Kontour
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Kontour is an English
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
artist, signed to
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
.


Background

Early work included recordings of distorted telephone calls and late night television. He uses a range of vintage recording equipment and analog
synthesiser A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...
s, electronic
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
and drum machines."Kontour"
''White Label Music'', accessed 12 February 2008
In 2007 the ''Protect & Survive EP'' was released on the White Label Music record label. This early work was created using little or no percussion instead using a
Doepfer Doepfer Musikelektronik GmbH is a German manufacturer of audio hardware, mostly synthesizer modules (modular synthesizer), based in Gräfelfing, Upper Bavaria and founded by Dieter Döpfer. The product range covers analog modular systems, MIDI con ...
analogue sequencer to create simple, minimal rhythms. Soon after the release of the EP Kontour was approached by
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
. The label owner,
Stevo Pearce Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo (born 26 December 1962), is a British record producer and music industry executive, best known as the owner of indie record label Some Bizzare Records. Biography He was born in Dagenham, Essex, Engla ...
(ex-manager of
Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit version of "Tainted Love" and their plat ...
), wanted to include ''The Kennedy Syndrome'' on a new compilation album he was compiling titled ''Some Bizzare Double Album''. This led to the recording of a new studio album for the record label. In 2008 Kontour released the album ''
Scanners ''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic ...
'' on
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
,
Stevo Pearce Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo (born 26 December 1962), is a British record producer and music industry executive, best known as the owner of indie record label Some Bizzare Records. Biography He was born in Dagenham, Essex, Engla ...
is credited as executive producer of the album. The album was released after the "Protect & Survive" EP and moved on from the minimal sounds of tracks like ''Shark Cage''. The album was recorded using no
MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
instruments or personal
computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s, instead primitive
music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...
s, Roland RE-501 tape effects and a
Roland CR-78 The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine launched in 1978. Although primitive by later standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time, in particular by allowing users to program and store thei ...
Drum Machine were used. The vocals on the album where treated like a sound source and manipulated with
audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...
effects.
Kontour worked with the
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
group ''Lucid Sketchmaster'' collaborating on the album ''The Seed''. Kontour featured on the track "God Come Tell Me" contributing lyrics and "music construction". In 2012 Kontour contributed a recording to a project titled ''A Broadcast to the Trees''. The project involved a selection of unreleased music, contributed by various artists, which was broadcast via an FM transmitter into the Galloway Forest. The broadcast was not archived or streamed online. The only people who were able to hear the transmission would have been in a small radius of the forest at the time. After the music was transmitted it was deleted. Other artists who contributed to this project included Gareth Jones,
Martyn Ware Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware was partly responsible for hit songs such as " Being Boiled" and ...
and Dave Ball.


''Scanners'' recording for Some Bizzare Records (2008)

In 2007 Kontour began recording sessions for
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
. The album was completed at the end half of 2007 being mixed and mastered for its 2008 release date."Kontour - Official site"
accessed 29 April 2009
Mastering took place at The Exchange in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and was performed by Simon Davey who has mastered bands like
Laibach Laibach () is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje (at the time in Yugoslavia) in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slo ...
,
Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...
and
Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...
. ''Scanners'' was released on 4 February 2008. It was largely composed of experimental, electronic songs. Songs structures were improvised incorporating a less than disciplined approach. The release had mixed responses, some listeners found the album too experimental. While others labeled it "original".


Discography


Albums

* 2007 - ''Protect & Survive'' ( White Label Music) * 2008 - ''
Scanners ''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic ...
'' (
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
) * 2008 - ''Some Bizzare Double Album'' (
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
) - ''The Kennedy Syndrome'' * 2014 - ''Monochrome'' (Sub-human)


Collaborations

* 2008 - Lucid Sketchmaster - ''The Seed'' (
Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu Elect ...
) - ''God Come Tell Me'' * 2008 - Rev Spook - ''Big Spirit'' - ''Unbreakable''"Rev Spook Music"
accessed 12 December 2008
* 2011 -
The Dark Poets The Dark Poets are an industrial music group who originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult horror movie ''Cradle of Fear''. The ''Cradle of Fear'' soundtrack was released by Silvascreen Records in the UK and Sil ...
Vs Kontour - Breakbeat Halloween 2012. From
The Dark Poets The Dark Poets are an industrial music group who originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult horror movie ''Cradle of Fear''. The ''Cradle of Fear'' soundtrack was released by Silvascreen Records in the UK and Sil ...
Cradle of Fear ''Cradle of Fear'' is a 2001 British horror film, directed by Alex Chandon. It was released direct-to-video on 4 July 2001. Taking inspiration from the anthology films produced by Amicus Productions in the 1970s, it features three separate ha ...
E.P.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Official Site
English electronic musicians Musicians from Brighton and Hove Living people English industrial musicians English experimental musicians Some Bizzare Records artists Year of birth missing (living people)