David Toop
David Toop is a recognized journalist and writer, who since the 70's also has been a key player in the British improv– and avantgarde scene. Whether as a composer, musician, curator or journalist, he is characterized for his exploratory and free approach to concepts such as sound, music and noise. Over the years he has collaborated with artists such as Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Scanner. For some, he is perhaps best known as one of the members from the cultband The Flying Lizards, famous for queer and experimental covers of artists like Curtis Mayfield, Barrett Strong and James Brown. Overall, he has been involved in dozens of albums, both as a curator and as an artist or composer. His interests are broad and dominated by an investigative and holistic perspective on what sound and music is and can be. According to him, we have only just begun to explore, understand and define this. He is concerned with musics´ unique language and communicative properties and boundaries (or lack of boundaries) between natural and artificial soundscapes, music and how the concept has been expanded to include the sonic world that at all times surround us. But Toop is by no means a narrow avantgardist. He has long been a prominent columnist and music journalist for magazines like The Face and The Wire, and is not afraid to mention Sun Ra, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Africa Bambaata, Javanese Gamelan music and Debussy in the same breath. He has also written several award-winning books as Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995) and Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (1999), as well as his pioneering publication about Hip Hop Rap Attack (1984). Gradually his focus shifted more and more towards how digital audio technology affects the creation, as well as the perception of sound.
