Jono Podmore

Kumo is a British musician and composer, the pseudonym of Jono Podmore who was born in 1965.

Biography

Kumo came into existence in 1994 when composer, producer, engineer and arranger Jono Podmore began work at Watershed Studios, London and with Plink Plonk records, founding two sister labels to Plink Plonk: Autoi and Psychomat. He began to play the theremin, developing new techniques for live performance of electronic music.

After a string of singles, remixes, live dates and international DJ commitments as Kumo, March 1997 saw the release of his first album ''Kaminari'' to significant critical acclaim.

1997 was also the year that Kumo moved temporarily to France to work with Irmin Schmidt (of Can) on his opera ''Gormenghast'', which premiered in 1998 and was re-staged in 2004. A selection from the opera recorded and mixed by Jono was released on Spoon/Mute records in 2000.

October 2000 saw the release of the second Kumo album ''1+1=1'' on Spoon Records.

In 2001, after extensive touring including the Sonar festival, the London Jazz Festival and the Can Solo Projects tour, the first Irmin Schmidt and Kumo album ''Masters of Confusion''was released worldwide. Later the same year they created the sound installation ''Flies, Guys and Choirs'' for the Barbican Centre as part of the ''Elektronik'' festival. The installation is now available as a sonic experience for public spaces. The duo continued to perform and give workshops together across Europe and work on film and TV music together including award-winning German TV series and dramas.

The 4-track EP ''Kumo and Friends'' was released on Electric Tones Records in early 2003 and a successful collaboration with B. J. Cole was released on the album ''Trouble in Paradise''.

In 2004 Jono was appointed Professor of the Practice of Popular Music at the prestigious Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance), Germany. He created and leads the MMus Production post-graduate course and in installed a professional recording studio.

After further live appearances together, work began on a second Irmin Schmidt and Kumo album and the duo also made remixes (including P.I.L); performed live, held workshops in Germany and Portugal; and produced the album ''dot i/o'' for Mito Ichikawa.

The second Irmin Schmidt and Kumo album, ''Axolotl Eyes'', was released in Spring 2008 on Spoon/Mute/Warners and was set for release in Japan on P-Vine Autumn 2008. The seven-track album comes with a bonus DVD containing the complete sound installation ''Flies, Guys and Choirs'' in 5.1, accompanied by a two-hour film co-directed by Jono. The DVD was screened at the Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Les Chants Mechaniques festival, Lille; and for the entire Short Circuit Festival, at The Roundhouse, London in May 2011.

In 2007 a four-track Kumo EP entitled ''Metapolis'' was released digitally on iTunes by White Label Records.

In late 2009, Kumo founded a new and ongoing analogue electronic music collective Metamono. With critically praised analogue only releases and live events under their belt, the first vinyl release, ''Tape EP'', was released on 23 January 2012. This was followed by a series of EPs, two albums ''With the Compliments of Nuclear Physics'' and ''Creative Listening''; and a collection of music for silent film ''Secrets of Nature''.

The ''Cyclopean EP'' with Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt and Burnt Friedman was recorded in 2012, mixed by Jono and released on Mute/Spoon records in 2013.

Live performances, DJ sets and workshops as Kumo continued with shows in Japan, Macedonia, Kosovo, Los Angeles and UK including the Ministry of Sound, Avant-Garde Festival Schiphorst, London Analogue Festival and The Royal Festival Hall (with Metamono and The Orb).

Psychomat Records
was restarted in 2017 with the release of ''Ms Slipper/Lewes'' 7” single wit
Swantje Lichtenstein

Jono contributed the track ''Freude'' to ''New Clockwork Music'', a compilation album fo
Electronic Sound
magazine, inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange.

Other work as Kumo in 2018/19 included the release and subsequent sell-out of 60-min piece ''Day/Night'' on renowned cassette labe
Tapeworm
live improvised performance Chamber Remix at Rhenania, Cologne, derived from data generated by the movements of the bowing arms of the Kelemen Quartett playing Bartók‘s 5th String Quartet; and, a live performance at the Crystal Palace Festival of a specially commissioned extended version of Joy Division‘s ''Transmission''.

The cassette ''Hallraum'' with Swantje Lichtenstein was released on Tapeworm in 2020 to critical acclaim:

“Cool …a weirdly composed feel and brim with events both dreamy and unexpected.” (The Wire Feb 2020)

During the covid lockdowns Jono’s regular livestream o
Crystal Palace Lockdown Live
attracted many thousands of views and a Kumo EP ''Euclidean Patterns'', released on Sound-Space records (Aug 2020), was created entirely under lockdown conditions.

The success of the EP lead to an album for Sound-Space: ''Slave Dances (Seven Portraits)'', the first Kumo album since 2000, released in August 2021. The album is accompanied by a 52-page zine with text by Jono, art b
Joyce Treasure
and design b
Dan Taylor
 

A 3-track Kumo EP ''Three Tigers'' was released in early 2022 to mark the Chinese Year of the Tiger to critical acclaim:

“With Three Tigers, Podmore has once again shown himself to be a masterful arranger of conceptual, deep-thinking electronic music.” (Mat Smith)

Later the same year 2 further digital releases ''Rubicon'' and ''Alea Iacta Est'' appeared on Bandcamp supported by live performances includin
Iklektic
and Cafe Oto, London.

Discography

* ''No Need'': Autoi ep 01 1996
* ''Armed Response'': Psychomat PSY 1 1997
* ''7 Buckets'': Psychomat PSY 2 1997
* ''Together'': Psychomat PSY 3 1997
* ''Kaminari'': Psychomat PSYLP1 1997
* ''Kumo - 1+1=1'': Spoon Records SPOON CD 46 2000
* ''Masters of Confusion'' (with Irmin Schmidt): Spoon Records SPOON CD 45 2001
* ''Kumo and Friends'': Electric Tones Records e-tones 009 2003
* ''Metapolis (EP)'': iTunes/White Label Records 2007
* ''Axolotl Eyes'' (with Irmin Schmidt): Spoon Records CDSPOON48 2008
* ''Off to Titan'' (with Philippe Petit): Karl Records CD/Download 2010
* ''Tape EP'' (with Metamono): HoHum Records HOMUM017 2011
* ''Cyclopean EP'': Mute/SPOON 56 2013
* ''Ms Slipper/Lewes'': Psychomat PSY004 2017
* ''Day/Night'': Tapeworm TTW#108 Limited edition cassette 2018
* ''Freude'' from ''New Clockwork Music'' LP compilation: Electronic Sound ESLP03 2018
* ''Hallraum'' with Swantje Lichtenstein: Tapeworm TTW#117 Limited edition cassette 2019
* ''Euclidean Patterns EP'': Sound Space 2020
* ''Slave Dances'' LP and Fanzine: Sound Space 2021
* ''Three Tigers'' EP 2022
* ''Rubicon'' EP 2022
* ''Alea Iacta Est'' EP 2022

References

External links

Psychomat Records – Music and Sound Art since 1997

Kumo
Facebook Page
Kumo BandcampFull Biography

Metapolis EP

Kumo music, videos, stats, and photosmetamono

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumo
1965 births
British experimental musicians
British electronic musicians
Theremin players
British composers
Living people