David Toop

David Toop
Background information
Born	(1949-05-05) 5 May 1949 Enfield, England
Genres	Ambient experimental free improvisation
Occupations	Author musician college professor curator
Instruments	Guitar flute electronics
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Obscure Records Virgin Sub Rosa Samadhi Sound Home Normal ROOM40 Audika
Website	davidtoopblog.com

David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, curator, and emeritus professor. From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a regular contributor to British music magazine The Wire and the British magazine The Face. He was a member of British new wave band The Flying Lizards.

Early life and education

Soon after Toop's birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art and Watford School of Art.

Career

Writing

In 1974 Toop edited and co-published the book, New/Rediscovered Musical Instruments, featuring the work of Max Eastley, Hugh Davies, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Paul Burwell and himself. He was a founder member of the London Musicians Collective, Musics magazine and Collusion magazine, and in 1977 founded his record label, Quartz Publications. He published a book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound was published, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass." Subsequent books include Exotica, a winner of the American Book Awards in 2000, Sinister Resonance (2010), and Into the Maelstrom, his survey of free improvisation shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book prize in 2017.

He was a regular contributor to British music magazine The Wire and the British magazine The Face.

Music

Since the early 1970s, Toop has also been a presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Paul Burwell (playing guitar and flutes in their duo, Rain in the Face), Bob Cobbing with the group abAna, Hugh Davies, Max Eastley, Brian Eno, and others, more recently performing with Rie Nakajima, Thurston Moore, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sidsel Endresen, Camille Norment, Akio Suzuki and Elaine Mitchener. He was a member of the Flying Lizards. He is a member of the improvising, genre-hopping quartet Alterations, active from 1977 to 1986 and reforming in 2015.

In 2000, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960–1977. More experimentally, Toop has also actively engaged with 'sounding objects' from a range of museums. His opera Star-shaped Biscuit was performed as a Faster Than Sound Project at Aldeburgh in 2012.

Academia

From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication where he now holds emeritus status.

Bibliography

• Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (1984) ISBN 0-89608-238-5 – republished with additional chapters as
  • Rap Attack 2: African Rap To Global Hip Hop (1992) ISBN 1-85242-243-2
  • Rap Attack 3 (2000) ISBN 1-85242-627-6
• Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995) ISBN 1-85242-743-4
• Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (1999) ISBN 1-85242-595-4
• Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound (2000) ISBN 1-85332-208-3 – exhibition catalogue
• Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) ISBN 1-85242-812-0
• Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener (2010) ISBN 1-4411-4972-4
• Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom, Before 1970 (2016) ISBN 978-1-6289-2769-6
• Flutter Echo (2017) in Japanese ISBN 978-4866470115
• Flutter Echo (2019) in English ISBN 978-1-78760-152-9
• Inflamed Invisible: Collected Writings on Art and Sound 1976-2018 (2019) ISBN 9781912685165
• Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. John's Gris-Gris (2024) ISBN 978-1913689605

Discography

Solo and collaborations

• New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments (with Max Eastley) (1975)
• Wounds (with Paul Burwell) (1979)
• Whirled Music (with Max Eastley, Paul Burwell, Steve Beresford) (1980)
• Buried Dreams (with Max Eastley) (1994)
• Ancient Lights and the Blackcore (with Scorn, Seefeel, Timothy Leary/Dj Ched I Sabbah)
• Screen Ceremonies (1995)
• Pink Noir (1996)
• Spirit World (1997)
• Hot Pants Idol (1999)
• Museum of Fruit (1999)
• Needle in the Groove (with Jeff Noon) (2000)
• Black Chamber (2003)
• Breath-Taking (with Akio Suzuki) (2003)
• 37th Floor at Sunset (2004)
• Doll Creature (with Max Eastley) (2004)
• Sound Body (2007)
• Wunderkammern (with Rhodri Davies and Lee Patterson) (2010)
• Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul – Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual, 1978 (2013)
• The Myriad Creatures will be Transformed of their own accord (2015)
• Entities Inertias Faint Beings (2016)
• Dirty Songs Play Dirty Songs (2017)
• Apparition Paintings (2020)
• Field Recordings and Fox Spirits (2020)
• On White, Indigo and Lamp Black (with Avsluta) (2020)
• Until the Night Melts Away (with John Butcher and Sharon Gal) (2021)
• Garden of Shadows And Light (with Ryuichi Sakamoto) (2021)
• Breathing Spirit Forms (with Akio Suzuki and Lawrence English) (2021)

Curated albums

• Ocean of Sound (1996) – (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)
• Crooning on Venus (1996)
• Sugar & Poison: Tru-Life Soul Ballads for Sentients, Cynics, Sex Machines & Sybarites (1996)
• Booming on Pluto: Electro for Droids (1997)
• Guitars on Mars (1997)
• Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound (2000) – (2-CD set accompanying exhibition catalog)
• Not Necessarily "English Music" (2001)
• Haunted Weather : Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) – (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)

External links

• Official website
• Perfect Sound Forever interview (08/1997)
• Short film on Unknown Devices, the laptop orchestra
• Headphone Commute interview (2020)
• Tone Glow interview (10/2020)