PROFILE

Composer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France’s major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entire musical movement. The pioneering, aggressive music produced by his band Heldon during the 1970s, fusing electronics, guitar and rock, heralded the industrial and techno to come and remains today vital and unsurpassed. The ‘Father’ of electronic music in France is also recognized as a world-class guitarist whose “diabolical guitar work” (Progression) earns comparisons with Robert Fripp.

Pinhas received a degree in guitar at 17, and a PhD in philosophy from the Sorbonne, studying under philosopher Gilles Deleuze and writing on time and science fiction. He taught philosophy before abandoning an academic career for Heldon, his 3rd band, whose name derived from Normal Spinrad’s writing. Over the course of his subsequent musical career, Pinhas’ ongoing philosophical studies and interest in science fiction have fired, infused, and continually renewed his music.

Heldon released 7 groundbreaking, critically acclaimed albums between 1974-78. Simultaneous with his Heldon work, Pinhas released 5 solo albums between 1976 and 1982. All of the Heldon and Pinhas recordings from this period have been reissued by Cuneiform, in a major Heldon/Pinhas CD reissue project that the US label began in 1991. Critics have lauded these 20-year old recordings, remarking that Heldon’s “trailblazing electronic pathways have rarely been eclipsed even today” (i/e).

Pinhas returned to music with a vengeance in the 1990s after spending much of the 1980s away. Beginning with DWW (1992) on Cuneiform, his numerous 90s releases included projects with Peter Frohmader (Fossil Culture Cuneiform 1999), John Livengood, Scanner, Pascal Comelade, and others, as well as solo works. He also resumed performing.

During the ‘90s, Pinhas began developing a system of electronic processing to use in performing live solo guitar concerts. Experimenting with tape loops and infinite delays, he expanded, transformed and even transcended the “Frippertronics” technique Fripp used in his work with Eno, and “developed a set of personal parameters that stand on their own legs, his looping strata giving birth to interlocking patterns, chordal waves and even harmonic movements…” [Touching Extremes].

Pinhas also began experimenting in the late 90s with projects using spoken word, first used in his work with Heldon. Spoken by prominent 20th C. visionaries and futurists, including the philosopher Deleuze, science fiction writers Spinrad and Philip K. Dick, and French novelists Maurice Dantec and Chloe Delaume, the words - either taped or live/ real time, in English or French – add another layer of sound, texture and conceptual meaning to Pinhas’ rich soundfields.

In 1998, Pinhas formed an on-going project, Schizotrope, with noted cyber-punk author Maurice Dantec that fused guitar, electronics and spoken word from texts by Dantec and Deleuze. Spinrad also played a role. Schizotrope toured and released three CDs, including a live recording on Cuneiform, The Life and Death of Marie Zorn, (2000) which Carbon 14 called: “A totally unique and personal approach to “electronica;”… a veritable deluge of sounds… triumphant music.”

In 1999, Pinhas released his first solo CD based solely on guitar and processing systems, De L’Un Et Du Multiple (Spalax). In 2002, Cuneiform released his 2nd, Event and Repetition to widespread acclaim. Critics praised it as one of Pinhas’ very best works, a sophisticated and mature manifestation of his experiments with electronically processed guitar and unique interpretation of Frippertronics. In the words of Touching Extremes, “Absolutely deep and rich, this record is a diamond.” The BBC described it as “Music that is in flux and stasis at the same time, with an almost sculptural presence, stuffed with overtones and rich textures.” The All Music Guide, however, summarized Event and Repetition the best: “…a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhas’ music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon…Event and Repetitions may well signal the full realization of Pinhas’ long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD… have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a long journey – and perhaps the beginning of a new journey.” – Bill Tilland, All Music Guide

In Tranzition , Pinhas augments his guitar-and-electronics palette to weave a more elaborate and textured tapestry of sound. Additional instruments such as laptop (Jerome Schmidt), violin (Philippe Simon) and drums (Antoine Paganotti, of Magma) provide additional color, while spoken word tapes provide another layer of sound and conceptual depth, rich in detail and texture. The late Philip K. Dick can be heard on “Moumoune girl”, in a 1977 tape that he gave Pinhas. The Simsi/The Sims/Sims Voice on “Aboulafia Blues” is that of Chloe Delaume, whose writings explore the notions of virtual reality + reality simulation. Arresting and provocative, Tranzition is a multifaceted and richly jeweled work in which cause and effect, acoustics and electronics, taped sound and live playing change roles and even realities.

On TRANZITION

“Criminally underrated, part umpteen? Even worse! Richard Pinhas and his band Heldon were just as ahead of their time and influential as, say, Can, Faust and Brian Eno… Heldon’s “Electronique Guérilla” and “It’s always Rock ‘n’ Roll” albums (1974-1975), for instance, have a totally unique sound, combining raw and experimental guitar sounds with pulsating electronica and live drumming, presaging the live/machine and guitar/ electronics experimentalism and drone wall-of-soundscapes of, say Throbbing Gristle, Dome, Bruce Gilbert, Kevin Shields, Robert Poss of Christian Fennesz. …Musically, Pinhas has developed his own ‘tronic’ guitar techniques, which now sound warmer than Heldon’s metallic, glacial sound. … Anyone into non-mainstream music, should check out Pinhas’ oeuvre or should at least have listened to some of Heldon’s most important work.. …it’s high time for some Heldon reappraisal too!”
– Patrick Vandenberghe, Ultra WWW Magazine, 04/02, www.dma.be/p/ultra/uzine

“…62 minutes of intense ambiance. … although Pinhas can belt out a savage riff, the majority of his guitar work here is textural and quite trancelike. Cycling loops generate a lush fog of growling sound…like clouds buffeted in a languid surf. …The guitar treatments are so extreme as to defy codification as “guitar”, making it awkward to differentiate these sounds from traditional electronics. … The result is akin to placing the listener in the midst of a sonic duel that is so furious that no conflict is detectable. Everything flows into a communion of grand sound… Comparisons can be make to Fripp’s frippertronic recordings. But Pinhas has flavored his music with a degree of seething drama and raw intensity that elevates it to another level. …far from passive. Nor is it dark or foreboding, inspiring instead a sense of expansive growth…. Overall, this recording reveals an evolution for Pinhas, taking his grinding ambience to heights… A soaring freedom permeates this music…heavily laced with inspirational portends….”
– Matt Howarth, Sonic Curiosity, www.soniccuriosity.com

“Tranzition, his new release, is another dazzling effort. Pinhas augments his guitar with digital effects, tape loops and infinite delays that cascade the sounds into swirling organic entities of integrated luminescent tendrils, which gradually expand into powerful storms of flowing aural energy.… Magma’s drummer Antoine Paganotti…uses his percussion to add an urgently pulsating heartbeat to Pinhas’ circulatory system. Philippe Simon’s violin and Jerome Schmidt’s computer augmentation mesh seamlessly into Pinhas’ cornerstone of guitar electronics, resulting in a fuller, more edgy sound. …Tranzition invites the listening to go exploring on an enchanting voyage above and beyond the ordinary.”
– Michael Hopkins, The Scene Online, Jan. 2003, www.valleyscene.com

“Cuneiform Record’s promotion of Richard Pinhas’ latest CD contains a “for fans of” recommendation aligning Tranzition with the music of “Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Windy and Carl, Out Hud, and Tangerine Dream. While a penchant for brooding ambience unties these artists’ best work… Pinhas, a legendary figure in French electronic and progressive rock music circles in the early 1970s, certainly needs no such affirmation. Pinhas… formed his seminal electronic/progressive rock band Heldon in 1974. Clearly indebted to the angular rock riff of King Crimson and the austere electronic ambiance of Fripp and Eno’s No Pussyfooting lp, Heldon fused these genres and produced what one reviewer referred to as the “apex of the punk electronic sound.”… Tranzition… continues Pinhas’s homage to Fripp. The brooding yet beautiful sonic glaze covering each track recalls the Soundscapes series Fripp started in the 90s using digital processing as well as Fripp’s idiosyncratic “frippertronics” style for the 70s, in which looped guitars coalesce creating an undulating, symphonic sea of tonality. …Somberness clings to every note. Though the CD is divided into five tracks, it sounds more like a seventy-two minute composition in a single, continuous track. Percussion occasionally punctuates the guitar swells but it ultimately lost amid the music’s glacial drift. … More dislocated than the drums, however, is the eerily used recording of the late science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. …Pinhas’ music possesses an undeniable emotional depth, enhanced, in fact, by its seemingly static, melancholic mood. Once asked what makes music possible, he responded, “You need the intense, luminous, pulsational inspiration.” That inspiration , past and present, continues to make his work as vital as it was thirty years ago.”
– Scott L. Matthews, The Declaration Online, Jan. 29, 2004, www.the-declaration.com

“On Tranzition, Richard Pinhas continues with the hypnotically dense legato electric guitar drones that he had been featuring for the past several releases. But he also includes a drummer, Antoine Paganotti, who improvises against Pinhas’ slowly evolving dronescapes…it prevents the drones from becoming soporific. Pinhas’ overlaid, looped textures are generally thick and distorted, and he continues his practice of excerpting spoken word passages and adding them to his sonic stew – on this recording integrating a passage from a 1977 talk given by noted sc-fi novelist Philip K. Dick…and..a fragment by Chloe Delaume… the textures themselves make a positive contribution to the mix. …The last piece on the CD, titled “Metatron (An Introduction To),”…deviates from the preferred heavy viscosity of Pinhas’ normal guitar textures on this CD, displaying a much sharper and more crystalline sound more reminiscent of his solo work in the early ‘80sa. But five minutes or so into the piece, Pinhas begins t add deeper drones… Textures continue to build until they finally reach a point where the entire matrix of sound begins to float on a cushion of white noise resembling a gale force wind, or huge waves breaking on a remote shoreli9ne – with various musical shards and shapes fighting to break through the thick layers of sound. Eventually, like some powerful but transitory force of nature, the music begins to recede. Pinhas has explored this general territory before, most recently on Schizotrope and Event and Repetitions, but it’s what he seems to do best, and particularly on the last track, he demonstrates that he is capable of constructing some of the most formidable but exhilarating sonic edifices ever heard by mortal ears. 4 stars.”
– Bill Tilland, All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com

“… a tower of emotion gets built in little more than an hour … Pinhas’ music often has narcotic effects; it’s beauty, though, lies in the interjection of cold froth and almost harrowing consciousness that’s present in most of his recent output. Believe me – after listening to the long “Metatron” closing the show you will be hooked.”
– Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, www.touchingextremes

“Splendid! … A masterly release!” – Gerald Van Waes, “Progressive Homestead, www.progressivehomestead.com “…this album has all the elements needed to awaken the maximum interest among followers of Ambient, Psychedelia and Space Rock. Kaleidoscopic atmospheres, ghostly textures, and a personal focus…provides the music with a great freshness…Richard Pinhas proves his talent to shape universes of sound brimming with imagination yet once again.”
– Edgar Kogler, Amazing Sounds, 5/1/04, www.amazings.com

“The music retains its mesmerizing, almost hypnotic quality, untouched by the rhythm. Once again pretty nice.”
– Roberto Lambooy, Jurriaan Hage’s Axiom of Choice, www.cs.uu.nl/people/jur/reviews/tranzition.html

Miscellaneous Press Excerpts on Pinhas/Heldon

Alternative Press: “You will be hard-pressed to find anything with as much power and energy in any contemporary genre”

Expose: “For the uninititated, Heldon’s sound could be described as a mixture of superb Frippian guitar and harsh agressive electronics.”

i/e: Richard Pinhas...was the leader of the ‘70s French progressive/synth band Heldon, who released a number of crackingly good albums with King Crimson and Robert Fripp overtones... His music is a steaming cauldron of guitars, electronics, and the blistering spirit of ‘74 Crimson, resurrected and recast in a tapestry of science fiction brushstrokes.”

i/e: “Many have tried, but its doubtful whether Heldon’s pioneering music and historical legacy will ever be eclipsed. Essential in the extreme.”

i/e: “Heldon’s status in the progressive/electronic universe is damn near legendary. Bandleader and visionary Richard Pinhas absorbed the finer ingredients of British progressive (especially King Crimson and Robert Fripp), and Teutonic electro-sensibilities, combined them with his own singular talent, and let is loose upon an unsuspecting world. What resulted was a brazen, cyclonic hrbrid that sounded totally unlike anything that france, or anyone else for that matter, had heard before....If there was ever a band that epitomized perhaps the penultimate union of guitars with electronics, Heldon’s holy blaze burns the brightest.”

Progression: “guitarist/electronic musician Richard Pinhas stands as a pivotal figure in the evolution of French progressive rock, both as a solo artist and as the leader of Heldon (1974-78).”

Goldmine: “Heldon’s sound favors seething clouds of electronic noise, relentlessly throbbing synthesizer pulses, abruptly shirting drumbeats and keening, Fripp-influenced guitars.”

Exposé: “Heldon ranks among the best of the pioneering electronic bands from the 70’s, and they are particularly important because of their hyper-schizophrenic personalities and the raw power and aggression that other bands of that mold (e.g. Tangerine Dream) never even envisioned.”

Progression: “diabolical guitar work”

Alternative Press: “Listening to his [Richard Pinhas’] sequencer-saturated electronic work now with the advent of such techno mavens as the Aphex twin and the Orb, it seems Pinhas scopped them on a bold aesthetic level 20 years prior to the concept of “raving.” His whole career should be put in a box set entitled Sample and Hold.”

Music Uncovered: “Heldon is the group project of Richard Pinhas (guitar, synth), considered by many to be a pivotal figure in the development of electronic rock in Europe both in his solo work and his work with Heldon... intense guitar. An incredible assault on the senses.”

Post Bros: “No discussion on guiatr music is complete unless it includes Richard Pinhas.... growling metal guitar virtuosity...”

i/e: “Musically, Heldon’s trailblazing electronic pathways have rarely been eclipsed even today; in his requisite manner, Pinhas’ fusion of the bold experimental side of electronic music with Crimsonesque fervor is completely without parallel.”

CMJ: “Fans of Kraftwerk and Neu! owe it to themselves to check out this similarly far-sighted stuff.”

Buzzz: “If you’ve ever been interested in electronic bands like Kraaftwerk or Tangerine Dream, this disc is a good introduction to the fellow who started it all.

Focus: “...open-eared Fripperphiles may want to check this title [Un Reve] out..a heady combination of agressive guitar repetitions and swirling keyboard passages over extended, dynamic jams.”

Boston Rock: “Richard Pinhas holds a doctorate in philosphy, and used to lecture at the Sorbonne. He writes popular magazine articles on such diverse fields of interest as sociology, psychoanalysis and music theory, and is now working on a book about Nietzsche. For recreation, he likes to skydive or paraglide down the face of the Alps. And he just happens to be one of the progenitors of European electronic rock. During the ‘70s, his group Heldon merged spacefaring synthesizer sounds into a matrix of inhumanly precise jazz-rock fusion. Working independently in Paris, Heldon rediscovered and deployed the analog synthesis techniques of their highly regarded German contemporaries like Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel and most especically Tangerine Dream...The band’s later albums feature muscular jamming, manic drumming in the vein of Mitch Mitchell and juggernaut noise riffs that have to be considered prototypes of industrial music. By the time of Heldon’s demise, critics were referring to their complex, increasingly cataclysmic synthesizer excursions as “electronic punk.””

AP: “Most people tend to credit Throbbing Gristle‘s 1977 entry into the musical scene as the birth of industrial music. It is true that they first coined the term...But as a musical entity, they were merely one more step along a path that had already been trailblazed...

Some of Richard Pinhas a.k.a. Heldon’s works... serve as links between the avant garde and the industrial explosion to come.”

Audion: “Among collectors of electronic music some names have become legendary and are present in every search list.  These names include Richard Pinhas...the legendary leader of the French cult group Heldon.”

Electronic Music & Musician: “Richard Pinhas...has produced some of the most interesting electronic music of recent years..He has been voted number one electronic musician in Japan and he has a dedicated group of followers world-wide..The basic force behind Pinhas’ music is the philosophy from which it stems..he has developed an attitude towards music that goes far beyond the sounds one actually hears to an almost mystical conceptualisation of the meaning behind the sounds..Music..transcends limitations of time nd expresses the eternal through a time based medium.”

Audion: “Richard Pinhas is still a force in world music today (despite his long absence) precisely because his music has the emotive depth that most other electronauts hardly begin to grapple with. Add to this its other attributes: alien atmospheres, futuristic imagery, feelings of the mystery of technology, precise clinical production, belief in creative and political revolution, an obscure intellectual base and references to science fiction.. then there is a musical force that has little or no rival. It possesses that rare quality: integrity, and will probably endure to be known as a prophetic precursor to the art of the 21st century.”

AP: “Guitarist/synthesist Richard Pinhas was France’s foremost pioneer in the ‘70s electronic music scene.”

Option: Guitarist, keyboardist and composer Pinhas was the mastermind behind the ‘70s French progressive rock band Heldon. That group’s music combined electronics and rock, yielding a hybrid sound somewhere between Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, King Crimson and the Fripp/Eno projects.”

New York Review of Records: Richard Pinhas’ recorded music dwelled in that netherland between post-progressive and uto-hypnotic trance-dance ripples. A Frenchman, his music is neither German space music nor Belgian industrial yet he both influenced and now reflects those trends. A small yet persistent cadre of fans who enjoyed groups from the original space-ers like Can or Ash Ra Tempel to progressives like Robert Fripp drool at the notion of hearing this...”

Stride: “Pinhas carries a large amount of conceptual undertow into his music. For example, Rhizosphere  [a Cd] is a title taken from a crucial work of contemporary French philosphy, L’Anti-Oedipus  by Deleuze and Gauratatti.

Pinhas’ philosophical concerns tend to focus, in music, around two key areas. Firstly, there’s the questions of action and its spillage into violence... Secondly, Pinhas is on record as being 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, Chinese-whisper style, over intervals, and one of the more distinctive aspects of the Heldon/Pinhas canon is its capacity to surprise in this area.”

Stride: “Pinhas’ acid fuzz guitar, somehow purer, more astringent even than Fripp’s”