Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis. He also co-founded the Industrial Records band Throbbing Gristle (TG). After the disbandment of Throbbing Gristle, he participated in the formation of

Psychic TV Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...

along with Genesis P-Orridge and Geoff Rushton—Rushton later changed his name to John Balance. After his short time in Psychic TV, Christopherson formed Coil with Balance, which lasted for just under 23 years, until Balance died of a fall in the

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

home he shared with Christopherson. Christopherson participated in the reunification of Throbbing Gristle and, after his relocation to

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

in 2005, composed an album for his solo endeavour The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. Christopherson died in his sleep on 25 November 2010.

Early life

Christopherson was born on 27 February 1955 in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, Yorkshire. His father, Derman Christopherson, was a professor of engineering who became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Following school, Christopherson studied computer programming, theatre design, and video at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, where he developed an interest in performance art and the work of avant-garde photographers such as

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

and Arthur Tress.

Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil

Christopherson was a founding member of Throbbing Gristle, who are credited with creating the industrial music genre before disbanding in 1981. Following the split, members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti formed Chris & Cosey, while Christopherson and the band's other member Genesis P-Orridge formed

with John Balance and other musicians. Balance met Christopherson as a Throbbing Gristle fan and the two became intimate partners. Christopherson worked on the first two Psychic TV albums, '' Force the Hand of Chance'' and ''

Dreams Less Sweet ''Dreams Less Sweet'' is the second studio album by English experimental music, experimental band Psychic TV, released in 1983. It was the last Psychic TV album to feature co-founder Peter Christopherson, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson. Recordi ...

'', joined by Balance on the latter. The two performed live several times with Psychic TV prior to forming their own project Coil. Coil consisted of Christopherson and Balance, while Steven E. Thrower occasionally played bass guitar and drums. Balance was the lyricist and also played Chapman Stick and some keyboards. Over two decades, Coil released myriad recordings, in addition to contributing to the work of other artists. They recorded parts of the album '' The New Backwards'' at Nothing Studios in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, owned by musician Trent Reznor at the time. In the liner notes of the 2008 CD release, Christopherson wrote: "Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible." Despite Christopherson's long and extensive history as a musical artist, he only released two tracks under the name "Peter Christopherson". The first, "In My Head A Crystal Sphere of Heavy Fluid", appeared on the compilation ''Foxtrot'', a benefit album for Balance's rehabilitation from alcohol dependence, while the second, "All Possible Numbers", appeared eleven years later on ''Autumn Blood (Constructions)'' released on Fourth Dimension Records. In 2005, following the death of Balance, Christopherson relocated from England to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

and founded the solo project The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. He also released the final Coil CDs—'' The Remote Viewer'', '' Black Antlers'', ''...And The Ambulance Died in His Arms'' and ''The New Backwards''—on the band's own Threshold House label. In addition to the CD releases, Christopherson also released a 16-DVD box set following his relocation, entitled ''Colour Sound Oblivion'', that was produced in a wooden box, in which a fifteen-page booklet, the program for Balance's funeral ceremony and a large collection of 6-inch × 4-inch postcards (mainly tour photographs) were also included. Throbbing Gristle also reformed for a few concerts in 2005 and announced a new album called '' Part Two''. The group announced several additional concerts in 2007 for the promotion of the album.

Other musical projects

In 2007 Christopherson released the debut album of The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. The album, '' Form Grows Rampant'', consists of five "parts" or songs, and includes a DVD of the album set to video footage of Thai rituals in Krabi, Thailand.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
One tour promoter who organized a Threshold HouseBoys Choir concert described it as "easily the most shocking thing I have ever experienced". In 2008 Christopherson and Ivan Pavlov (aka CoH) started a new project called Soisong. The band officially premiered in Tokyo on 9 March 2008 and later performed several shows in Europe, having self-released their debut EP. As part of the tour, Soisong performed a live soundtrack to Derek Jarman's film ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

'' in Rovereto, Italy. In April of the same year, Christopherson and Pavlov, alongside

David Tibet David Tibet (born David Michael Bunting; 5 March 1960) is an English poet, artist and musician. He is best known for the musical group Current 93, which he founded and is the only consistent member of, along with his contributions to the b ...

, Othon Mataragas and Ernesto Tomasini, also performed a live soundtrack for '' The Angelic Conversation'' in Turin, Italy. In 2009 Soisong recorded their first full-length album ''xAj3z'', the release of which was followed by a European ''Reunion Tour'' and a worldwide campaign in search of the band's missing virtual vocalists featured on the record. In 2010 Soisong declared a "Split Phase 2010", during which all of the members would concentrate on their personal work; however, two independently recorded solo EPs, both entitled ''Soisong'', were scheduled for release. Christopherson never finalized his work for the release, but ''Soisong Split'' was eventually published in September 2012, nearly two years after Christopherson's death. The release consists of a CoH ''Soisong'' EP by Pavlov, originally recorded in 2010, and a collection of four unpublished sketches by Christopherson that were made available on the band's website. In 2010 Christopherson started collaborating with Hirsute Pursuit, featuring Harley Phoenix and Bryin Dall, via email. They finished two songs together, "One Sleazy Night in Bangkok" and "One Sleazy Night in New Orleans", for the album ''Tighten That Muscle Ring''. The album was signed to Cold Spring Records, but Christopherson died prior to its release. Writing for the ''Quietus'' online publication, Luke Turner claimed that the album was "the most sexy and perverted album of 2012". Also in 2010, Christopherson was sent an

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

by musician Trent Reznor that contained music for a potential collaboration. Reznor had asked for his blessing to use the moniker " How to Destroy Angels" for a musical project that Reznor was creating with his wife (Christopherson had used the phrase in 1984, as the title of the first recording released by Coil). Christopherson responded amenably, suggesting that they could potentially collaborate as part of the project. Christopherson explained that Reznor was a "perfect gentleman" in regard to the way in which the matter was negotiated; however, Christopherson died before he was able to resend the iPad back to Reznor with his contribution. The final music that was ever recorded by Christopherson occurred in Bangkok, Thailand with a project named "Electric Sewer Age" that also involved musician Danny Hyde. The original intention of the recordings was to complete a series of releases called "Moons Milk", but an album called ''In Final Phase'' was eventually released in 2013, with only 999 numbered CD copies made available. The CD is packaged in record sleeve-style thickened cardboard, and each copy is numbered from 1 to 999, while the insert sleeve displays a picture of Christopherson in his Bangkok studio that was taken at the moment that the recording was completed.

Influence

Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Dave Simpson credited Christopherson with using digital samplers on-stage before the Fairlight CMI popularised sampling. Also writing for ''The Guardian'', Alexis Petridis described Carter and Christopherson as "pioneers in technology", and noted a sampler that Carter had custom-built for Christopherson a number of years before sampling became popular. Christopherson explained Carter's construction and musical experimentation in a 1987 interview with ''Keyboard'' magazine:

It was a box that G synthesistChris Carter made for me, to my design that basically switched on and off – through inputs on tape recorders – six cassette machines, the output of each going to a different key. Many of the machines I used in TG were cassette machines that were stripped down and altered to play backward and forward and four tracks at once, the speed variable by flywheels. The very first sampling device there ever was, as far as I know, was manufactured by Mountain Hardware for Apple computers. It was designed to reproduce voice samples, and had a very limited selection of pitches. I was using that onstage in '79 or '80, which was before the first Fairlight was used commercially. So I've always had a soft spot for sampling.

Visual art

Prior to his musical projects, Christopherson was a commercial artist, designer, and photographer. Notably, he was one of the three partners of the album cover design group Hipgnosis, which was responsible for many notable album covers of the 1970s, such as those of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

(''Wish You Were Here'') and

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

(first three albums). He also designed the logo of UK fashion label BOY London. As a freelance photographer, Christopherson shot the first promotional images of the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

in 1976. He later provided design work for SEX, the fashion boutique owned by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. Christopherson remained involved with commercial art up until his later life. He directed over 40 music videos—for artists such as

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

, The The,

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

, Sepultura and

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980. Since then, he has had a successful solo ca ...

—and was responsible for a high number of television commercials. He filmed and directed the ''Threshold HouseBoys Choir'' DVD that was filmed in Thailand, as well as the infamous '' Broken''. November 2014 saw the publication of a big retrospective book simply called "Peter Christopherson - Photography" by Edition Timeless, collecting a lot of unseen photos from all areas of his work in photography but focusing on his private work.

Death

Christopherson died in his sleep on 25 November 2010, aged 55. The cause of death was never made public. At the time of his death, Christopherson was working on a complete re-working of Nico's 1970 album '' Desertshore'', to be released as the Throbbing Gristle album '' The Desertshore Installation''.

Legacy

In addition to numerous other tributes, P-Orridge wrote a lengthy eulogy for Christopherson, in which they concluded:

Sleazy loved Bangkok and Thailand. He had been visiting regularly for several years before deciding to move there permanently after John/Jhonn/Geoff passed on. While we were spending time in 2009 with him we were pretty sick from the intense emotional stress of our ceremony in Nepal for the reliving and releasing of a beloved. Sleazy became a source of every suture for my heart, loving sustenance for my soul. He nurtured me with words of wise counsel garnered from his own similar and tragic losses. There had been a long sometimes desolate expanse between the seventies and now. But we had both crossed our abyss and we were blessed by Sleazy's loving nature to be able to accept his gentle embrace and, crying like a child we often are, be able to lovingly say to him, "I HAVE GOT MY FRIEND BACK." Many times, since then, we have stopped during hard times, confusing times, and we think of Sleazy and how his mastery of light went from cameras to hearts and souls, and that makes me smile and laugh. Which is as he would wish. We loved Sleazy in all he did...

Peter Gabriel published a brief post on his website on 26 November 2010 that opened with the statement: "We tip our hats to Mr Peter Christopherson". Speaking to the ''Quietus'' website in February 2014, Reznor stated: " oil's'Tainted Love' video remains one of the greatest music videos of all time ... If it's not immediately obvious: ''Horse Rotorvator'' was deeply influential on me. What they did to your senses. What they could do with sound. What Jhonn was doing lyrically ... Peter was a lovely guy. We had a respectful relationship."

Discography

Solo as Peter Christopherson

* "In My Head A Crystal Sphere of Heavy Fluid" on ''Foxtrot'' (1998) * "All Possible Numbers" on ''Autumn Blood (Constructions)'' (2009) * "Time Machines II" (Posthumously released in 2014) * "The Art Of Mirrors - Homage To Derek Jarman" (Posthumously released in 2015)

Solo as The Threshold HouseBoys Choir

* '' ...It Just Is'' compilation contains the track "Mahil Athal Nadrach". (CD) (2005) * '' X-Rated: The Dark Files'' compilation contains the track "So Young It Knows No Maturing". (CD) (2006) * '' Form Grows Rampant'' debut album. (CD+DVD) (2007) * '' Brainwaves 2008'' compilation contains "Cap Rot Taxi" (CD) (2008) * '' Amulet Edition'' limited release (200 pcs) 4 mini-cds in Amulet package (CD) (2008)

With SoiSong

* '' Soijin-No-Hi'' Octagonal CDEP / free download EP from www.soisong.com from March (2008) * '' xAj3z'' Octagonal CD housed in fold out custom sleeve with colour inlay (2009) * '' Soisong'' Octagonal COH CDEP / free download Sleazy EP from www.soisong.com (2010)

With Psychic TV

* '' Force the Hand of Chance'' * '' Just Drifting'' * ''

'' * '' Berlin Atonal Vol. 1'' * '' Berlin Atonal Vol. 2'' * '' N.Y. Scum'' * '' Mein-Goett-In-Gen''

Other contributions

Album artwork credits

"I eter Christophersonworked as a free-lance photographer and contributor, then promoted to an assistant to Hipgnosis before becoming a partner, and continued to act also after I officially left the organization. So my contributions range from attempted but rejected artwork or design work, to partial contribution in either/both as an assistant, to being fully responsible for all design and artwork, such as the
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...
LPs. What you wish to document is up to you."

* A Certain Ratio – '' To Each...'' * Dave Ball – '' In Strict Tempo'' * Leather Nun – '' Slow Death EP'' *

– '' A Nice Pair'' – "contributed photos as an assistant to Hipgnosis but did not do the design" – PC *

– ''

Animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...

'' (credited on LP and CD cover to Hipgnosis) *

– '' Wish You Were Here'' (credited on LP and CD cover to Hipgnosis) *

– '' Peter Gabriel, aka "Peter Gabriel I" or "Car" '' (credited on LP and CD cover to Hipgnosis) *

– '' Peter Gabriel, aka "Peter Gabriel II" or "Scratch" '' (credited on LP and CD cover to Hipgnosis) *

– '' Peter Gabriel, aka "Peter Gabriel III" or "Melt" '' (credited on LP and CD cover to Hipgnosis)