biography.
Dead Voices On Air was formed in 1992 by Scott Harker, Clancy Dennehey and Mark S A199 in Vancouver, Canada. Subsequently it became a vehicle for collaboration with numerous musicians in both North America and Europe.
Mark S A199 worked with Zoviet*France and Download. His collaborators include cEvin Key, Eric Pounder, Jean-Yves Theriault, Jarboe, Mick Harris, James Plotkin, Mark Nugent, Orphx, Phil Western, David Wright, Zev Asher, Darryl Neudorf, Ryan Moore , Niels van Hoorn, Kinder Atom, Evolution Control Committee, Chris Connelly and others.
He has appeared as a guest on releases by Martin Atkins, cEvin Key, Teargarden and Pigface. He was a member of Can guitarist, Michael Karoli’s band, called Sofortkontakt! until Michael's sad death in 2001. He played with Can as part of their 30th anniversary shows. He also toured with Michael and Damo Suzuki. Mark S A199 did a remix for Faust, Neu! and toured with Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, of Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cluster and Harmonia fame. Together with Robin Storey he has produced an album with Jared Louche of Chemlab, under the band name Altered Statesmen. He has also recently formed a band with Phil Western called Beehatch who released two CD’s on Lens Records in 2008 and undertook a tour of Europe. His other projects include SPASM for Invisible Records and Propeller for Scratch Records, who have now released three albums.
Most recently Mark S A199 has started to work with two ex-members of Zoviet*France, Robin Storey and Andy Eardley under the name Reformed Faction. Their debut CD, "Vota" was released in the summer of 2006, shortly thereafter, Andy Eardley left the band. Their second CD, "The War Against" was released on Soleilmoon in the summer of 2007. A triple CD is to be released by Soleilmoon in the spring of 2009, entitled, "I Am The Source of Light, I Am Not A Mirror."
Dead Voices On Air have worked with Cleopatra Records, Martin Atkins' Invisible Records and now Chicago’s Lens Records.
It is important to note that biographical details featured on many websites have not been written by anyone connected with Dead Voices On Air and therefore are not always correct and have not been written with consent. The internet is becoming something slightly more worrying than the mildly irritating rash that it has always been.
Mark S A199.
February 2009.
a brief history.
At first it was a band. Our first ever show was in Kamloops, British Columbia at an art gallery. Our second was at the East Vancouver Cultural Centre a few weeks later minus Clancy. Alex Varty wrote glowingly about our 15 minute piece in the Georgia Strait. We played some more shows in Vancouver and Scott left. It was a solo project. I recorded some music and it made it’s way into cEvin Key’s hands. It was also played on the radio. cEvin put me in touch with Martin Atkins and we also played together and recorded. I created two albums that came out after a tape I did for a Japanese label for G.R.O.S.S. called "Abrader." I was introduced to GROSS via Zev Asher of Roughage who had good links in Japan. Actually "Abrader" was not the first album I recorded, "New Words Machine" was but that came out second on Cleopatra. Months later "Hafted Maul" came out on Invisible. I signed a three hundred year deal with them for 197 albums. That was 1994. Busy year. "Hafted Maul" got good reviews, including one in Wired.
In April of 1995 I went to Chicago and finished my second Invisible album “Shap,” named after a town in Cumbria. Whilst there, the Oklahoma bombing happened and we recorded the first SPASM album. Months later we were heavily into Download recordings. I went to Toronto and recorded the fourth album live in a studio with some friends, called, “How Hollow Heart.”
The next little while is a bit of a blur. I did the first Propeller album for Scratch and more Download. Then Dwayne died. We did the second Download album and we toured. Then I left Download and did “Fire in the Bronx Zoo” with Dave Wright. I then started to play live a lot and did many collaborations such as the Spybey/Theriault CD and Antiform that came out several years later. Also another Propeller album. I played live with a lot of people, always as DVOA with collaborators, never doing ‘solo’ shows. A different band in a different city.
The first major tour was Pigface in 1997. I then hooked up with a manager, Tom and Darryl Neudorf and started work on what became "Piss Frond." I played live some more and did remixes for Faust and Neu!, an album with Jim Plotkin and then toured with Damo Suzuki and Michael Karoli in the States. I joined Michael Karoli’s band and played on all of the Can solo projects dates. I became a frequent flyer between Canada and Europe. Then we properly toured "Piss Frond" with Not Breathing in the States and in Europe with Rother and Moebius. Then I moved back to Europe via Holland where I lived with Niels van Hoorn and recorded with him and with Mick Harris. I also did the "Frankie Pett" DVOA CD. I toured the States with the Legendary Pink Dots. In less than 6 months I did two full tours of North America and one in Europe. I’m forgetting things but hey, this a brief history, not the War and Peace version.
Next up in 2001 was a DVOA "Live" CD and then a pretty awful experimental show in NYC and after that, at least two years of pretty much nothing. Back in England I retreated and gradually regrouped. The third Propeller CD was released. New projects started, the Reformed Faction and then back to "From Labrador to Madagascar," the most recent DVOA CD. More collaborations and finally to Beehatch, reunited with Phil Western. A tour, more recording and a healthy sheet of releases planned through Lens Records.
