Philip Jeck (UK)

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Philip Jeck (born 1952) is an English composer and multimedia artist whose work is best known for utilising antique turntables and vinyl records, along with looping devices and both analogue and digital effects. Initially composing for installations and dance companies, since 1995 he has released music on the UK label Touch.He has collaborated with artists such as Gavin Bryars, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, David Sylvian, and Janek Schaefer.

Philip Jeck studied Visual Arts at Dartington College of Arts, Devon, England.He became interested in record players after visiting New York in 1979 and being introduced to the work of DJs such as Walter Gibbons and Larry Levan. He began exploring composition using record players and electronics in the early 1980s.In his early career, he composed and performed scores for dance and theatre companies, including a five-year collaboration with Laurie Booth.He has also composed scores for dance films Beyond Zero on Channel 4 and Pace on BBC 2.

Jeck is perhaps best known for his 1993 work Vinyl Requiem with Lol Sargent, a performance for 180 Dansette record players, 12 slide-projectors and 2 movie-projectors which won the Time Out Performance Award in 1993.He signed to Touch in 1995, and has released his best known works on the label, including Surf (1998), Stoke (2002), and 7 (2003).In 2004, he collaborated with Alter Ego on a 2005 rendition of composer Gavin Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic.His 2008 album Sand was named the 2nd best album of that year by The Wire. Much of his studio releases are pieced together from recordings of his own live performances and stitched together with a MiniDisc recorder.