B:1965 (UK)
Founding Member: LOOP and MAIN
After performing in various bands, Robert Hampson's musical career really started in the mid 1980's with the band LOOP. He had previously worked on more experimental musics with his 4 track tape machine, but wanted to try the dynamics of a more traditional guitar based music, loosely influenced by bands such as The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The MC5, but retaining an avant-garde and experimental edge from Can, Faust, Neu!, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca and minimalist systems music, to name but a few.
After the end of Loop in 1990, along with Scott Dowson (also of Loop) and with the guitar still as the central sound source, he returned to the more experimental styles of Electroacoustic and Acousmatic musics with the project MAIN.
Gradually, the themes Main created became less involved with the guitars, stretching further and further away from them, relying more on the field recordings and concrete sounds that had featured before, but were now pushed to the forefront.
With the departure of Dowson,
Hampson eventually abandoned the instrument altogether, feeling he had reached a point where he had explored all possibilities of it.
At this time, it was possibly correct to have also abandoned the Main project, because of it's strong associations with the guitar - that some, seemed unable to forget - but he carried on until early 2006, where he laid it to rest with the release of 'Surcease'.
His last Main piece - 'Parallax' (2005), and his first under his own name -'Umbra' (2006), were commissioned by the Group du Recherches Musicales (GRM) and had their debut performances on the Acousmonium in Paris.
Hampson is currently working on a second work with Steven Hess, a new commision for GRM - which will have it's debut in Jan.08 - and beginning to work on concepts with fellow composer François Donato for a collaboration in the near future.
HABITS...
FILM: Wes Anderson,Coen Bros.,Stanley Kubrick,Francis Ford Coppola,Jim Jarmusch,Andrei Tarkovsky,Sergio Leone,Hal Ashby,Terrence Malick,Sam Peckinpah,Akira Kurosawa,Robert Altman,David Lynch,Werner Herzog,Wim Wenders,Orson Welles,Bruce Robinson,Billy Wilder,Alexander Mackendrick,Martin Scorsese,Darren Aronofsky,Christopher Nolan
SOUND DESIGN/MUSIC: Alan Splet,David Lynch,Walter Murch,Masaru Sato,Eduard Artemiev,Bernard Herrmann,Ennio Morricone,Carter Burwell
IN THERE: Robert DeNiro,Al Pacino,Jason Robards,Warren Oates,Toshiro Mifune,Sean Penn,James Coburn,Steve Buscemi,John Turturro,Takashi Shimura
OUT THERE: Spike Milligan,Peter Cook,Bill Murray,Peter Sellers,Chris Morris
VISUAL: Gerhard Richter,Max Ernst,Man Ray,Francis Bacon,Barbara Hepworth,Bridget Riley, Jackson Pollock,Semiconductor,William Latham,Banksy
PAGE TURNING: Hunter S. Thompson,Thomas Pynchon,Harry Crews,Barry Gifford,Martin Amis,Philip K. Dick,Terry Southern,J.G.Ballard,David Mitchell,DBC Pierre,Tom Wolfe,John Kennedy Toole,Rick Moody,Haruki Murakami,Spalding Gray,Chuck Palahniuk
PLACES: The Moon,Antarctica,Zen Gardens,Mexico,Japan,Scotland,Italy,France and general remoteness
FUR: Cats and Dogs
CURRENT RELEASES:
FORTHCOMING RELEASES:
Robert Hampson HEARKEN Vinyl LP
Label: Onement
www.myspace.com/onement
Description: Literally ONE COPY ONLY Vinyl Long Playing format with deluxe molded screen printed perspex sleeve, featuring Two 20 min pieces - Hearken I and Hearken II - to be auctioned through the Onement label. Details on how to buy this will follow very soon.
You can view pictures of it in the Pics section
This is strictly the only release for these pieces, they will not be reissued.
Robert Hampson TBA Compact Disc
Label: Touch
Description: Comprising of 3 pieces , Umbra (2006) Ahead- Only The Stars (2007) and Dans le lointain (2008) More details to follow
