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Peter
Challoner is an electronic music composer from the UK, born, raised in
Nottingham in the heart of Central England. He is not what you would
class as an orthodox musician, having had no formal musical training,
and the fact that music, although being a major force in his life, for
most of his life, is only a supplementary activity to a career as an
architectural technician. It has long been stated that there are
strong links between music, architecture, and visual arts in general.
‘My job is creative, a design process from a concept form of an idea
into a finished piece of construction, and it's the same approach with
my music'
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Having
been introduced to electronic music from an early age, the likes of
Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream and Jarre have formed the basis of a
musical education that was later broadened by an introduction to the
more abstract ‘sound worlds’ of Brian Eno and Philip Glass.
Eno's
ambient 1 - music for airports, and Glass' music in twelve parts
really opened up his 'musical eyes' to more abstract soundscapes.
'During my student days studying art and design, it was always the
abstract pieces that caught my imagination, when I found myself
looking at a work and wondering what it was all about, rather than a
traditional painting that told you straight away what it was’
‘I
was fascinated by the concept of the involvement of viewer
interpretation. When I first heard Eno’s Music For Airports and
Glass’ Part 1 (of twelve) I was amazed and thought fantastic,
that’s my kind of music. I can be absorbed in these pieces for ages,
with a real interaction, it’s a musical place to be, that can be
different every time, depending on where you are when you hear it’.
It
was sometime later the idea came along to try making music for
himself, and on getting his first keyboard, found that the invention
of music was something that came quite naturally. Having a finely
tuned ear from years of intense listening, and drawing inspiration
from the electronic ’heroes’ the music began to flow quite quickly
and easily. After several years of experiment, development, and
extreme learning curve, largely with collaborator Paul Smith, the
first full album was finally completed ‘From Nowhere Came’
released under the name of Asymmetric.
After
the Asymmetric CD there followed several solo projects each
concentrating on different electronic styles. The first, a series of
chill out, very atmospheric albums were recorded and released as Peter
Challoner
through independent UK based label Council Of Nine. Music For
Cloud Watching, Music In Ambient Motion and Music In Suspended
Animation subscribe to the Brian Eno school of ambient and have proved
to be popular with modest sales and good airplay in the USA.
On
the rhythmic sequencer side, the album AI - Ambient Intelligence was
created and released under the name Dieter Ettlinger. A.I. delivers
building overlapping sequences and drums with plenty of soundscape
atmosphere but also has structure and lead lines. And the name?
‘well it just seemed like a good idea. I thought as the style was so
different from the ambient work, I’d use a different name to keep it
separate and hope to not confuse people as to what the music would be
like. Having been a fan of German electronic music, I chose a German
pseudonym. Dieter sounds like Peter, and Ettlinger is taken from the
town of Ettlingen near the Rhine, close to where some friends live. It
has been quite funny, there are even some listings of him on the net,
on various lists of EM composers.
The
current album, Abstract Ambient Form, contains live ‘one take’
improvisations recorded in the studio. The music is more electronic,
yet subliminal, and has received great pre-reviews and numerous air
plays on the Stars End Ambient Music Radio Show. ’I have been really
lucky, all the CD’s I have sent to the presenter Chuck Van Zyl have
been well received, and have all been widely played. I’ve had people
contact me direct from the States to buy albums having heard them on
the show, it’s fantastic.
And
the future?, ’well there’s plenty more to come. My new studio has
finally been finished this year, and I’ve started an ambient project
with guitarist Neale Haddon. We are going under the name of Spiraleye
and the work so far is sounding good. We hope to have an album
finished early next year, and there is a good chance it can be come a
live event. There will be more solo albums, both ambient and more
structured pieces, and perhaps another Asymmetric album.
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