Joshua Robert Hampson (born 10 June 1965) is an English

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, known primarily as a guitarist in the band Loop, which he co-founded in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1985 with his then-girlfriend Becky "Bex" Stewart. Loop recorded three albums, the last of which, '' A Gilded Eternity'' (1990), made the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. Following the band's breakup, Hampson formed the experimental project Main with Scott Dawson.

Music career

After Loop disbanded, Hampson formed the more experimental Main 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 D ...

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

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

was slowly eroded from the stable sounds Hampson and Dowson produced, together with field recordings 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 Janek Schaefer (born 1970) is a British avant-garde artist, musician, composer, inventor, and entertainer, known for performing and exhibiting his work around the world with sound art, sound and installation art. Schaefer has released 40 albums, r ...

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 ...

. In 2010, Hampson announced that he would be reactivating Main, which along with his solo acousmatic 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. Starting in 1996, Robert Hampson also seldomly released tracks and remixes ( Bowery Electric, Veronica Vasicka, Eros) under the Chasm moniker.

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 Main with Stephan Mathieu) (eMEGO 160) with

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the original title O.P.D. (later Fall of Because) but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals, programmi ...

* '' Cold World'' (1991) * '' Pure'' (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 Musicians from the London Borough of Bromley People from Bromley