Mark Van Hoen

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Mark Van Hoen

Mark Van Hoen (born March 23, 1967 in Smethwick, England) is an electronic music performer and producer recognized for his contributions to the advancement of electronic music in the last 20 years. He has created music under his own name as well as: Locust, Aurobindo and Autocreation. His production work includes albums for Mojave 3, Scala, Sing Sing and many others. He has been a member of the influential group Seefeel and has toured with Massive Attack and Orbital as well as opening for Slowdive. He is a greatly admired and influential composer and performer that has inspired countless other musicians. His music is known for it's distinctive blend of old world electronic music with the more modern strains of techno creating a rich and colorful body of work steeped in emotion and expression. His work has brought a deeply human and emotional depth to a genre of music that has been criticized as being sterile and mechanical.

Mark Van Hoen began releasing music under the name Locust through the Belgian Label Apollo. Locust's early records were distinct in their use of vintage analogue keyboards and drum machines to create a romantic and somewhat sinister sound environment in which his music could unfold along a current of beats and rhythms while escaping the mechanization of many of his contemporaries. As the Locust sound moved towards and increasingly more vocal oriented approach in the late 90's, Mark Van Hoen began to release music under his own name and returned to the instrumental music of his early period which he continues today.

1 Biography
2 Influences
3 Influence On Others
4 Press And Articles
5 Discography As Locust
6 Discography As Mark Van Hoen
7 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Smethwick (in Birmingham) (26 September 1966), grew up in Worcester and moved to London in 1988 first living in Wood Green and working for Molinare Studios. He began to create electronic music after attending an awe inspiring 1980 concert from Kraftwerk on their Computer World tour. Armed with a few analogue keyboards and a drum machine he began to create lush soundscapes set to a pulsing motorik beat that would in turn become the foundation of modern techno/electronic music. These early experiments can be heard on the release In Remembrance Of Times Past from Apollo Records.

[edit] Influences

" I don't enjoy listening to happy music - certain friends say I've got a very depressing record collection, but I find this sinister stuff more thought provoking and exciting; Its not that I'm a morose person." Mark Van Hoen was originally drawn to electronic music though a love of Kraftwerk and other electronic acts from Germany such as Tangerine Dream and Cluster (band). Brian Eno and the British electronic musicians also inspired him significantly. Classical Composers of Minimalism such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass are also major influences on his style and more recently the music of the middle east and John Coltrane has figured largely. At the core of his inspiration lies the work of such great early electronic music from the likes of Delia Derbyshire and Edward Artemiev's soundtracks to the Soviet science fiction films Solaris and Stalker as well as the electronic innovations in the pop music world of early Human League and OMD.

[edit] Influence On Others

A variety of musciains cite Mark Van Hoen as an influence including:...

[edit] Press And Articles

Mark Van Hoen's music has been extensively reviewed in music magazines as well as technical publications for its relevance to certain genres as well as the technical aspects of the music creation.