Hello
It’s May, and I’m over in Ravenna Italy as I write this, on my annual visit to run my sound design workshop at Malagola. Three days of talking, sharing and recording and then a chance to admire the incredible Byzantine mosaics and the legacy of Dante. As ever, it’s a joy to inspire, encourage and support such younger creative minds too.
Let me begin by thanking you for all your support for my new album with the French industrial experimentalists Geins’t Naït and LØ, with our album, Behind the Door. I was in Paris in April and was happy to meet up with the ‘band’ to discuss world domination plans and more over lunch.
There are only a handful of copies left of the CD, so if you intend on picking one up, then please don’t delay. A few shops will have copies such as Normans in the UK for example, so it’s worth checking locally too.
Whilst in Paris, I was also fortunate to visit the extraordinary Interstellar Lab, who are developing intelligent biospheric systems to grow life autonomously on Earth and in Space. Apparently, next year one of their systems will be taken to the moon for tests.
This might explain the rather amusing photograph of me rather looking like Walter White aka Heisenberg of Breaking Bad down below, just in case you were curious.
A release just out, to which I contributed two exclusive tracks, is ‘gravity,’ a compilation of remixes of tracks taken from ‘the magnitude weighs heavy’, the 2025 album from Philadelphia-area producer alka.
Revealing new facets and pathways in the original tracks, the collection features mixes from alka collaborator Vince Clarke, Veryan, Stubbleman (Pascal Gabriel), Gareth Jones, Simon Fisher Turner and others.
I’m especially proud of my mixes here and hope you get a chance to listen to them. There was a limited CD of this, but it sold out on the morning of the release, but support the release if you can, on Bandcamp now.
Outside of public work, such as performances, interviews and talks, I’m always busy working on a host of projects, many of which take time to reach the surface to a wider public. One of these is a new film with Maya Watanabe, an artist who lives in Amsterdam. Born in Lima, Peru, her multi-channel video installations have been shown all around the world, and before we’d met I’d actually seen work of hers at De Pont gallery in Tilburg in the Netherlands.
Our new work is entitled ‘Jarkov’ and is an incredible physical experience. Clips are already appearing on social networks, and I can’t say anymore until the exhibition opens in Venice on 6 May at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto on the occasion of the art biennial 2026 in Venice, Italy.
The work can be seen as part of a group show, Canicula, which presents presents 8 new site-specific video installations commissioned from Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Janis Rafa, P. Staff, Wang Tuo and Yuyan Wang.
Suffice it to say that at the soundcheck this week in Venice the windows of this 16th century building were rattling with vibrations and a team of technicians were called into take care of the building!
The exhibition runs until 22 November 2026, and hope that some of you get the chance to experience the work in person!
EarSpace episode 35 hit the airwaves again in April. Slipping between the past, present and future of electronic music, this time I presented another colourful array of sounds.
There’s beautifully elegiac music from Flin van Hemmen and Anichy & Lyemn, dubbed out beats from Trois-Quarts Taxi-System and Alan & Jan, blasts from the past with Panasonic and Snd, and new sounds from Venetian Snares, Plaid, Aspetuck, Thomas Brinkmann, Ezekiel Honig, Suzanne Ciani and Actress. And many, many more!
With both music to dream to, and music to dance to, please tune in here.
Whilst searching through my generous archive recently I discovered these pieces of music from over 30 years ago, that have never been heard.
They were originally recorded for ‘Fruitopia,’ a fruit-flavoured drink introduced by the Coca-Cola Company’s Minute Maid brand in 1994 and targeted at teens and young adults. They told me they were looking for something ‘edgy’ and unusual. I met with the team in Covent Garden, London, excited to have such an opportunity so fresh in my career.
It was one of the strangest meetings ever, with their team sitting at one end of a ridiculously long table, and me, on my own, at the other end, probably about four metres away.
I sent the music in with the added voice they had provided me with and they never liked anything, nor did they pay me. What a fine introduction to the commercial world out there that was indeed!
So, in the interests of historical context, I thought this might be of interest to fans only. It’s a very modest little release a piece of history nonetheless. It’s for fans only, so sign up and treat yourself, there’s a wealth of exclusive and unheard music waiting for you there. Tune in here.
Whilst talking of archives, here’s unseen footage of me performing in 2002 at Paradiso in Amsterdam, to celebrate the release of “X-Rated: The Electronic Files,” a double album featuring original works from Lustmord, Biosphere, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Coil, Tangerine Dream, Holger Czukay, Atom Heart and many more.
I’ve recently been working towards a new Scannerfunk album, almost 30 years after the debut. Channelling my inner techno heart, I’ve been recording some beat-oriented dance music using only hardware equipment, no computer, just real hands-on dials and dirty electronics. Here’s a little clip of a piece that might likely appear on this too.
After Covid stopped a tour of GRIMM in 2020, it’s finally back in action in the next months in the Netherlands. This is a collaboration between ISH Dance Collective and the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet, that unites hip-hop with ballet in an incredibly original and dynamic way.
It’s a full-length evening performance, and there are 31 live performances taking place until the end of June, with tickets selling very quickly. I really hope that some of my Dutch supporters can get to see this magical show, and if not you can always pick up the full score here.
I also spent time this month updating my website, especially on the interview/press side of things. I’ve now added dozens of interviews and features, up until 1996 so far (it’s a slow process, believe me!), but it makes for most entertaining reading, and to be honest, some of the photos are laughably silly. Have a read here.
I’m off to Catania this weekend to run two workshops with young Italian artists, and perform live on Sunday 3 May, so if you happen to be around it would be amazing to see you there. I will be performing at Zo Centro Culture Contemporanee.
Once I get home, I’m unpacking and repacking to set off to Prague to perform the works of Brian Eno and Gavin Bryars on 15 May with a contemporary music ensemble. I hope we can record these and share them with you one day too. More on this show here
And just before my birthday, which I share with Lenny Kravitz and Helena Bonham Carter, I’m playing at the Seventh Wave Festival in Birmingham on 23 May, alongside Banco de Gaia and Marconi Union. I honestly can’t remember the last time I played a solo show in Birmingham, so don’t miss out on this special night.
As always, thanks for all your support
Warmest wishes
Professor Scanner
LISTEN
Erik Hall/Metropolis Ensemble: Canto Ostinato (Western Vinyl)
Alva Noto: XERROX (Noton)
Cabaret Voltaire: But What Time Is it Really? (Meme)
Foetus: Halt (Self Immolation)
READ
Five Friends (Schirmer Mosel)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (Camera)
Fanny Chiarello: Basta Now (Permanent Draft)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (Penguin)
WATCH
Ingrid Goes West: Mat Spicer
They Will Kill You: Kirill Sokolov
Wasteman: Cal McMau
Sound of Falling: Mascha Schlinski
