Mark Van Hoen

Mark Van Hoen
Photo of Mark Van Hoen by David Greenfield.
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

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] Mark Van Hoen has toured with Massive Attack and Orbital as well as opening for Slowdive He has also performed at many festivals worldwide, including Sónar in Barcelona. 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 began to release music under his own name and returned to the instrumental music of his early period which he continues today.

Biography

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. In 1991, Mark shared a flat with friends Kevin Hector and Tara Patterson, who introduced Mark to new music, and recorded an album with him as Autocreation called "Mettle" released on Inta-Modo. In 1993, R&S records signed Mark Van Hoen after hearing a demo tape and attending a live performance. In 1994 Mark shared a house with Darren Seymour (Seefeel) and Neil Halstead (Slowdive), and then the following year Mark moved his studio to the Fortress studio complex in East London. During this time he also shared a house with another musical collaborator, 4AD artist Vinny Miller. At the end of 1999, R&S records was sold to Sony and Mark Van Hoen was dropped from the label; at the same time, the Fortress studios were closed down. Mark now lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and children.

Influences

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; Malcolm X visited Smethwick in 1965,^[3] on hearing about the social unrest caused by the native population's reaction to the incoming 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. Classical Composers of Minimalism such as Steve Reich are also major influences on his style. 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

Seefeel & Scala

Mark Van Hoen met Mark Clifford in 1984, and soon discovered they were both big fans of Cocteau Twins, and started a band together. Clifford moved to London, and Van Hoen followed in 1988, and they continued making music together that was to become more reliant on sequenced and electronic techniques over the following years. One recording from these sessions, 'Blue Easy Sleep', was to appear on the first Seefeel EP 'More Like Space'. When it became evident that both Seefeel and Mark Van Hoen would soon be signed, Van Hoen left Seefeel, to be replaced by Darren Seymour, who further developed Seefeel's sound, along with Clifford and the other members of the band. Mark Van Hoen continued to work with Seefeel, mixing their live sound and collaborating on their early EPs. Seefeel went on hiatus from 1995, and Van Hoen formed a new band, Scala, with the members of Seefeel, minus Mark Clifford, who began to release solo records. Scala recorded three albums and several singles for Too Pure and Touch between 1996 and 1998. Seefeel reformed in 2009, to include Clifford and other founder member Sarah Peacock.

Mojave 3 and other productions

In 1997, Neil Halstead of Mojave 3 asked Mark Van Hoen to mix and co-produce their second album for 4AD 'Out Of Tune'. Van Hoen then went on to work on the next two Mojave 3 albums 'Excuses For Travellers' and 'Spoon and Rafter'. The latter features Van Hoen in a more collaborative role, having several credits on the record for instruments.

In 1998, Emma Anderson of Lush asked Mark to produce her new band Sing-Sing. Both albums 'The Joy Of Sing-Sing' and 'Sing-Sing and I' feature almost all instrumentation played and programmed by Van Hoen, in addition to Emma Anderson's guitars and Lisa O'Neil's vocals. Other notable Mark Van Hoen productions include 'Seven Principles Of Leave No Trace' by Edison Woods (featuring an appearance from Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, and two albums by Swiss performance artists Velma.

Discography As Locust

• 1993 Skysplit - R&S Records
• 1994 In Remembrance Of Times Past - Apollo Records
• 1994 Natural Composite - Apollo Records
• 1994 Needle 12" - Apollo Records
• 1994 Weathered Well - Apollo Records
• 1995 Truth Is Born Of Arguments - Apollo Records
• 1997 Morning Light - http://music.hyperreal.org/labels/apollo Apollo Records]
• 2001 Wrong - Touch Records

Discography As Mark Van Hoen

• 1997 The Last Flowers From The Darkness - Touch Records
• 1998 Playing With Time - Apollo Records
• 2004 The Warmth Inside You
• 2010 Where Is The Truth - City Centre Offices

Web sources

1. ^ BBC - Music - Review of Mark Van Hoen - The Warmth Inside You
2. ^ Mark Van Hoen: Where Is The Truth | Album reviews | Pitchfork
3. ^ IRR: Black British history: Remembering Malcolm's visit to Smethwick

External links

• Official Mark Van Hoen / Locust Site
• R&S Records
• Touch Records

Persondata
Name	Van Hoen, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1966
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death