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Toshio Iwai was born in Aichi prefecture, Japan, in 1962.
As an interactive media artist, Iwai began making experimental animations in 1981, moved on to working with pre-cinematic toys such as flipbooks and zoetropes, and since 1986 has been interested in the computer game as a visual music system.
After becoming the youngest winner of the Contemporary Japanese Art Grand Prix in 1985, he has exhibited many interactive works at exhibitions worldwide and is now considered as a leading media artist. In 1987 he graduated from the Plastic Art and Mixed Media master's course of the Tsukuba University, Japan and in 1992 he finished the Artist-in-Residence Program at the Exploratorium, San Francisco.
He has designed computer generated virtual sets and characters for the immensely popular daily interactive children's show for Fuji TV, UgoUgo Lhuga (1992-94).
He has had one-person exhibitions mounted in Tokyo, Osaka, New York, Antwerp, Karlsruhe, Espoo and Amsterdam, and taken part in group exhibitions in Canada, Australia, France and etc.
His performance with Ryuichi Sakamoto "Music Plays Images X Images Play Music" won Prix Ars Electronica, Interactive art categoly Grand Prix in 1997.
"Composition on the Table" won Gold Medal of Interactive Media Design Review, I.D. Magazine, New York in 2000. His collaborative installations with Hayao Miyazaki, the animation film director are now the permanent exhibit at Ghibli Museum in Mitaka,Tokyo.
He has created Electroplankton for Nintendo DS in 2005. |
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Born in 1969, composer/improviser/producer
Jim O'Rourke has recorded solo and as a member of the groups Gastr Del Sol, The Red Krayola, and Sonic Youth. He has produced albums for Wilco, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Qururi and others.
He has also scored films for directors Werner Herzog, Koji Wakamatsu and others. |
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For almost 20 years, Atom has produced no less than 70 albums under various pseudonyms, including Senor Coconut, Flanger, Hat (with Tetsu Inoue and Haruomi Hosono) and perhaps his best known alter-ego, Atom Heart.
After his entry into the techno/dance/ambient/trance scenes in the 90s, he formed his own label - Rather Interesting - on which he released a plethora of albums as well as signing many young and talented artists.
In 2000 he moved to Santiago De Chile where he created Senor Coconut, a new electronic excursion that blended Kraftwerk and Yellow Magical Orchestar-esque electronica with Caribbean flavours.
MySpace.com - Atom™
http://www.myspace.com/atomtm |
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Pole took his name from a Waldorf 4-Pole filter which he accidentally dropped and broke in 1996.
Though the filter was perhaps no longer appropriate for DJ work in its damaged state, Betke found the strange hissing and popping noises the filter now made interesting, and began using the broken filter to create music, launching his musical career.
Betke's first four albums, titled "1", "2", "3", and "R" (an intentional trilogy of albums, followed by a collection of remixes of Pole's 1998 debut EP Raum), were all based around this filter, with songs usually taking the form of dub basslines and rhythms with percussion provided by the eponymous filter.
In 2003 Betke departed from this style for the album Pole (a combination of tracks from two EPs, "45/45" and "90/90"), which utilized more traditionally electronic but still eclectic production.
Pole has been distributed on several different labels, including Matador Records and Mute Records, and in 1999 Betke cofounded (with Barbara Preisinger) the label ~scape, also known for publishing Jan Jelinek.
MySpace.com - Pole
http://www.myspace.com/poleartist |
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To Rococo Rot is a mostly post-rock trio from Berlin, Germany. Composed of bassist Stefan Schneider (also of Dusseldorf group Kreidler) and brothers Robert (guitar, electronics) and Ronald Lippok (drums, effects).
Ronald Lippok has also gained praise for his work in Tarwater.
The bands name is a palindrome as it can be spelled the same both forwards and backwards. The group's debut arrived in 1996 in the form of an untitled picture disc (subsequently reissued on CD by Kitty Yo), with the more widely distributed Veiculo (released by UK indie label City Slang) appearing the following year.
In 2004 they moved to Domino Records, the band released The Amateur View in 1999 and Music Is a Hungry Ghost in 2001, Hotel Morgen in 2004 and ABC123 in 2007.
MySpace.com - To Rococo Rot
http://www.myspace.com/torococorot |
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Robert Lippok was born 1966 in Berlin.
Since his youth, he was active in different formations as a musician, visual artist and set designer. The group called To Rococo Rot was founded in the 1990s together with Ronald Lippok, the brother of Robert Lippok, and Stefan Schneider from Dusseldorf.
Since 1996 the group's releases have appeared on various labels, among others on Kitty-Yo, City Slang and Staubgold. In addition, To Rococo Rot created sound recordings for visual artists, such as Olaf Nicolai, Doug Aitken and Takehito Koganezawa.
Lippok stages solo, music performances (open close open (Raster Noton, 2001); Falling into Komeit (Monika Enterprises, 2004)).
MySpace.com - Robert Lippok
http://www.myspace.com/robertlippok |
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Since 1997, San Francisco-based Sutekh has released consistently inconsistent electronic music on labels such as Soul Jazz (UK), Leaf (UK), Force Inc./Mille Plateaux (Germany), Orthlorng Musork (USA), and his own Context. Manipulating and abusing computers, samplers, synthesizers, various acoustic instruments, and found sounds, he has created everything from deep, minimal house and techno to dense, dissonant noise collage. His live performances have taken place at festivals, museums, and night clubs in more than 20 countries on four continents.
Sutekh established Context Free Media and its associated record label in 1999.
MySpace.com - Sutekh
http://www.myspace.com/sutekh2 |
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Safety Scissors is Matthew Patterson Curry, a minimal techno artist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for a short while in order to attend San Francisco Art Institute. Curry then decided to focus more on music and eventually joined "Belief Systems/Context Records" where he began working with Kit Clayton, Sutekh, and Twerk. Curry also performs with Seth Horvitz (aka Sutekh) under the name Moron. In 2000, he moved to Berlin.
Curry has released three full length albums, Parts Water in 2001, Tainted Lunch (released on Stefan Behnke's ~scape label) in 2005, and Pigeon Funk Presents!!! with Sutekh.
He also collaborated with Kit Clayton on an EP entitled Ping Pong, which sped through three dozen tracks in under 20 minutes. Ping Pong was part of Carpark Records' sports-FAN series, so named because each release was pressed on a Fan CD.
MySpace.com - Safety Scissors
http://www.myspace.com/safetyscissorsmusic |
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Mouse on Mars is a duo from Germany (Jan St. Werner, from Koln, and Andi Toma, from Dusseldorf) who have been making electronic music since 1993.
Their music is a unique vision and a unique way of expressing this vision, resulting in an unmistakeable sound which functions on a universal level and makes people move their minds and their bodies.
In a musical genre not noted for longevity.
Mouse on Mars
http://www.mouseonmars.com/ |
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The Books are a band founded by and consisting of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong in New York City in 2000.
Their music is a mix of aleatoric, electronica, folk, and acoustic music (de Jong is a cellist and Zammuto plays acoustic guitar and electric bass), incorporating samples of sounds, speech and music.
They have released three albums, all on the German (Cologne) label Tomlab. Their 2006 live shows consisted primarily of live acoustic performance (cello, guitar and vocals), played with prerecorded electronics and synchronized video.
The Books
http://www.thebooksmusic.com/ |
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I am Robot and Proud is the name Toronto native Shaw-Han Liem works under to create his singular brand of hypnotic, beguiling electronic pop music.
After spending a decade progressing through the Royal Conservatory classical piano program, Shaw-Han combined his love for music and computers under the name I am Robot and Proud in 2000 while completing a degree in Computer Science.
Most recently his music was chosen as the soundtrack to a short film produced by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC, and he was commissioned for a collaborative audio/video performance at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Shaw-Han has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan sharing the stage with fellow electronic musicians Manitoba (now Caribou), Mum.
MySpace.com - I am Robot and Proud
http://www.myspace.com/iamrobotandproud |
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Nathan Michel is an American experimental electronic musician. He primarily composes and performs his music on a laptop.
He has released albums on labels such as Tigerbeat6, SKI-PP and Sonig and has collaborated with well known laptop group DAT politics.
Nathan has received numerous awards for his work including a Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He received his PhD in music composition from Princeton University in 2007.
MySpace.com - Nathan Michel
http://www.myspace.com/nathanmichel |
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