Richard Pinhas

Having released a new double CD on Cuneiform and completing a Japanese tour, Richard Pinhas, "Father of French Electronic Music", sets his sights on performing in North America.

Ceaselessly innovative in a career spanning more than 30 years, Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians and is widely considered the father of French electronic music as the mastermind behind 1970s French psychedelic/electronic band Heldon. A composer, world-class guitarist and electronics innovator, Pinhas is a key figure in the international development of electronic rock music. His latest album, Metatron, represents his most realized and cohesive album to date, juxtaposing his original proto-industrial sound from 30 years ago (as leader of the band Heldon) with his later dark and brooding stylistic compositions. This music also incorporates deeper levels, as Pinhas integrates his passion for science fiction and his background in philosophy (Ph.D. from Sorbonne) to create a musical landscape that is simultaneously mysterious and beautiful.

Richard Pinhas' Metatron is over 2 hours on two CDs of spacey and flowing music that doesn’t hesitate to also rock out. Pinhas uses a broader range of instrumentation with contributions from Didier Batard (splendid bass), Patrick Gauthier (minimoog), Chuck Oken Jr. (of Djam Karet, on synth), Antoine Paganotti (of Magma, on drums,) Alain Renaud (lead guitar), Jerome Schmidt (laptop and loops) and Philippe Simon (violin) and spoken work contributions by William S. Burroughs, Maurice Dantec, Philip K. Dick, and others. In addition to the music, there is a QuickTime video shot by Alain Bellaiche with footage from Richard and Jerome's 2004 North American tour. A more in-depth description of Metatron can be found in the Cuneiform Records press release below:

"...Pinhas proves that he is still active, and vital to the future of electronic music … I only hope that the current crop of electronic musicians are listening to this. As artists like Moby have shown, the movement benefits creatively and commercially when the electronics are secondary to the emotions… Pinhas revels in yet another method of achieving this balance, and musicians and fans alike will do well to pay attention." - Splendid

Pinhas has released approximately 20 solo and Heldon CDs, most of them released by or reissued on Cuneiform. Over the past decade, working solo and with other artists such as Pascal Comelade and Maurice Dantec (for Schizotrope), Pinhas has been developing a system of electronic processing to use in performing live solo guitar concerts. His recent music is an arresting sensory assault, a dense river of sound that is rich in detail and texture. Critics are calling Pinhas' newest work his most mature and perhaps best solo guitar work to date.

Richard Pinhas has just returned from Japan, where he toured to promote Metatron as well as a limited edition, Japanese-only release of a boxed CD set of his Heldon music. (Released by Captain Trip/licensed by Cuneiform, the Heldon box included a small plastic figurine: the robotic head depicted on the cover of the Heldon album Interface.) To view a live video of one of his Japanese shows and slideshows of various Japanese concerts, please visit these websites:

Video from Japanese Tour
Japanese Tour Slideshow

After a successful tour of Japan he will be returning to perform once again in Tokyo on October 20th. Visit our TOURS page for more information in the coming weeks about this show.

Richard Pinhas now looks to tour in North America. He will perform this summer at the 2007 Montreal Jazz Fest, the most acclaimed festival of jazz and new music on the western hemisphere, on July 5th.

Beyond the Montreal Jazz Fest, he is available to perform other shows in North America either before or after the Montreal dates. Pinhas has never previously performed on the U.S. West Coast.

Pinhas has scheduled these dates:

• Saturday, June 23 - Rhino Records, Claremont, CA (2PM)
  255 Yale Ave
  Claremont, CA 91711
  909-626-7774
  www.rhinorecords.cc


• Sunday, June 24 - Highways Performance Center, Santa Monica, CA
  18 Street Arts Center
  1651 18th Street
  Santa Monica, CA 90404
  310-315-1459
  www.highwaysperformance.org
  co-sponsored by NewTown Arts
  opening: Emily Hay Trio


• Monday, June 25- open


• Tuesday, June 26 - Gates Planetarium
  @ Denver Museum of Nature and Science (7pm)
  2001 Coloradio Blvd.
  Denver, CO 80205
  303-322-7009
  www.dmns.org


• Wednesday, June 27 - G3 Lounge, San Francisco, CA (9pm)
  3910 Geary Blvd.
  San Francisco, CA 94118
  415-876-4080
  (at the intersection of Geary & 3rd)


• Thursday, June 28 - open


• Friday, June 29 - 21 Grand, Oakland, CA (8PM)
  416 25th Street
  Oakland, CA 94612
  510-444-7263
  www.21grand.org
  opening:Barry Cleveland Group


• Saturday, June 30 - open


• Sunday, July 1 - Rotture, Portland, Oregon (8PM)
  315 SE 3rd Avenue
  Portland, OR 97214
  503-234-5683
  www.rotture.com


• Monday, July 2 - open


• Tuesday, July 3 - Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA (8PM)
  5433 Ballard Ave. NW
  Seattle, WA 98107
  206-784-4880
  www.sunsettavern.com


• Wednesday, July 4 - open


• Thursday, July 5 - Montreal Jazz Festival
  @ Cabaret JPR (9PM)
  2111 St-Laurent Blvd.
  Montreal, Quebec
  Canada
  www.montrealjazzfest.com


• Fri-Sun, July 6-8 - open dates for U.S.


• Monday, July 9 - The Magic Stick, Detroit, MI (8PM)
  Majestic Theater Center
  4120-4140 Woodward Ave
  Detroit, MI 48201
  313-833-9700
  www.majesticdetroit.com


• Thursday, July 12 - Velvet Lounge, Washington, DC (10PM)
  Velvet Lounge
  915 U Street
  Washington, DC 20001
  202-462-3213
  www.velvetloungedc.com

If you are interested in booking a West Coast premier performance by Pinhas or a date in between, or know of concert bookers, arts organizations, radio stations, upcoming music festival or venues who would be interested in helping to book a show in the US, please contact Jerome Schmidt. Schmidt is booking the tour from Paris, and would appreciate any North American help. Please email Schmidt at: Jerome@inculte.fr or contact joyce@cuneiformrecords.com.

Pinhas' current live performances fuse electronic music with guitar, drums, samples, and visual/video projections. The tour lineup will include Richard Pinhas on guitar & loops, Antoine Paganoti on drums, and Jerome Schmidt on computers & samples. These spellbinding live performances should interest festivals, organizations, magazines, radio stations and/or venues that are interested in rock, electronic, experimental, avant progressive, industrial and ambient music; as well as those interested in new/digital media, science fiction, philosophy, and/or French culture.

For those who want to explore beneath the sonic surface, his music is infused with philosophical (A student and life-long friend of Gilles Deleuze, Pinhas currently runs the French philospher's website, which you can visit at www.webdeleuze.com), sci-fi, and avant literary concepts exposed by both French and American authors.

An innovator in the development of industrial music and the fusion of electronics and guitar, Pinhas still continues to inspire and evolve with each album, continually presenting new conceptions of music, philosophy, technology, new media and sound. One new listener to Pinhas, a young university student who loves science fiction novels, commented, "with each song, or movement, or album that I listened to I painted a futuristic landscape with the music permeating throughout." Pinhas' music holds great attraction for young listeners familiar with such bands as God Speed you Black emperor and Sigur Ros, as well as older fans of Brian Eno, King Crimson and Robert Fripp.

Quotes from the press:

"We take it for granted today, but not too long ago, integrating electronics into a rock setting was something exotic and strange... Heldon and Richard Pinhas are considered building blocks for whole schools of experimental rock music, and one of the few who rarely fail to deliver on the hype." - Pitchfork Media

"Organic looping generates mesmerizing counter-patterns and muddling harmonic shifts that causes listeners to remain in a standstill for long minutes, only to be rattled by techno-like structures acting as foundation for transcendental journeys through the mind, the whole enhanced by illustrious voices (Burroughs, Dick, Dantec to name three) appearing every once in a while amidst this hell of parallel convergences. Again, it's that very special kind of inner resonance that this man is able to put at work with a few concepts... and after a couple of hits of the "play" button, Metatron becomes almost indispensable" - Touching Extremes

"Richard Pinhas demonstrates that he is capable of constructing some of the most formidable but exhilharating sonic edifices ever heard by mortal ears." - Bill Tilland/All Music Guide

"Pinhas continues to be one of the last true innovators from the first progressive era." - Expose

"Metatron is music that constantly stretches the imagination and challenges the boundaries of convention." - All About Jazz

"Pinhas carries a large amount of conceptual undertow into his music. He is fascinated with the way music can refine and challenge our conventional perception of time; so much of his music works with the speeding up and slowing down of repetitive tonal patterns, or their slight variation." - Stride