Bruce Gilbert
Encyclopedia
Bruce Gilbert is an English
musician
. One of the founding members of the influential and experimental art-punk
band
Wire
, Gilbert branched out into electronic music, performance art, music production, and DJing during the band's extended periods of inactivity. Gilbert left Wire in 2004 and has since been focusing on solo work and collaborations with visual artists and fellow experimental musicians.
at De Montfort University
until 1971 when he became an abstract painter, taking on part-time jobs to help support himself. In 1975 he was hired as an audio-visual aids technician and slide-photography librarian at Watford College of Art and Design. Borrowing oscillators from the Science department, Gilbert started experimenting with tape loops and delays at the recording studio set up by his predecessor. Together with Colin Newman
and Angela Conway
, who were students at Watford at the time, Gilbert formed a short-lived group called Overload. In the summer of 1976, Newman and Gilbert were joined by Graham Lewis
and Robert Gotobed and started practicing and performing as Wire
.
Gilbert, who always considered Wire a living sculpture rather than a musical project, fondly recalls early punk gigs as events where the audience, far from being mere consumers, became part of a shared dynamic experience: "I viewed it as a bit of a laboratory, not musically but culturally, because the people were experimenting with themselves: with their behaviour, their appearance and their clothes. Everything was up for grabs."
Wire released three album
s between 1976-79 with Pink Flag
, Chairs Missing
and 154
before temporarily disbanding after a show at London's Electric Ballroom at the start of 1980. At this time, Gilbert formed a series of bands/projects with Wire's bassist
, Graham Lewis, including Cupol, Dome
, P'o, and Duet Emmo. Gilbert's collaborations with Lewis were experimental, featuring ambient music
and found sounds. Dome performed at art galleries with visual displays that allowed audience interactivity. Gilbert and Lewis performed with tubes made of paper over their heads, thus restricting their vision. Artist Russell Mills
frequently collaborated with Dome. In 1980 Gilbert and Lewis produced The The
's debut single "Black & White/Controversial Subject" for 4AD
as well as the single "Drop/So" by AC Marias
for their own Dome label. Between August 8 and August 31, 1981, Gilbert, Lewis, and Mills took over London’s Waterloo Gallery and produced MZUI, an interactive audio-visual installation where visitors were encouraged to play a number of instruments created by the artists from objects found on the site. The MZUI album, released by Cherry Red
in May 1982, contains two untitled pieces based on recordings from the venue, finishing with the looped and distorted voice of Marcel Duchamp
, whom Gilbert considers a key influence. Gilbert's experimental piece "Children", released in 1983 by Touch
, features his parents talking about significant events from their childhood.
, Aletta Collins, and Ashley Page, with excerpts appearing on his albums This Way (1984), The Shivering Man (1987) (both combined on CD
as This Way to the Shivering Man), Insiding (1991) and Music for Fruit (1991).
Wire re-entered the public arena on June 7, 1985 with a performance at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
, and Gilbert contributed sounds, lyrics, and occasional vocals to the various albums, EPs, and singles released by the band between November 1986 and February 1993.
In 1989, Gilbert co-produced the AC Marias album One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing), sharing author credits with Angela Conway for 10 original songs (the album also contains a cover version of Canned Heat
’s "Time Was", first released in 1988 as a single featuring Conway, Gilbert, Barry Adamson
and Rowland S. Howard
).
Since the 1990s, Gilbert has appeared at London techno clubs under the name DJ Beekeeper, often deejaying inside a garden shed above the dancefloor. Gilbert has been quoted saying that being a DJ was just an excuse to "manipulate other people's music" - such projects include remixing "National Grid Pt 1 and 2" by the group Disinformation for their double CD Antiphony released on Ash International
in 1997.
In March 1996, he released Ab Ovo, his first solo album not to result from external dance or film commissions. It was described in The Wire
as "a forceful piece of work which sounds like nothing else around."
Wire reconvened in London for a one-off performance of "Drill" to celebrate Gilbert’s 50th birthday in May 1996, with the band getting back together in earnest after curating and performing at an event at the Royal Festival Hall
on February 26, 2000. In 2002, Gilbert contributed the soundtrack to "London Orbital", a film by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair
based on Sinclair’s psychogeographical exploration of the M25 motorway
. As part of the project, Gilbert and Wire performed live at the premiere of the film and Sinclair’s book at the Barbican
on October 25, 2002. Gilbert left Wire in 2004, after the release of the Send
album, pursuing solo projects and collaborations with visual and sound artists ever since.
Gilbert’s 2004 album Ordier is a collection of excerpts from a 1996 live performance. In 2009, Gilbert released Oblivio Agitatum, which he recorded entirely at home. In a review for Brainwashed
, music journalist Creaig Dunton concludes that "even with his long silence, Bruce Gilbert is still an expert at shaping mini dramas and landscapes out of the raw clay of electronic music."
Gilbert’s latest recording, "Monad", was published by Touch as a vinyl-only 7-inch single on August 8, 2011.
In October 2011, Gilbert’s short story "Sliding Off the World", first released as a spoken-word piece set to atmospheric noise on the CD Touch 25 in June 2006, was published in the anthology Murmurations by Nicholas Royle
(Two Ravens Press, ISBN 978-1-906120-59-7).
Compilations & reissues:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. One of the founding members of the influential and experimental art-punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
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...
, Gilbert branched out into electronic music, performance art, music production, and DJing during the band's extended periods of inactivity. Gilbert left Wire in 2004 and has since been focusing on solo work and collaborations with visual artists and fellow experimental musicians.
Education and early career
Gilbert studied graphic designGraphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
at De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
until 1971 when he became an abstract painter, taking on part-time jobs to help support himself. In 1975 he was hired as an audio-visual aids technician and slide-photography librarian at Watford College of Art and Design. Borrowing oscillators from the Science department, Gilbert started experimenting with tape loops and delays at the recording studio set up by his predecessor. Together with 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 Angela Conway
AC Marias
AC Marias was the name under which Wire collaborator Angela Conway released a number of records during the 1980s and early 1990s. She was assisted by Wire's Bruce Gilbert on many releases, and on the single "Time Was" and album One Of Our Girls was also assisted by other Mute Records musicians...
, who were students at Watford at the time, Gilbert formed a short-lived group called Overload. In the summer of 1976, Newman and Gilbert were joined by Graham Lewis
Graham Lewis
Graham Lewis is an English musician.Lewis is the bassist with punk rock/post-punk band Wire, a band formed in 1976...
and Robert Gotobed and started practicing and performing as 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...
.
Gilbert, who always considered Wire a living sculpture rather than a musical project, fondly recalls early punk gigs as events where the audience, far from being mere consumers, became part of a shared dynamic experience: "I viewed it as a bit of a laboratory, not musically but culturally, because the people were experimenting with themselves: with their behaviour, their appearance and their clothes. Everything was up for grabs."
Wire released three album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s between 1976-79 with Pink Flag
Pink Flag
Pink Flag is the first album by the band Wire, released in 1977. Upon its release, Robert Christgau called it a "punk suite" and praised its "simultaneous rawness and detachment" and detected a rock-and-roll irony similar to but "much grimmer and more frightening" than the Ramones...
, Chairs Missing
Chairs Missing
Chairs Missing is the second album by the British rock band Wire. It was released in 1978.Although it shares a punk-derived "outsider" voice with the band's debut, Pink Flag, it features more developed song structure and a broader palette of emotional and intellectual subject matter...
and 154
154 (album)
154 is the third album from the band Wire, released in 1979 on EMI imprint Harvest Records in the UK and Europe and Warner Bros. Records in America. It was first issued on CD in 1987 by EMI Japan and later reissued by Restless Records in 1989...
before temporarily disbanding after a show at London's Electric Ballroom at the start of 1980. At this time, Gilbert formed a series of bands/projects with Wire's bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
, Graham Lewis, including Cupol, Dome
Dome (band)
Dome was a musical group consisting of Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis .-Background:...
, P'o, and Duet Emmo. Gilbert's collaborations with Lewis were experimental, featuring ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
and found sounds. Dome performed at art galleries with visual displays that allowed audience interactivity. Gilbert and Lewis performed with tubes made of paper over their heads, thus restricting their vision. Artist Russell Mills
Russell Mills (artist)
Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
frequently collaborated with Dome. In 1980 Gilbert and Lewis produced The The
The The
The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member.-Early years :...
's debut single "Black & White/Controversial Subject" for 4AD
4AD
4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
as well as the single "Drop/So" by AC Marias
AC Marias
AC Marias was the name under which Wire collaborator Angela Conway released a number of records during the 1980s and early 1990s. She was assisted by Wire's Bruce Gilbert on many releases, and on the single "Time Was" and album One Of Our Girls was also assisted by other Mute Records musicians...
for their own Dome label. Between August 8 and August 31, 1981, Gilbert, Lewis, and Mills took over London’s Waterloo Gallery and produced MZUI, an interactive audio-visual installation where visitors were encouraged to play a number of instruments created by the artists from objects found on the site. The MZUI album, released by Cherry Red
Cherry Red
Cherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...
in May 1982, contains two untitled pieces based on recordings from the venue, finishing with the looped and distorted voice of Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
, whom Gilbert considers a key influence. Gilbert's experimental piece "Children", released in 1983 by Touch
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...
, features his parents talking about significant events from their childhood.
Later career
Between 1984 and 1991, Gilbert was commissioned to create music for a variety of film and modern dance projects, by, among others, Michael ClarkMichael Clark (dancer)
Michael Clark is a Scottish dancer and choreographer.-Early life:Michael Clark was born in Aberdeen and began traditional Scottish dancing at the age of four. In 1975 he left home to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, and on his final day at the school he was presented with the Ursula...
, Aletta Collins, and Ashley Page, with excerpts appearing on his albums This Way (1984), The Shivering Man (1987) (both combined on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
as This Way to the Shivering Man), Insiding (1991) and Music for Fruit (1991).
Wire re-entered the public arena on June 7, 1985 with a performance at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
Modern Art Oxford
Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford.-Foundation:...
, and Gilbert contributed sounds, lyrics, and occasional vocals to the various albums, EPs, and singles released by the band between November 1986 and February 1993.
In 1989, Gilbert co-produced the AC Marias album One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing), sharing author credits with Angela Conway for 10 original songs (the album also contains a cover version of Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
’s "Time Was", first released in 1988 as a single featuring Conway, Gilbert, Barry Adamson
Barry Adamson
Barry Adamson is a British rock musician who has worked with rock bands such as Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the electronic musicians Pan sonic and Depeche Mode. Adamson created the seven-minute opus "Useless " remix for the latter band in 1997...
and Rowland S. Howard
Rowland S. Howard
Rowland Stuart Howard was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, he played electric guitar in the post-punk group The Birthday Party. Howard died of liver cancer in December 2009, aged 50 years....
).
Since the 1990s, Gilbert has appeared at London techno clubs under the name DJ Beekeeper, often deejaying inside a garden shed above the dancefloor. Gilbert has been quoted saying that being a DJ was just an excuse to "manipulate other people's music" - such projects include remixing "National Grid Pt 1 and 2" by the group Disinformation for their double CD Antiphony released 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...
in 1997.
In March 1996, he released Ab Ovo, his first solo album not to result from external dance or film commissions. It was described in The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
as "a forceful piece of work which sounds like nothing else around."
Wire reconvened in London for a one-off performance of "Drill" to celebrate Gilbert’s 50th birthday in May 1996, with the band getting back together in earnest after curating and performing at an event at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
on February 26, 2000. In 2002, Gilbert contributed the soundtrack to "London Orbital", a film by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
based on Sinclair’s psychogeographical exploration of the M25 motorway
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
. As part of the project, Gilbert and Wire performed live at the premiere of the film and Sinclair’s book at the Barbican
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
on October 25, 2002. Gilbert left Wire in 2004, after the release of the Send
Send (album)
Send is the tenth album by the English rock group Wire. It was their first recording as a 4 piece since 1990's Manscape and the first full length release by any incarnation of the group since 1991.-Track listing:# "In the Art of Stopping"# "Mr...
album, pursuing solo projects and collaborations with visual and sound artists ever since.
Gilbert’s 2004 album Ordier is a collection of excerpts from a 1996 live performance. In 2009, Gilbert released Oblivio Agitatum, which he recorded entirely at home. In a review for Brainwashed
Brainwashed (website)
Brainwashed is a not-for-profit online music publication offering news and reviews of eclectic music. Over fifty people contribute to the archives of Brainwashed. Brainwashed hosts websites for many bands, artists and record labels...
, music journalist Creaig Dunton concludes that "even with his long silence, Bruce Gilbert is still an expert at shaping mini dramas and landscapes out of the raw clay of electronic music."
Gilbert’s latest recording, "Monad", was published by Touch as a vinyl-only 7-inch single on August 8, 2011.
In October 2011, Gilbert’s short story "Sliding Off the World", first released as a spoken-word piece set to atmospheric noise on the CD Touch 25 in June 2006, was published in the anthology Murmurations by Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle is an English novelist.Born in Manchester, Royle has written five novels - Counterparts, Saxophone Dreams, The Matter of the Heart, The Director’s Cut and Antwerp. He also claims to have written more than 100 short stories, which have appeared in a variety of anthologies and...
(Two Ravens Press, ISBN 978-1-906120-59-7).
with Dome
- Dome 1 (1980), Dome Records
- Dome 2 (1981), Dome Records
- Dome 3 (1981), Dome Records
- Will You Speak This Word (1982), Unition
- Yclept (1999), WMO
Gilbert, Lewis & Mills
- Mzui (Waterloo Gallery) (1982), Cherry RedCherry RedCherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...
- Pacific/Specific (1995), WMO
with Duet Emmo
- "Or So It Seems", single (1982), MuteMute RecordsMute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...
- Or So It Seems, album (1983), Mute
with AC Marias
- "Drop/So", single (1980), Dome Records
- "Just Talk/No Talk", 12" single (1986), Mute
- "Time Was/Some Thing", 12" single (1989), Mute
- One of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing), album (1989), Mute
- "One of Our Girls/Vicious", 12" single (1990), Mute
Albums
- To Speak (1983), Dome
- This Way (1984), Mute
- The Shivering Man (1987), Mute
- Insiding (1991), Mute
- Music for Fruit (1991), Mute
- Ab Ovo (1996), Mute
- In Esse (1997), Mute
- The Haring (1997), WMO
- Ordier (2004), Table Of The Elements
- Oblivio Agitatum (2009), Editions MegoEditions MegoEditions Mego is a non-funded independent record label, founded 1 January 2006 by Peter RehbergIts aims are to maintain the back catalogue and legacy of the Mego label, as well as releasing new works.- Releases :...
Compilations & reissues:
- This Way to the Shivering Man (1987), Mute
- This Way (25th Anniversary Reissue) (2009), Editions MegoEditions MegoEditions Mego is a non-funded independent record label, founded 1 January 2006 by Peter RehbergIts aims are to maintain the back catalogue and legacy of the Mego label, as well as releasing new works.- Releases :...
- The Shivering Man (Enhanced) (2011), Editions Mego
Singles
- "Instant Shed Vol. 1" (1995), Sub Pop
- "Instant Shed Vol. 2" (1996), Ash International
- "Monad" (2011), Touch