Robin Rimbaud
Encyclopedia
Robin Rimbaud is an electronic musician
who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead
with Wire
's Colin Newman
and Malka Spigel
and Max Franken
from Minimal Compact
.
and media critic, multi-media artist and record producer
. He borrowed his stage name from the device he used in his early recordings, picking up indeterminate radio
and mobile phone
signals in the airwaves and using them as an instrument in his compositions.
Growing up, Scanner was interested in avant garde literature, cinema and music. When he was a teenager his family was bereaved when his father was killed in a motorcycle accident. He attended Kingston University
in Surrey
, earning a degree in Modern Arts (BA). There, he formed a musical project The Rimbaud Brothers with fellow student Tony Rimbaud, releasing cassette editions in the early 1980s, later becoming Dau Al Set with the addition of Chris Staley.
He released Peyrere compilation cassette album in 1986, featuring the work of Nurse with Wound
, Derek Jarman
, Current 93
, Coil
and Test Dept
. That same year, he composed the soundtrack to a short film A Horse with No Name
, directed by Phil Viner, shown at the London Film Festival
.
In 1989, he was commissioned to contribute to the Cultural Icons publication (Bloomsbury) edited by James Park, writing many articles on contemporary art, literature, music and dance.
His debut Scanner
CD was released in 1992 on Ash International
, a subsidiary label of London's Touch Music
label. He continued to produce the first dozen releases with Mike Harding
of Touch, including Scanner², Mass Observation, Blind, and Runaway Train, a real-time recording of the captivating radio contact between Alfie, controller of the line and Wesley, the driver of a runaway train. Location: New Brunswick
, Canada
, recorded 9 March 1948.
In 1994, he pioneered one of the first webzines, in the very early days of the internet, I/O/D, in collaboration with Matthew Fuller and Graham Harwood. In 1998, he presented Surface Noise on a London bus, commissioned by Artangel
, and won the Imaginaria 99 Award for Digital Arts, ICA London the following year. He re-soundtracked Jean-Luc Godard
's Alphaville movie in a series of performances around the world, whilst playfully presenting 16 concerts in one evening using a series of Scanner look-alikes to perform in his absence. For 2003, he installed a permanent installation in Raymond Poincaré
hospital in Garches
, France
as part of the bereavement suite Channel of Flight. In 2004, Tate Modern
commissioned Sound Surface in collaboration with Stephen Vitiello
as their first sonic arts work. In the same year, he composed Europa 25, an alternative National Anthem for Europe that was freely distributed via 10,000 CDs and a website.
He has continued to collaborate with classical musicians – Michael Nyman
for Ars Electronica
in Linz, Austria, Musique Nouvelles in Belgium
for their 'Play Along' collaborative string quartet, and opera singer Patricia Rozario
for a new untitled work in 2007.
From 1994-2000, he set up and "curated" The Electronic Lounge music club at London’s ICA
, where these monthly sessions presented nights of music in a social environment. Nights included presentations with the record companies Warp Records
, Irdial, Ninja Tune
, Touch, Mego, Leaf Records and many others.
Since 2000 he has featured on BBC Radio 4
, as a commentator on issues relating to popular music on a number of occasions.
Working with choreographer Wayne McGregor
, he created Nemesis for Random Dance in 2002, Detritus for Ballet Rambert in 2003, and Qualia for the Royal Ballet in 2004. He continues to work with dance, with new works for Shobana Jeyasingh and Siobhan Davies
in 2007. In 2006 he created the sound for Merce Cunningham
’s E:vent at London’s Barbican
theatre.
In 2006, he created Night Haunts, a monthly online artwork, working with writer Sukhdev Sandhu and designers Mind Unit. He sound-designed Aitan Errusi’s new British horror film Reverb. In 2007 he soundtracked British filmmaker Steve McQueen's film installation Gravesend, at the 52nd Venice Biennial.
In 2008 he was President of Honour at the Qwartz Music Awards in Paris, and scored the musical comedy Kirikou & Karaba in Paris, which was later released on DVD (EMI). He premiered his six hour performance show, Of Air and Eye at the Royal Opera House London in late 2008, and sound-designed the new Philips Wake-Up Light with Philips Electronics in NL, a lamp to wake you up with natural light and sound.
In 2009 He showed Atlantida, an HD film installation at the Canary Islands Biennial, created in collaboration with filmmaker Olga Mink. In the summer of 2009 he composed the soundtrack to the opening ceremony of the World Swimming Championships in Rome, broadcast in 164 countries, and soundtracked the new Samburg Corby telephone campaign in Italy.
In 2005, he was a contributing curator ‘J’en rêve’ at Fondation Cartier Paris, and in 2006, jointly curated the video art exhibition ‘Mobile’ at Espace Landowski Paris.
His BBC radio
production of Jean Cocteau
’s The Human Voice
won the Prix Marulic Award and recently, he won First Prize Neptun Water Prize for his installation Wishing Well in Austria, in collaboration with Austrian artist Katarina Matiasek. In 1998, he became ‘Professor Scanner’ at John Moore’s University in Liverpool. In 2009 he became Visiting Professor at University College Falmouth UK, and Visiting Professor at Le Fresnoy National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing France.
He is a Contributing Editor of kultureflash.net, a London centric e-zine which goes out weekly via HTML email to 27,000+ subscribers.
He recently contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
. In 2010 Rimbaud working with The Post Modern Jazz Quartet on Blink of an Eye with a very subtle touch, embedding his sounds into those of the New York jazz ensemble seamlessly as critics observed.
Electronic musician
An electronic musician is a musician who composes or plays music from synthetic sounds generated with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines or music sequencers....
who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead
Githead
Githead is a musical collaboration that includes Wire's Colin Newman as well as electronic musician Robin Rimbaud alongside ex-Minimal Compact members Malka Spigel and Max Franken.- Biography :...
with Wire
Wire (band)
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...
's Colin Newman
Colin Newman
Colin Newman is an English musician, record producer and record label owner.-Biography:Newman is a member of the rock band Wire. When the band temporarily split in 1980, Newman pursued a solo career. His first solo LP, A-Z, was released in 1980 on the Beggar's Banquet label...
and Malka Spigel
Malka Spigel
Malka Spigel is a founding member of the Israeli rock band Minimal Compact. She has also worked as a solo artist, and as a visual artist, exhibiting in prominent venues such as The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Royal Festival Hall...
and Max Franken
Max Franken
Max Franken was the drummer for Minimal Compact, an Israeli rock band that achieved success outside the country. He is also a member of Githead along with Colin Newman, Robin Rimbaud and fellow Minimal Compact member Malka Spigel.-External links:*...
from Minimal Compact
Minimal Compact
Minimal Compact were an Israeli rock band associated with the post punk and indie rock movement of the 1980s.-Biography:Between its foundation in 1981 and its dissolution seven years later, Minimal Compact played a small role in the European rock scene...
.
Biography
Rimbaud is also a writerWriter
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and media critic, multi-media artist and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. He borrowed his stage name from the device he used in his early recordings, picking up indeterminate radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
signals in the airwaves and using them as an instrument in his compositions.
Growing up, Scanner was interested in avant garde literature, cinema and music. When he was a teenager his family was bereaved when his father was killed in a motorcycle accident. He attended Kingston University
Kingston University
Kingston University is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992....
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, earning a degree in Modern Arts (BA). There, he formed a musical project The Rimbaud Brothers with fellow student Tony Rimbaud, releasing cassette editions in the early 1980s, later becoming Dau Al Set with the addition of Chris Staley.
He released Peyrere compilation cassette album in 1986, featuring the work of Nurse with Wound
Nurse with Wound
Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak...
, Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
, Current 93
Current 93
Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...
, Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
and Test Dept
Test Dept
Test Dept were an industrial music group from London, one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by a strong commitment to radical socialist politics.-History:...
. That same year, he composed the soundtrack to a short film A Horse with No Name
A Horse with No Name
“A Horse with No Name” is a song written by Dewey Bunnell and originally recorded by the band America. It was the band's first and most successful single, released in early 1972, topping the charts in several countries...
, directed by Phil Viner, shown at the London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
.
In 1989, he was commissioned to contribute to the Cultural Icons publication (Bloomsbury) edited by James Park, writing many articles on contemporary art, literature, music and dance.
His debut Scanner
Scanner
Scanner may refer to:* WikiScanner, a tool that provides a searchable database of anonymous Wikipedia edits* A personality type described by self-help author Barbara Sher-Technology:* Scanner , for searching for and receiving radio broadcasts...
CD was released in 1992 on Ash International
Ash International
Ash International is a British record company and audio-visual organisation started in 1993 by Mike Harding and Robin Rimbaud. In 1995 Robin Rimbaud left to pursue his music group Scanner full time. Ash International is part of the Touch organisation, founded by Jon Wozencroft in 1981...
, a subsidiary label of London's Touch Music
Touch Music
Touch is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. It is the main arm of the London-based multimedia publishing company Touch, established in 1982...
label. He continued to produce the first dozen releases with Mike Harding
Mike Harding
Mike Harding is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet and broadcaster. He is known as 'The Rochdale Cowboy' after one of his hit records...
of Touch, including Scanner², Mass Observation, Blind, and Runaway Train, a real-time recording of the captivating radio contact between Alfie, controller of the line and Wesley, the driver of a runaway train. Location: New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, recorded 9 March 1948.
In 1994, he pioneered one of the first webzines, in the very early days of the internet, I/O/D, in collaboration with Matthew Fuller and Graham Harwood. In 1998, he presented Surface Noise on a London bus, commissioned by Artangel
Artangel
Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, radio and the web...
, and won the Imaginaria 99 Award for Digital Arts, ICA London the following year. He re-soundtracked Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's Alphaville movie in a series of performances around the world, whilst playfully presenting 16 concerts in one evening using a series of Scanner look-alikes to perform in his absence. For 2003, he installed a permanent installation in Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920. Poincaré was a conservative leader primarily committed to political and social stability...
hospital in Garches
Garches
Garches is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Garches has remained largely residential, but is also the location of the Hôpital Raymond Poincaré , which specialises in traumatology, road accidents and physiotherapy.-19 January Monument:The...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
as part of the bereavement suite Channel of Flight. In 2004, Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
commissioned Sound Surface in collaboration with Stephen Vitiello
Stephen Vitiello
Stephen Vitiello is a visual and sound artist. Originally a punk guitarist he is influenced by video artist Nam June Paik who he worked with after meeting in 1991...
as their first sonic arts work. In the same year, he composed Europa 25, an alternative National Anthem for Europe that was freely distributed via 10,000 CDs and a website.
He has continued to collaborate with classical musicians – Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
for Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
in Linz, Austria, Musique Nouvelles in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
for their 'Play Along' collaborative string quartet, and opera singer Patricia Rozario
Patricia Rozario
Patricia Rozario, OBE is a Mumbai-born British soprano.Born and educated in Bombay, India, she went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London....
for a new untitled work in 2007.
From 1994-2000, he set up and "curated" The Electronic Lounge music club at London’s ICA
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
, where these monthly sessions presented nights of music in a social environment. Nights included presentations with the record companies Warp Records
Warp Records
Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....
, Irdial, Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
, Touch, Mego, Leaf Records and many others.
Since 2000 he has featured on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, as a commentator on issues relating to popular music on a number of occasions.
Working with choreographer Wayne McGregor
Wayne McGregor
Wayne McGregor CBE is a British choreographer of contemporary modern dance. His work is highly distinctive in its vocabulary of movement, for its integration of dance with film and visual art, and for his active interest and incorporation of computer technology and biological science...
, he created Nemesis for Random Dance in 2002, Detritus for Ballet Rambert in 2003, and Qualia for the Royal Ballet in 2004. He continues to work with dance, with new works for Shobana Jeyasingh and Siobhan Davies
Siobhan Davies
Siobhan Davies CBE DLitt was a dancer with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre during the 1970s, then becoming one of its leading choreographers before founding her own company — the Siobhan Davies Dance Company — in 1988.First training in art, Davies was one of the first year's intake of...
in 2007. In 2006 he created the sound for Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
’s E:vent at London’s Barbican
Barbican
A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from...
theatre.
In 2006, he created Night Haunts, a monthly online artwork, working with writer Sukhdev Sandhu and designers Mind Unit. He sound-designed Aitan Errusi’s new British horror film Reverb. In 2007 he soundtracked British filmmaker Steve McQueen's film installation Gravesend, at the 52nd Venice Biennial.
In 2008 he was President of Honour at the Qwartz Music Awards in Paris, and scored the musical comedy Kirikou & Karaba in Paris, which was later released on DVD (EMI). He premiered his six hour performance show, Of Air and Eye at the Royal Opera House London in late 2008, and sound-designed the new Philips Wake-Up Light with Philips Electronics in NL, a lamp to wake you up with natural light and sound.
In 2009 He showed Atlantida, an HD film installation at the Canary Islands Biennial, created in collaboration with filmmaker Olga Mink. In the summer of 2009 he composed the soundtrack to the opening ceremony of the World Swimming Championships in Rome, broadcast in 164 countries, and soundtracked the new Samburg Corby telephone campaign in Italy.
In 2005, he was a contributing curator ‘J’en rêve’ at Fondation Cartier Paris, and in 2006, jointly curated the video art exhibition ‘Mobile’ at Espace Landowski Paris.
His BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
production of Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
’s The Human Voice
The Human Voice
The Human Voice a 1930 play, first staged at the Comédie Française in 1930, written by Jean Cocteau, is a monologue taking place in Paris, where a middle-aged woman is on a phone call with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair...
won the Prix Marulic Award and recently, he won First Prize Neptun Water Prize for his installation Wishing Well in Austria, in collaboration with Austrian artist Katarina Matiasek. In 1998, he became ‘Professor Scanner’ at John Moore’s University in Liverpool. In 2009 he became Visiting Professor at University College Falmouth UK, and Visiting Professor at Le Fresnoy National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing France.
He is a Contributing Editor of kultureflash.net, a London centric e-zine which goes out weekly via HTML email to 27,000+ subscribers.
He recently contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
. In 2010 Rimbaud working with The Post Modern Jazz Quartet on Blink of an Eye with a very subtle touch, embedding his sounds into those of the New York jazz ensemble seamlessly as critics observed.
Albums (as Robin Rimbaud)
- Sub Rosa Live Sessions (Sub Rosa, 1996)
- The Garden Is Full Of Metal (Homage To Derek Jarman) (Sub Rosa, 1997)