David Toop (UK)

A towering figure spanning all the musical gestures represented at the OUT.FEST, David Toop is a true entity within exploratory music, whose body of work as a musician, author and curator has been a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration. A collaborator with The Wire magazine for years, author of such esteemed books as Ocean of Sound, Exotica or Haunted Weather and a permanent fixture of the experimental British scene since the mid 70s, the scope of Toop’s oeuvre is a sprawling field deeply aware, both as a creator and documenter, of a devoted practice that intersects sound, matter and the process of listening since the birth of the seminal London Musicians Collective, of which he was one of the first members, and his first recording, the ever fascinating New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments with Max Eastley on Brian Eno’s Obscure label. A collaboration that would be continued throughout the years and is part of a network of meetings with such luminaries as Steve Beresford, Scanner or Paul Burwell. As a solo artist, Toop was particularly active during the 90s, recording a number of albums like Screen Ceremonies, Spirit World and Pink Noir , both in solitude and with the participation of other musicians, where he imagined bridges between the digital dreams of IDM, Jon Hassell’s fourth world, collage, ambient and the use of sampling as a disruption of reality. Topics addressed extensively by Toop throughout years of writing, connecting the dots between seemingly distant soundworlds.

David Toop performed live and also interviewed Amirtha Kidambi at the 2022 edition of OUT.FEST (5 – 9 October).