 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Robert Hampson" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Robert Hampson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Robert Hampson playing withCindytalk in 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Joshua Robert Hampson |
| Born | (1965-06-10)10 June 1965 (age 59) Bromley,London, England |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | |
Joshua Robert Hampson[1][2] (born 10 June 1965[3]) is an Englishmusician andcomposer, known primarily as a guitarist in the bandLoop, which he co-founded inLondon in 1985 with his then-girlfriend Becky "Bex" Stewart. Loop recorded three albums, the last of which,A Gilded Eternity (1990), made theUK Albums Chart. Following the band's breakup, Hampson formed the experimental projectMain with Scott Dawson.
After Loop disbanded, Hampson formed the more experimentalMain with fellow Loop member Scott Dowson, releasing several albums and EPs onBeggars Banquet Records.[4] Although a strong signature in the early material of Main, theguitar was slowly eroded from the stable sounds Hampson and Dowson produced, together withfield recordings and otherelectro-acoustic sounds.[4] When Dowson left the line-up in 1996, Main became a solo project for Hampson, who then abandoned the guitar altogether, feeling he had taken the instrument to such extremes that there was no longer any scope to create with it.
Between 1999 and 2003, he formed the electroacoustic duo Comae[5] withJanek Schaefer touring in Europe, US, Japan, and released their self titled album on Rhiz Records.
He deactivated Main as a project in 2006, in an attempt to free himself of the restraints of critical and fan-based reviews, that still mentioned the guitar as the focal point of the material, even though he had not used it in many years. He was quoted in interviews as saying the guitar was a chain around his neck, and he was unhappy to be still so strongly associated with it.
Preferring to now explore other avenues of sound and its diffusion, especiallymultichannel systems for live performances, Hampson was invited by theGroupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris to compose and perform on many occasions. He has also been associated with like-minded organisations and institutes around the world, exploring intricacies in soundcomposition.
In 2010, Hampson announced that he would be reactivating Main, which along with his soloacousmatic work, he will start performing and recording as a more collaborative process with fellow sound artists. A planned Loop reunion (of theGilded Eternity line-up) later followed, in a statement by Hampson in April 2013.[6]
Starting in 1996, Robert Hampson also seldomly released tracks and remixes (Bowery Electric,Veronica Vasicka,[7] Eros) under the Chasm moniker.
on Editions Mego
withGodflesh
on Touch
on Rhiz
on Reactor (Loop re-issues)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
