Joshua Robert Hampson (born 10 June 1965 in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England) is an English musician and composer, known primarily as a guitarist in the band

Loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

, which he co-founded in

in 1985 with his then-girlfriend Becky "Bex" Stewart. Loop recorded three albums, the last of which, ''

A Gilded Eternity ''A Gilded Eternity'' is the third studio album by the rock band Loop. Released in 1990 on Situation Two, it was a commercial success, topping the UK Indie Charts (as their previous album ''Fade Out Fade out, Fade-out or Fadeout may refer to: ...

'' (1990), made the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. Following the band's breakup, Hampson formed the experimental project

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

with Scott Dawson.

Music career

After Loop disbanded, Hampson formed the more experimental

with fellow Loop member Scott Dowson, releasing several albums and EPs on

Beggars Banquet Records Beggars Banquet Records is a British independent record label. Beggars Banquet started as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. History In 1977, spurred by the prevailing ...

. Although a strong signature in the early material of Main, the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

was slowly eroded from the stable sounds Hampson and Dowson produced, together with

field recording Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...

s and other electro-acoustic sounds. When Dowson left the line-up in 1996, Main became a solo project for Hampson, who then abandoned the guitar altogether, feeling he had taken the instrument to such extremes that there was no longer any scope to create with it. Between 1999 and 2003, he formed the electroacoustic duo Comae with Janek Schaefer touring in Europe, US, Japan, and released their self titled album on Rhiz Records. He deactivated Main as a project in 2006, in an attempt to free himself of the restraints of critical and fan-based reviews, that still mentioned the guitar as the focal point of the material, even though he had not used it in many years. He was quoted in interviews as saying the guitar was a chain around his neck, and he was unhappy to be still so strongly associated with it. Preferring to now explore other avenues of sound and its diffusion, especially multichannel systems for live performances, Hampson was invited by the

Groupe de Recherches Musicales A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...

(GRM) in Paris to compose and perform on many occasions. He has also been associated with like-minded organisations and institutes around the world, exploring intricacies in sound

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

. In 2010, Hampson announced that he would be reactivating Main, which along with his solo

acousmatic Acousmatic sound is sound that is heard without an originating cause being seen. The word ''acousmatic'', from the French ''acousmatique'', is derived from the Greek word ''akousmatikoi'' (ἀκουσματικοί), which referred to probationary p ...

work, he will start performing and recording as a more collaborative process with fellow sound artists. A planned Loop reunion (of the ''Gilded Eternity'' line-up) later followed, in a statement by Hampson in April 2013.

Discography

on Editions Mego * ''Five Mountains of Fire / Antarctica Ends Here'' - Cindytalk / Robert Hampson 10-inch vinyl only, limited to 500 copies. * ''Répercussions'' (eMEGO 132) CD + 5.1 DVD * ''Signaux'' (eMEGO 148.1) * ''Suspended Cadences'' (eMEGO 148.2) * ''Ablation'' (as

with Stephan Mathieu) (eMEGO 160) with

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the title Fall of Because but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and G. C. Gre ...

* '' Cold World'' (1991) * ''

Pure Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, F ...

'' (1992) on Touch * ''Vectors'' - Robert Hampson CD on Rhiz * ''Comae'' - s/t CD 2001 on Reactor (Loop re-issues) * ''Heaven's End Fade Out: A Gilded Eternity'' – studio albums, remastered two-disc sets with extra material and Peel Sessions * ''The World in Your Eyes'' – three-disc set, compilation of singles, EPs and rarities

References

External links

RobertHampson.com (semi-official Robert Hampson website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hampson, Robert English rock guitarists English male guitarists Living people Godflesh members 1965 births People from Bromley Musicians from London