J. J. Jeczalik

J. J. Jeczalik

Jeczalik in a 1996 Art of Silence publicity shot
Background information
Birth name Jonathan Edward Stephen Jeczalik
Born (1955-05-11) 11 May 1955
Banbury, England
Genres Electronica, synthpop, new wave, pop, rock
Occupation(s) Composer, musician, record producer, ex-teacher
Instruments Synthesizers, Fairlight CMI
Associated acts Art of Noise
Website theartofnoiseonline.com

Jonathan Edward Stephen "J.J." Jeczalik (/jɛnˈtʃɑːlɪk/; born 11 May 1955[1]) is an electronic musician/record producer, co-founder of the electronic music group, the Art of Noise.[2][3] He taught IT at Oxford High School until his retirement in 2013.[4]

Jeczalik has worked with several artists and bands including: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, Stephen Duffy, Dollar, and ABC.

He won a Grammy Award for Art Of Noise's cover of Peter Gunn.

Before Art of Noise

He began his journey into music after coming to London and promoting a gig for a pub group called Landscape (of Einstein A Go-Go fame), then later roadied for their co-lead singer Richard James Burgess before meeting the Buggles a.k.a. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.[5]

Before becoming a freelance programmer Jeczalik worked for Downes, programming CMI as he had problems with the machine. After that he become a part of Horn’s production team working alongside future Art of Noise members, Gary Langan and Anne Dudley on hits for Dollar, before working on ABC's The Lexicon of Love and Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock albums.[6]

Art of Noise and Freelance Work

When the Fairlight CMI Series II came out in 1982, Jeczalik got access to "Page R", the built-in sequencer for the Fairlight. While working on the Yes album 90125, Jeczalik was experimenting with drum and percussion samples from Yes' drummer, Alan White. Jeczalik along with sound engineer, Gary Langan, sequenced drum beats and breaks in Page R and created "Beat Box", the debut single for Art of Noise.

During production of Malcolm McLaren's album Duck Rock, Jeczalik and Langan met Anne Dudley, a classical music session musician and composer. Along with Horn, Langan, Dudley and Paul Morley, Jeczalik co-founded Art of Noise in 1983.[7]

As a freelancer he was in a minority of musicians around the globe that used CMI's to create music, but unlike his contemporaries at the time Jeczalik developed his own way of creating noises by taking advantage of the machine's then-poor quality audio output and transformed the distorted samples into unrecognisable sounds. Some of these early ideas can be heard on the Kate Bush album The Dreaming.[8]

One night those techniques would change the way that records were made, when Langan asked him to help out with an idea. Jeczalik sampled a scrapped drum riff from a session of the Yes album 90125. That would become Art of Noise, a two-man side project that became a quintet with Dudley, Horn and Paul Morley as additions to the line-up.[9]

They were the first act signed to ZTT Records in 1983 and launched it with the EP entitled Into Battle with the Art of Noise that broke new ground, leading to numerous innovative follow up hit singles and albums for the rest of the 1980s. Jeczalik was also instrumental behind the success of controversial Liverpool band, Frankie Goes to Hollywood with their number one hit singles Relax and Two Tribes for also on ZTT.[10] Other work for the label involved further work for FGTH on the Welcome to the Pleasuredome album and for another two signings, Propaganda and Andrew Poppy.

The future Grammy Award winner continued freelance work as either a programmer, producer or remixer with his most notable work producing the hit singles Kiss Me by Stephen Duffy, Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) by Pet Shop Boys, a cover of Jezebel by Shakin' Stevens[11] and in 1987 composed the music for the BBC documentary The Case Of Sherlock Holmes.[12]

Art of Silence and Retirement from the Music Industry

In 1990, Art of Noise spilt leaving Jeczalik to work on other projects including the Biographers' concept album Columbus with some of the recording done at his own Monsterrat Studios in Berkshire. Jeczalik Jeczalik’s Art of Sampling was released in 1993 including hundreds of samples from his personal audio library and was released on AMG's Hit Sound Producer label.[13]

In 1995, Jeczalik launched Art of Silence (his spin-off to Art of Noise) and his label Axiomattic label with the West 4 single, the album artofsilence.co.uk and website that all followed in the next year with Teach Me, his final release as a musician in 1997. He retired from the music business and taught ITC at two Oxfordshire schools until his retirement in 2013.[4]

Discography

Album

Studio work

References

  1. ↑ "Birth details at freebmd.org.uk". freebmd.org.uk. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Hochman, Steve (20 July 1986). "Art of Noise Got Wrong Image By Avoiding One". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Cromelin, Richard (31 July 1986). "Pop Music Review : Duane Eddy Rocks Life into Art of Noise". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Staff List". Oxford High School for GDST. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "Super Delxue Edition Interview". Super Deluxe Edition. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Langan Interview". The Electricity Club. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Whitehouse, KM. "The Art of Noise Online". The Art of Noise Online. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  8. ↑ "Sound On Sound". soundonsound.com. August 1996. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "History". Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "Trevor Horn talks Frankie, SARM and synths". Musicrader. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  11. ↑ "Shakin' Stevens & The Art of Noise". swisscharts. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "BBC Genome". BBC. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "JJ Jeczalik". Retrieved 8 March 2016.

External links

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