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Phillip Jeck
 British turntablist Philip Jeck is a master of his instrument, though you won't see him battling wax-scratchers and stylus-slammers for speed and technicality.
Instead, Jeck takes salvaged turntables and a short stack of records and with the aid of a mixing desk and primitive sampler creates striking compositions where melodic drones often described as "ghostly" and "eerie" emerge from beneath blankets of hiss and crackle, the dust on the old discs dancing like tiny ballerinas on a black rink. Since his landmark piece 'Vinyl Requiem' (1993) Jeck has established himself as one of the most highly-regarded avant-garde composers to emerge from the late 20th Century. Taking the techniques with which John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer and Edgar Varese experimented as early as the 1930s and giving them a decidedly modern or even futuristic twist, Jeck's works get better as he goes along.
"Using turntables was my way into music/sound. Music has always been to me the most powerful of art forms. I learnt a little bit of guitar when younger but what I could do with it was not what I wanted to hear. It was when I first came across New York DJs mixing records that at first I started by copying, then later developed into my own style/ language. The people I liked were Walter Gibbons and Larry Levan."
Jeck studied visual arts at the prestigious Dartington College of Arts in England's South West. At the same time he became interested in the aforementioned Gibbons and Levan, each of them quintessential figures in the development of dance music and the role of the DJ as instrumentalist. Since then he has composed and performed scores for various dance and theatre works for the stage and screen, and collaborated extensively with choreographer Laurie Booth. Jeck has exhibited audiovisual and installation works all over the world including a live sound piece for solo turntable in Sydney in 1984. Naturally, it's Jeck's music taste governs the records with which he fashions his works.
"I've always had a fairly eclectic taste in music and will listen to anything (at least once). The first real left field record I think I found was AMM on the Elektra label. I was fan of a lot of that label's artists - The Doors, Love, and Tim Buckley. Also at that time I saw and bought records of the Incredible String Band and other folk singers and players. But I have recordings of people from all fields of music."
"I use a slowly evolving bunch of records to play in concert. There are a few that I occasionally bring back, so I must have an extra connection to them. Records are heavy to carry so I try not to gather too many when I'm away, although some audience members will give me a few records and it would seem a little rude to turn them down."
Jeck's latest CD 'Sand' for the Touch label is now available, as is the split 7" 'Amoroso' with friend and collaborator Christian Fennesz, where each artist takes a sample from organist Charles Matthews and turns it into a glowing chunk of rough-hewn majestic drone. Both Jeck and Fennesz join Matthews, Marcus Davidson and others in Spire, an ongoing project which sees its participants play "past, present and future" compositions in churches across Europe, Matthews and Davidson playing huge archaic chamber organs amidst sweeping currents of sound. Further, Jeck's collaboration with Gavin Bryars and the ensemble Alter Ego titled 'The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-)' - a reworking of double bassist and composer Bryars' epochal composition from 1969 - has been heralded the definitive version of the piece.
"I did get together out of my collection records that I thought would work with 'Titanic' - things like music that was popular at the time. Then in rehearsals I discarded the things I didn't think worked or simply disliked. I think Gavin let me have my head but I'm sure if he thought it was not right he would have told me."
Jeck also has a trio with bassist Jah Wobble (PiL, Deep Space) and drummer Jaki Liebezeit (CAN, Burnt Friedman). "It's really an improvised show where I enjoy the freedom of floating over the shifting patterns of the bass and drums," he says, reiterating the fact that for Philip Jeck, a love for different musical forms propels him to do what he does, and for that we're very grateful.
Lenin Simos
Philip Jeck plays at The Jade Monkey on Sat 17 May.
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