Philip Jeck (1952 – 25 March 2022) was an English composer and

multimedia artist Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditio ...

. His compositions were noted for utilising antique

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s, along with looping devices and both analogue and

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

effects. Initially composing for installations and dance companies, beginning in 1995 he released music on the UK label

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

Early life

Jeck was born in England in 1952.Staff
"Philip Jeck – CV"
. ''www.philipjeck.com''. He studied visual arts at

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He became interested in record players after visiting

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1979 and being introduced to the work of

DJs A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

such as

Walter Gibbons Walter Gibbons (April 2, 1954 – September 23, 1994) was an American record producer, early disco DJ, and remixer. He helped pioneer the remix and 12" single in America, and was among the most influential New York DJs of the 1970s. Career Gi ...

and

Larry Levan Larry Levan (; born Lawrence Philpot, July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992) was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern da ...

Career

Jeck started exploring composition using record players and electronics in the early 1980s. In his early career, he composed and performed scores for dance and theatre companies, including a five-year collaboration with Laurie Booth. He also composed scores for dance films ''Beyond Zero'' on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and ''Pace'' on

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. Jeck was perhaps best known for his 1993 work ''Vinyl Requiem'' with Lol Sargent, a performance for 180

Dansette Dansette was a British brand of record players, radiograms, tape recorders, and radio sets, manufactured by the London firm of J & A Margolin Ltd, Record player The first Dansette record player was manufactured in 1952 and at least one million w ...

record players, 12 slide-projectors and two film-projectors. Although he initially intended to perform it only once, he went on to organise further performances of the installation. It won the '' Time Out'' Performance Award in 1993. Jeck signed with

in 1995 and proceeded to release his best-known works on the label, including ''Surf'' (1998), ''Stoke'' (2002), and ''7'' (2003). In 2004, he collaborated with Alter Ego on a 2005 rendition of composer

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early life and career Born on 16 January 1943 in ...

's ''The Sinking of the Titanic''. His 2008 album, ''Sand'', was named the second best album of that year by ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

''. Many of his studio releases are pieced together from recordings of his own live performances and stitched together with a

MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year fo ...

recorder. His final music credit came in 2021 with ''Stardust'', a collaboration with

Faith Coloccia Faith Coloccia is an American artist and musician. She is most known as being the founding member and primary songwriter for the post-rock band Mamiffer. Coloccia has also been a member of Everlovely Lightningheart, Pyramids, House of Low Cultu ...

. He collaborated with artists including

Jah Wobble John Joseph Wardle (born 11 August 1958), known by the stage name Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; ...

Jaki Liebezeit Jaki Liebezeit (born Hans Liebezeit; 26 May 1938 – 22 January 2017) was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral". ...

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

and Janek Schaefer.

Death

Jeck died on 25 March 2022, aged 69, following a brief illness.

Discography

Studio and live recordings

* ''Loopholes'' (1995,

) * ''Surf'' (1998, Touch) * ''Live in Tokyo'' (2000, Touch) * ''Vinyl Coda I–III'' (2 CDs) (2000, Intermedium Records) * ''Vinyl Coda IV'' (2001, Intermedium Records) * ''Stoke'' (2002, Touch) * ''7'' (2003, Touch) * ''Sand'' (2008, Touch) * ''Suite. Live in Liverpool'' (2008, Touch) * ''An Ark for the Listener'' (2010, Touch) * ''Cardinal'' (2015, Touch) * ''Iklectik'' (2017, Touch)

Collaborations

* ''Soaked'' with Jacob Kirkegaard (2002, Touch) * ''Live in Leuven'' with

and

(2004, Hertz) * ''Songs for Europe'' with Janek Schaefer (2004, Asphodel) * '' The Sinking of the Titanic'' with Alter Ego and

(2007, Touch) * ''Spliced'' with Marcus Davidson (2010, Touch) * ''Stardust'' with

(2021, Touch)

References

External links

Philip Jeck.com
– Official website
''Stylus'' Profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeck, Philip 1952 births 2022 deaths English experimental musicians Free improvising musicians