David Toop

Writer & Sound Artist

Musician, writer and music curator, born in 1949 near London. He lives in London.

Recent books include: Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (Serpent's Tail, 1995), Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (Serpent's Tail, Autumn/winter 1998) and a short story: Acid Burns - published in Intoxication: An Anthology of Stimulant Based Writing, (Serpent's Tail, 1998). Past work includes: The Rap Attack in 1984 (now in its second edition as Rap Attack 2). He has also written for many publications, including The Wire, GQ, The Face, Arena, The Times, Mojo, Vogue, Dazed and Confused, The Sunday Times, Billboard, Spin and the Cambridge Companion to Singing.

David recently composed the music for the Aqua Matrix outdoor show, closing each day at Lisbon Expo 98 from May until September. Recent solo albums include: Screen Ceremonies (Wire Editions, 1995), Pink Noir (Virgin Records, 1996) and Spirit World (Virgin Records, 1997). Recent compilation albums include: an accompanying double CD Ocean of Sound (Virgin Records), followed by Crooning On Venus, Sugar and Poison, Booming On Pluto and Guitars On Mars.

Past albums include: New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments, released on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975, and Buried Dreams (with sound sculptor Max Eastley), released on Beyond in 1994.

In 1978 he recorded Yanomami shamanistic ceremonies in Amazonas, southern Venezuela. Examples of these recordings have been released on Quartz, Touch and, in 1995, Sub Rosa. In 1994 he wrote database material on shamanism, trance, etc. for The Shamen's ongoing multimedia project.

David has also recorded collaborations with Paul SchŸtze, Jon Hassell, Evan Parker, Talvin Singh, Robert Hampson, Bedouin Ascent, Amelia Cuni, Max Eastley, Kaffe Matthews, Twisted Science, Scanner, Witchman, Prince Far I, John Zorn, Flying Lizards, and many improvising musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Toshinori Kondo and Hugh Davies. He has collaborated with artists in many other fields, including theatre music for Steven Berkoff, Japanese Butoh with dance innovator Mitsutaka Ishii, plus performance art, sound art, sound poetry and television soundtracks.