Art Of Noise

Art Of Noise (aka The Art Of Noise),were a British avant-garde electronic music group formed in 1983 by a group of musicians and producers namely Trevor Horn, Gary Langan, J.J. Jeczalik, Anne Dudley and NME journalist Paul Morley. The group's music took in a range of genres ranging from synth-pop, dance, ambient and even classical, all characterised by the use of state-of-the-art electronic equipment and in particular sampling technology which was fairly new at the time. The group's anonymous image (usually photographed with masks) and style was based on early 20th century musical and art collectives, in particular from 'The art of noises', the Italian Futurist music manifesto published in 1916. Art of Noise's record label Zang Tumb Tumb (or ZTT, home also to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda and Grace Jones) takes its name from a Futurist 'noise poem', although the group left ZTT after an acrimonious split in 1985 in which Horn and Morley left the project.

Dudley, Jeczalik, and Langan went on to record the group'sbiggest selling album In Visible Silence in 1986, and a year later ''In No Sense? Nonsense!'', with Art Of Noise reduced to just Jeczalik and Dudley. A Best of album also followed, before the project disbanded in 1990.

The group's output was largely instrumental although they scored their biggest hit in the UK with a cover version of Prince's Kiss featuring veteran vocalist Tom Jones. Further hits include 'Paranoimia', featuring early CGI talking head Max Headroom, and another cover version 'Peter Gunn' featuring Duane Eddy which won a Grammy award in 1986.

In 1998 the group temporarily reformed without Jeczalik and Langan (ie. Horn / Dudley / Morley), but with the addition of guitarist Lol Creme, formerly of 10cc. (detailed history here)

In 2017 Dudley, Jeczalik and Langan are to 'reboot' the album In Visible Silence, with a deluxe re-issue and live shows, including a performance at the Liverpool Sound City 10th anniversary edition.