| Mark Van Hoen | |
|---|---|
Photo of Mark Van Hoen by David Greenfield. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | electronic music, Drone Music, ambient music, |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels | Editions Mego Apollo Records (Belgium) Touch Music city centre offices |
| Associated acts | Locust Scala Seefeel Autocreation |
| Mark Van Hoen |
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Mark Van Hoen (born September 1966 in London, England) is an electronic music artist. He has created music under his own name as well as Locust, and Autocreation. He was a founder member of the influential group Seefeel. The BBC said, "in a brief listen one can hear the influence on Boards of Canada's damaged melodies and dense claustrophobia, more so even than usual suspects like the Aphex Twin."[1] Pitchfork said, "Musically, Van Hoen belongs to a distinguished family tree. Originally influenced by the likes of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream, and later presaging both Autechre's glitch and Boards of Canada's pastoral IDM, with his latest album Van Hoen would fit in just as well alongside White Rainbow or Atlas Sound on a current label like Kranky: He combines oceanic drone with pop lyricism, using technology as a catalyst.."[2]
Mark Van Hoen signed with Belgian Label R&S in 1993. The initial releases were as Locust and used vintage analogue synthesizers and tape recorders. As the Locust sound moved towards an increasingly more vocal oriented approach in the late 90s, Mark Van Hoen also began to release music under his own name
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Born in Croydon, England (26 September 1966), grew up in Smethwick (part of The Black Country, an industrial area in the Midlands of England).He began to create electronic music in 1981. In 1983 Mark embarked on a career in radio and moved to London in 1988, during the acid house explosion. In 1993, R&S Records signed Mark Van Hoen after attending a live performance at the Quirky club in Brixton, London, in which Van Hoen utilized a bank of analog modular systems for the performance. This unusual approach within the ambient electronic genre of the early 90's set the tone for the initial releases during a prolific period in the 90's. By 1995, Van Hoen had become one of the first to create Digital Signal Processing (DSP) dominated music with his album 'Truth Is Born Of Arguments', and in the late 90's moved increasingly into vocal music with various collaborations and productions with ex-members of Slowdive, Lush (band),, Cocteau Twins & Seefeel, as well as legends Robert Fripp and Roger Waters. In the 2000's Van Hoen's musical output slowed somewhat due to family life, but then a move to Brooklyn, NY in 2008 (as well as the discovery of his true family lineage, including his brother, reggae artist and erstwhile member of Culture (band), George Subratie) has brought on a new phase of creativity with releases "Where Is The Truth' (2010, City Centre Offices) and 'The Revenant Diary' (Editions Mego, 2012)
The town where Mark spent his childhood, Smethwick, had an influence on his music. Smethwick had a number of steel and metal factories, and rhythmic sounds from these formed a soundtrack to his early life. Also, the town was possibly the first in England to be inhabited by a large number of Jamaican and Indian immigrants; Mark Van Hoen is of Indian-Jamaican and English descent, and was exposed to music from all these cultures during his childhood. This had a lasting effect on Mark Van Hoen's musical personality, particularly the rhythmic aspects of Reggae, and the drone keys of Indian music. 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 Can. Brian Eno, Cabaret Voltaire and other British electronic musicians also inspired him significantly. Additionally, at the core of his inspiration lies the work of early electronic music from the likes of Delia Derbyshire, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edward Artemiev's soundtracks to Andrei Tarkovsky science fiction films Solaris and Stalker as well as the electronic innovations in the pop music world of early Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. In 1991, after a brief period of musical inactivity, Mark Van Hoen heard the more sophisticated post acid-house music that was to inspire him to make music again, the primary example being LFO