What have they become ?

[Axs]

I love searching through records, in my own collection, in shops, in conventions, and there's always a time when, at some point, looking back at some records you like or ones you didn't put on the turntable in years, you ask yourself the question "what have those guys become ?". Most of the time, the producers are still producing today, or might have take a break or a hiatus from music producing... But what about the ones who made a few records, and then quite simply vanished in mid air ? As there are quite a few musicians and a whole lot of music lovers around here I thought it might be fun to start a topic like this, especially if some people know the actual producers who seem to have erased themselves from the public light for good.

I've asked myself the question with two artists recently, one is Stephen Nester, aka Slap or Belt and half of the "Happiness Boys" duo, owner of Duotone Records, experimental electronics musician, I've always loved his works, but apart from the records he did in the 80s, a cd compilation on Relic (a sublabel of Projekt) in the mid 90s, and more recently a reissue of some of his tracks on Macro (which gives no clue on his current state as he was obviously not involved in the project, his tracks on it being straight from the 80s releases) there remotely has been nothing new since the late 80s/early 90s... Anyone knows what he does now ? Is he still producing ? Is he still alive ? It begs the question (I think there might not be more than two different photos of him floating around).

The other artist I'm wondering about is Matrix (aka Tetsuo Tsuri), who published an album I love on Chain Reaction recordings a good ten years ago (called "Various Films") and then disappeared, which is quite unusual regarding the fact that all the artists to have published a cd on Chain Reaction always seem to pursue a musical career today (Monolake, Vainqueur/Substance, Fluxion, Vladislav Delay)... There is no photos of him that I know of, and as far as Discogs go, apart from the CR releases and a couple of tracks on compilations at the time, nobody has heard of him again. I know a former music critic that used to know him back in 1999/2000 but he has lost contact since Tsuri's mail address got erased for whatever reason...

Do you have such examples of artists you'd like to hear music from again ? Do you know any of such artists that just seemed to left music productions after a short but excellent string of releases ? :)

[Alan Imberg]

A couple of electronic artists that come to mind is Mox (one CD circal 1998. There is another artist going under that moniker but not the same) and Dogon is another.

[Scott Raymond]

Axs -

  I used to ask Sam Rosenthal of Projekt Records the same question over the years. "Where in the world is Stephen Nester?" Even he didn't have much of an answer, unfortunately. So I Googled him and came up with the following:

http://www.myspace.com/happinessboys

  Everyone has a Myspace page, it seems. Except me. Hope that helps. Songs From The Cross is still a favorite of mine. I found it in some nameless record store in NYC ages ago. It had a sticker on the cover that said "skull-crushing new age". So I had to have it, of course. It lived up to the sticker.

Scott Raymond
WVKR-FM

[ffcal]

I've wondered about what happened to Yamashiro Shoji, who released some great world ambient albums in the mid 80s and early 90s, including the soundtrack to Akira, then seemingly dropped off the map.  Also I haven't heard much from Marc Barreca, who had a great album on the Palace of Lights label in 1981, or Philip Perkins, who released a great ambient/field recordings album, Neighborhood With a Sky, in the early 80s.  Barreca is apparently set to release a new album on POL next year.

Forrest

[Axs]

@ Forrest : Ah yes, I've always wondered what happened to Yamashiro Shoji too, I love the Akira soundtrack and I got pretty curious with his work, and I realized he didn't released anything since 1994... It's a shame, but as he is born in the 1930s (if I remember well), I just figure he must be enjoying a quiet life and quite simply retired from making music, or at the very least retired from releasing it.

@ Scott : if even Sam Rosenthal (whose Projekt site owns the only web page I know with some bits of information about Stephen Nester : http://www.projekt.com/projekt/artist.asp?id=1022 ) doesn't know about him, he must be pretty well hidden... I think the best thing to do would be to ask Stefan Goldmann of Macro Recordings (who re-released some of Nester's tracks on vinyl last year) about how he got to contact him and eventually get him to re-release some of his music. I don't know about this Happiness Boys myspace page though, there are lots of fan pages floating around and I wouldn't be surprised this is one of them, as there seems to be no web presence of Stephen Nester whatsoever. I don't even think anyone knows when he was born... Hell, Stephen Nester may not even be his real name at all.

[Dragonscales]

Anyone looking for information on Stephen Nester can just contact me. Y'all should have just asked. Shit! I have it all on original vinyl too.