth) * w/ Tomorrow Syndicate, ''The Home Current Remixes'' (7" single, 2019, Polytechnic Youth) * w/ Panamint Manse, ''Parapsychedelia'' (LP, 2020, Castles in Space) * ''Lovely Lightning / Ringstone Round'' (7" single/digital, 2020, Sleep FUSE) * ''Witchcraft Murders'' (LP, 2021, Library Of The Occult) * w/ Hawksmoor, ''Concrete Island'' (Cass/digital, 2021, Spun Out Of Control)

As Jonathan Sharp

* ''Divided Time'' (LP/digital, 2019, Castles in Space) * ''Kensington, 1974 / Kendal Steam Gathering, 1975'' (7" single, 2019, Castles in Space)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Jonathan English industrial musicians English electronic musicians Electro-industrial musicians People from Cumbria