BIOGRAPHIES
click headings to display further details
-
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRIS & COSEY and CARTER TUTTI
- Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti formed CHRIS & COSEY out of the ashes of their seminal 70s' Industrial band Throbbing Gristle. Throbbing Gristle (and Carter/Tutti) founded the Industrial music genre and were one of the first bands to successfully fuse electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Their musical legacy is still very much in evidence today.
When Throbbing Gristle was terminated in 1981 Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti signed to Rough Trade Records and began recording and performing as CHRIS & COSEY. From the very start they indulgently utilised electronics, sampling, rhythms and Cosey's distinctive vocals, cornet and guitar style. In 1982 (and in collaboration with Rough Trade) they formed their own offshoot record label Conspiracy International (aka: CTI) for their more experimental recordings and collaborative projects. CTI continues to run alongside CARTER and TUTTI's more accessible work.
Regularly cited as one of the original forerunners of the Techno and Electronica genres CHRIS & COSEY's name is often cited by bands and DJs as hugely influential. During the 1980s' and 1990s' CHRIS & COSEY went on to record some of the most inventive Electronica albums, including the much sampled and remixed TRANCE album (1982), the Techno Pop classic OCTOBER-Love Song (1983) and the West Coast and Goa dance floor hit EXOTIKA (1987).
During this time they enjoyed great success with record labels such as ROUGH TRADE (UK), PLAY IT AGAIN SAM (Belgium), NETTWERK (Canada) and WAX TRAX (USA). In 1992 after many gruelling tours and for both health and artistic reasons CARTER and TUTTI decided to scale down their live performances and concentrate on studio recordings. In collaboration with WORLD SERPENT they continue to release numerous albums and solo projects through their own Conspiracy International label (see discography below).
Since their inception CARTER and TUTTI have collaborated with such artists and musical luminaries as Monte Cazazza, Coil, Current 93, John Duncan, Erasure, The Eurythmics, Boyd Rice, Robert Wyatt and many more. Their music has also been remixed by Carl Craig, Cosmic Connection, Fred Giannelli, Daniel Miller, U -Ziq, Vapourspace and Andrew Weatherall.
CARTER and TUTTI have always embraced working with cross media techniques and constantly confound categorisation. They regard themselves not solely as musicians but equally as artists, sound engineers, writers, performers and subcultural collaborators.
In recent years CARTER and TUTTI have released two ongoing CD series: The Library Of Sound (L.O.S.) and Electronic Ambient Remixes (E.A.R.). Tracks from both these series have been used in gallery installations, performed at numerous electronic music festivals and been used on TV and radio broadcasts and in Hollywood movie trailers. The most recent E.A.R. release (Four) was a 90 minute experimental sound piece originally broadcast on Resonance FM London in 2003. During the last few years CARTER and TUTTI have had many 'classic' Chris & Cosey tracks played and remixed by DJs and producers, with a particular resurgence in 2005/6 for their very early 1980s' material. 2004 saw the release of CABAL, their widely acclaimed debut album under their newly adopted CARTER TUTTI name.
It was in 2003 that Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti begin collaborating once again with Peter Christopherson and Genesis P-Orridge for a regrouping of Throbbing Gristle. This resulted in a new TG album ('Part Two') and a series of live performances and events, with more planned for 2007.
Cosey Fanni Tutti has exhibited at the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, at Tate Britain in London and at the Migros Museum in Zurich. She also has further exhibitions planned for 2007, including MOCA in Los Angeles (more details on her website). In 2000, after studying for five years, Cosey received a Bachelor of Arts, First-Class Honours Degree and was conferred at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England.
In 2006 CARTER TUTTI performed in Pisa, Venice, Madrid, Barcelona and Athens. They also appeared on the recent Current 93 album 'Black Ships Ate The Sky' and are currently working with a number of other musicians on collaborations and projects, which they will announce soon.
During 2007 Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti again worked on numerous Throbbing Gristle projects, recordings, installations, exhibitions and performances. These included their groundbreaking audio/visual performance at Tate Modern turbine hall and their 3-day 'public recording session' at the I.C.A London.
The most recent Carter Tutti album was Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether and is has been heaped with praise and rave reviews and is being acclaimed as "their finest yet". Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti are currently working on a number of collaborations, remixes.
In 2011 Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti began touring again as Chris & Cosey, while also continuing to perform as Carter Tutti.
Go to: Chris Carter site
Go to: Cosey Fanni Tutti site -
COSEY FANNI TUTTI BIOGRAPHY (current - abridged version)
- Born in Hull, Cosey began her career in music and art during 1969, appearing in art performances and musical improvisations in Hull until 1972.
In 1973, Cosey moved to London and continued working as a performance artist representing Britain at the 9th Paris Biennale, 1975 and Arte Inglese Oggi, 1976. She also performed in Belgium, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Austria, USA and Canada until 1980.
Throughout the period 1973 - 1980 Cosey was exhibiting, contributing to mail art exhibitions and performing in other group exhibitions around the world. Often working naked in her performances, Cosey went on to investigate self-image within the context of sex magazines and sex films, glamour modelling and striptease acts. Her experiences within these industries during the period 1973 - 1984 were brought into her art work as she explored the many aspects of sex as it is perceived and transacted as commercial product. She placed conventional beauty in a situation where it was subjected to simulated mutilation before a live audience. This provided a visual contrast highlighting and questioning the notion of what is presentable as 'beauty'.
In her infamous exhibition 'Prostitution' at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1976 Cosey Fanni Tutti occupied multiple roles; artist, model, musician, and herself. Music was used in some of Cosey's performances in preference to spoken language, which she considered an obstacle to her visual presentations. She continued to explore
the use of sound, scientifically, politically, commercially and as a means of physical pleasure or pain. In 1976 she co-founded the group Throbbing Gristle with Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson and Genesis P-Orridge. They broke the rules of established music and its contextual business practice, ultimately becoming successful with their own record label, Industrial Records. In 1981 Cosey immersed herself in creating music and video with partner Chris Carter under the name Chris & Cosey most recently performing and recording as Carter Tutti. Their joint musical and video collaborations, some 32 albums, have met with continuing international success.
1994 marked Cosey's re-entry into the art world since which time her works have been widely exhibited in Museums and Galleries in the UK, USA, Italy, Austria, Germany, Lisbon, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden.
In 2000, after studying for five years, Cosey received a Bachelor of Arts, First-Class Honours Degree and was conferred at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England.
2006 News Item: The London Evening Standard
2006 News Item: The Hull Daily Mail
Cosey's continuing multi disciplinary approach to her work has generated many audio and visual works contributing to a prolific output in the past 15 years alongside her guest lectures, discussion panel appearances and numerous presentations. Cosey Fanni Tutti has exhibited at the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, at Tate Britain in London and at the Migros Museum in Zurich. She also has further exhibitions planned for 2007, including MOCA in Los Angeles (more details on her website).
Her approach to her work also inspired the one day event in March 2010 'COSEY COMPLEX' at the ICA, London in which a range of artists, writers and other practitioners were invited to present works inspired by the notion of 'Cosey as Methodology', culminating in a music event 'COSEY CLUB-ICA'.
In 2009 - 2010 Cosey's work was part of the travelling exhibition 'Pop Life:Art in a Material World' at Tate Modern, London. Also in 2010 Cosey performed a solo audio visual piece in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern as part of the Tate Modern 10th birthday celebrations.
Her art practice takes its place alongside her continuing music work with Chris Carter (as CARTER TUTTI) and the re-grouping of Throbbing Gristle and their continuing world-wide performances and recordings. Her work continues to be exhibited internationally, most recently in 'Pop Life' at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada and 'Picture Industry' at Regen Projects summer show in Los Angeles in 2010.
She works closely with and is represented by Cabinet Gallery, London. WEB SITE LINK
For a comprehensive unabridged biography please contact: Cabinet gallery - email: art@cabinetltd.demon.co.uk -
COSEY FANNI TUTTI BIOGRAPHY (only until 1999)
- Extract is taken from:
WRECKERS OF CIVILISATION. THE STORY OF COUM TRANSMISSIONS AN THROBBING GRISTLE
by Simon Ford - Published by: Black Dog 1999.
But who was this 'flower girl' and where had she come from? Christine Carol Newby was born on 4 November 1951 in the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital in Hull, just before midnight. She was the second daughter of Dennis Newby and Winifred Magueritte Guard. Dennis, was a fireman who later became a Chief Station Officer. He was a strict disciplinarian whilst Tutti's mother; Winifred, was much more lenient and sympathetic towards her daughter. Winifred later became head of the wages department of a large manufacturing firm in Hull. "I was the second daughter and I was supposed to be a boy (ironically to be called Christopher)," Tutti recalls. "Hence I was brought up more like a boy than a girl. I was very rough, always fighting. I had great times getting into all sorts of trouble and was hedonistic as a child and well aware that childhood only lasts so long. My only problem was my over-strict Victorian father. He put the dampers on anything, even Christmas day. When I was in my teens it was a case of always finding out what my father's shifts were so I could organise my social life. If he was on nights I got to stay out with my friends.
If not I was miserable. My poor mum was stuck in the middle." Tutti's early interest in music manifested itself when Mike, her father's youngest brother, stayed briefly with the Newby's, bringing his guitar and harmonica. Whilst he was out
Tutti used to sneak into his room for a quick play. Her father, meanwhile, although he played no musical instruments, was an electronics enthusiast and Tutti remembers well the grating, whining, and shrill noises coming from his room as he tuned his radios. Use particular birthday present she remembers was a Grundig tape recorder that she almost wore out taping herself and music from the radio. She also, rather reluctantly, attended piano lessons and passed her exams despite often skipping the hated lessons. Tutti attended Bilton Grange Infants and Junior School in Hull, from 1956 to 1962.
Then, after passing her eleven plus, she went to Estcourt High School for Girls, from
1962 to 1967. She describes Estcourt now as verging on St. Trinian's" but she did well
and passed all her GCEs. Her favourite subject at school was art, but her father persuaded her to concentrate on the sciences. One early art experience she remembers vividly was being greatly affected by paintings of suffering slaves in the William Wilberforce House in Hull. But apart from this there were few opportunities for Tutti to develop her artistic interests further. "I lived a very working-class lifestyle on a working-class estate in one of the toughest towns in the UK," she says. "Art was not a priority so much as survival among my peers." At school her favourite teacher was the art teacher called Miss Kirten. No matter how disruptive or naughty Tutti was, Miss Kirten never gave her detention or reported her. "She valued unorthodox artistic expression and think that had a profound effect on my attitude to both art and music. She wanted me to stay on and do my A level but it wasn't to be." Under pressure from her father; Tutti left school after her exams and went to work as a laboratory assistant in a local school. It was around this time that she started smoking dope and dropping acid which led to her taking a lot of time off work. Eventually she handed in her notice and became unemployed. This was too much for her father who said she should either get a job or get out. Subsequently she left home and stayed with her friend 'Lelli'. "I missed my mother; she was so dear to me and helped me so much through the battles with my father. She called to me from the house one day when she saw me and begged me to come home for Christmas. I did but I'd left before the end of January. My father and I were incompatible, he wanted total control and I wanted none
of it." Tutti had always hated the name Christine and preferred people to call her Carol. After meeting P-Orridge she changed her name again, first to Cosmosis, then to Cosey. The lengthening of the name to Cosey Fanni Tutti took place in 1973, when mail artist Robin Klassnik suggested it via a postcard. The new name came from the title of Mozart's 1790 opera, Cosi fan tutte (which has been variously translated as 'They (women) are all the same', 'Thus do our women', or 'All the Women are at it'). The new name suited her well with its corruption of the high art form of opera into the low art form of the music hall and the burlesque (and even rock 'n' roll with its echoes of Little Richard's 'Tutti-frutti'). It soon became obvious to their friends that P-Orridge and Tutti were a well-matched couple. In particular they both shared rebellious and self-confident personalities. "When you're in your late teens or early twenties," Tutti explains, "you have little sense of responsibility. You're just out to get whatever experiences you can, you don't think of what the consequences are going to be. You don't even think as constructively as that.
We just went out and did it. We were very anti-establishment anything- music and art.
We wanted to destroy anything that had ground rules, that kept everything suffocating
and safe. We were out to break all the rules any way we could." This idealism, though, was not shared by other members of the household. Tutti recalls that within the commune they were regarded as outsiders "because we actually wanted to do things for real and follow them through to a conclusion. We sold Oz and made tie-dye T-shirts and 'loon' pants and also started doing what we called our 'acoustic doo-dahs' and the street theatre. The rest of the commune didn't really appreciate our commitment because they were out of their heads most of the time. Although I'd experimented with drugs I found them just a total waste of time, like getting pissed and doing nothing. You're just numbing your brain and doing nothing with your life and we were ostracised for even thinking like that within the commune. When Tutti joined COUM they were still a predominantly musically orientated group, playing instruments such as broken violins, prepared pianos, guitars, bongos, and talking drums. Tutti began to take part in performances in 1971, before then she would help build props and design costumes. "I became more involved as the direction started to change," Tutti told David Bourgoin, "COUM was musically based and took the form of acoustic improvisations, just anywhere, then more abstract scenarios started creeping in and we made entire environments for enjoyment." Tutti also described some of the happenings they produced, highlighting their often absurd nature: "People had to crawl through a polythene tunnel to get into the hall.
by Simon Ford 1999
-
CHRIS CARTER BIOGRAPHY (only until 2010)
- Born in London, England Chris Carter is best known for being a founder member Throbbing Gristle and one half of electronic duo Chris & Cosey (aka Carter Tutti). His long time partner Cosey Fanni Tutti is the mother of his son, Nick and is also a member of TG.
He began his career in the late 1960's working for various TV stations (Thames, Granada and LWT) as a sound engineer on numerous TV shows and documentaries. This gave him an invaluable grounding in working with sound, audio techniques and theories. He also got more involved in the visual side of entertainment and performance, which eventually progressed into designing and presenting light shows and visual effects for numerous festivals, events and performances, including bands as diverse as Yes and Hawkwind. This work led to commissions for BBC TV shows, Colour Me Pop and The Old Grey Whistle Test.
By the early 70s' Chris was touring universities and colleges with a solo, multimedia show playing self-built synthesizers and keyboards and incorporating a myriad of lighting effects gleaned from his previous work. During this time he also worked extensively with visual artist John Lacey on many 8 mm & 16 mm experimental films and multimedia presentations. In the mid 1970s', and through his connection with John Lacey, Chris began an experimental music/sound collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge, who at the time were also performing as COUM Transmissions with Peter Christopherson.
The results of this musical collaboration was the creation of the now legendary Throbbing Gristle, Industrial Records and the birth of the 'Industrial Music' phenomenon. In 1976 Chris also worked at the London bureau of the ABC News agency as a sound engineer and during that time designed and constructed their London radio studio. In 1977 he was offered a contract to build another ABC studio in Rome but turned it down to continue his involvement as a member of Throbbing Gristle.
During the early years of TG the four members each continued with other solo projects and work. It was during this period (1980) when Chris recorded his first solo album for Industrial Records titled 'The Space Between', (now available on Mute Records). Shortly after the demise of Throbbing Gristle in 1982 Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti formed the Conspiracy International record label CTI (with backing from Rough Trade Records) and began working together as Chris & Cosey and also as CTI. Initially releasing only music they soon moved into producing video works and with the help of Doublevision released a number of CTI experimental video films and soundtracks. In 1985 Chris released his second solo album Mondo Beat. As well as successfully touring all over the world Chris & Cosey also recorded and collaborated on innumerable releases, most notably with Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, Robert Wyatt, Coil, Boyd Rice, Lustmord, Monte Cazazza and many more. Chris & Cosey have also remixed tracks for Mortal Loom and Erasure. In 1994 Chris moved also into journalism and regularly has technical articles and reviews published in UK magazine Sound On Sound.
Chris is also a keen photographer and in collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti has designed and produced numerous album covers, posters and art works. 1995 saw Chris return to solo performance work after a gap of some 15 years. In 1998 Chris released a compilation CD of tracks from his 1995 Disobey tour: Disobedient, and In 2000 he released a solo studio album: Small Moon. 1998 also saw the release of Caged, a collaboration album with electro musician Ian Boddy.
In 2000 Chris, in collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti, began producing and releasing a series albums titled: Electronic Ambient Remixes. The first of these, EAR ONE, consisted of remixes of his 1980 'The Space Between' album. In 2002 he released EAR THREE a further solo ambient CD, which consists of remixes of his original Throbbing Gristle industrial rhythm tracks. In 2003 Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti stopped releasing material and performing as Chris & Cosey and now produce all their work under the title of CARTER TUTTI. Their most recent performance was in February 2005 at the LA MOCA 'See Hear Now' festival, in Los Angeles.
Chris Carter and the other original members of Throbbing Gristle regrouped in 2002 for a series of TG related releases and events. These include the TG24 CD boxed set and accompanying art exhibition in London and performances in 2004 at the Astoria, London, Camber Sands, Sussex and Turin, Italy in 2005.
Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti again worked on numerous Throbbing Gristle projects, recordings, installations, exhibitions and performances. Their more recent activities included their groundbreaking audio/visual performance at Tate Modern turbine hall with a full choir, their 3-day 'public recording session' at the I.C.A London and their 2009 sell-out USA tour.
In recent years Carter Tutti performed in Pisa, Venice, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens Wroclaw, Berlin and London. They also appeared on the recent Current 93 album 'Black Ships Ate The Sky' and are currently working with a number of other musicians on collaborations and projects. The most recent Carter Tutti album 'Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether' was released in 2007 and heaped with praise, acclaim and rave reviews.
Chris continues to work solo and with both Throbbing Gristle Cosey on various projects. During the latter part of 2009 Chris has been extensively involved in the realisation and production of the TG loop playback machine 'Gristleism'. He is also currently working on a new solo experimental audio project titled CCCL (Chris Carter's Chemistry Lessons). During 2010 his acclaimed solo album 'The Space Between' is being re-released as a limited-edition remastered vinyl album. He has also been commissioned by The Technology & Innovation Research Centre to write an experimental piece of music in 2010 for the Dirty Electronics Ensemble.
Last update: Jan 2010
PLEASE NOTE! - THESE BIOGRAPHIES ARE DUE TO BE UPDATED…