Stephen Mallinder gives keynote on fellow music pioneers at conference.
20 Jan 2015
Stephen Mallinder, project manager at the College of Arts and Humanities and lead singer and producer of the 70s and 80s band Cabaret Voltaire, is to speak on another pioneer of electronic music.
Stephen will be giving the keynote address: ‘On Kraftwerk: Modernity and Movement’, at the First Kraftwerk Conference, a two-day event at Aston University in Birmingham on 21 and 22 January, which has featured in The Guardian and on the BBC. Legendary German band, Kraftwerk were and continue to be, a key influence in the development of electronic music since their formation in the early 1970s.
The key note will draw from a forthcoming book chapter. Looking to how West Germany was reshaped in the post-war period against a cultural backdrop of Hollywood and rock and roll, the chapter explores Krafwerk’s preoccupation with movement and progress. The group’s conflicting drives of modernity and nostalgia which look to both a technological utopia and lost ideals of Weimar - specifically Bauhaus designs and processes.
Stephen Mallinder reflects: "Kraftwerk’s juxtaposing of robotic rhythms and 3D systems with images of urbanity and conservatism. As the sounds of black America collided with European minimalism, literally with Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’, it looks at the attraction of the group’s technological modernity to urban America and the links between the rhythms of Dusseldorf, industrial Britain, and nascent beats of New York electro and Detroit techno."
Stephen, was a founder member of Cabaret Voltaire, the Sheffield band which had its first releases on Rough Trade and Factory Records in 1978 and continued under the name until 1996.
Cabaret Voltaire played and released music around the world, producing countless records, film and TV soundtracks and had videos exhibited at MOMA in New York. Stephen also ran a number of record labels and promotion companies, worked as a radio producer and presenter as well as being a music journalist.
Stephen came to the university in 2007 to work for the former Art Design and Media Subject Centre at Grand Parade and ran a number of projects with art and design departments across the UK exploring higher education and the creative industries, online art and design materials and open educational resources.
He has also taught on a number of programmes including journalism, media studies and has given guest talks on fine arts critical practice and music.
Stephen said Kraftwerk were a huge influence on his music: “They were a benchmark for me and in some ways I see them as peers. We live in a post-dance world now, where there’s an acceptance of technology in all kinds of music. But when we started doing it this was frowned upon.”
“I continue to make music with artists around the world and currently recording and playing under the name Wrangler who have recently released the acclaimed album LA Spark which was produced almost entirely using vintage analogue electronic equipment and includes a film and sound composition which was shown in the Tate Turbines Gallery.”
“I work with the College of Arts & Humanities on a number of projects, designed the Foundation Certificate and Graduate Diplomas for University of Brighton International College of Art and Design and I am currently involved in the teaching and learning profiles in arts and humanities.”
