David Toop

David Toop has been developing a practice that crosses boundaries of sound, listening, music and materials since 1970. This encompasses improvised music performance, writing, workshops, electronic sound, field recording, exhibition curating, instrument making, sound art installations and opera. It includes nine acclaimed books, including Rap Attack (1984), Ocean of Sound (1995), Sinister Resonance (2010), Into the Maelstrom (2016), Flutter Echo (2019), Inflamed Invisible: Writing On Art and Sound 1976-2018 (2019) and Two-Headed Doctor: Listening for Ghosts in Dr. John's Gris-gris (2024). Briefly a member of David Cunningham’s pop project The Flying Lizards in 1979, he has released fourteen solo albums, from New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments on Brian Eno’s Obscure label (1975) and Sound Body on David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label (2006) to Entities Inertias Faint Beings (2016) and Apparition Paintings (ROOM40, 2021). His 1978 Amazonas recordings of Yanomami shamanism and ritual were released on Sub Rosa as Lost Shadows (2016). In recent years his collaborations include Rie Nakajima, Akio Suzuki, Tania Caroline Chen, John Butcher, Ken Ikeda, Elaine Mitchener, Henry Grimes, Sharon Gal, Camille Norment, Sidsel Endresen, Alasdair Roberts, Lucie Stepankova, Fred Frith, Thurston Moore, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Lawrence English. He is currently working as a duo - moreskinsound - with butoh dancer Ania Psenitsnikova. Curator of sound art exhibitions including Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery (2000), his opera – Star shaped Biscuit – was performed in 2012.