Scannering Sounds

Marco Mancuso

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image courtesy Scanner

What’s impressive about Robin Rimbaud, London musician and sound artist better known to his (large) audience by the name of Scanner, is his prolific output flanked by the enviable lucidity of his projects and his equally enviable clarity of expression, matured over almost fifteen years of activity. In a scenario where electronic music, whether pop or experimental, is not always so adept at reconciling the spirit of research with the allure of the mainstream and is subject to increasing comparison with the aural experimentalism of sound art, Scanner moves with the lightness and conviction of a virtuoso, fortified by a rare sensitivity and the innate ability to communicate through a simple flow of sounds.

Scanner is an artist whose chosen name is a declaration of intent, an artistic ID card as unequivocal as litmus paper. “What’s so interesting about the scanner as a device is its ability to capture the sounds around us, its ability to communicate stories, emotions, ideas. I find this communication between people fascinating. That’s what all my work is about, trying to unlock people’s emotions and get into their hearts, to be, in other words, emotive”. So for Robin Rimbaud the scanner is a medium of communication and conversation, an electronic device that can capture and deconstruct urban sounds and conversations over a radius of several kilometres, create new frequencies, new acoustic sensations of cities and places in perennial movement, a medium that in his hands is tranformed into an electronic accompaniment to images or visual narrative in hundreds of projects covering sound installations, works of sound art, live multimedia exhibitions, experimental music concerts and aural experiments.
In other words Scanner is the prototype for the modern (and future) electronic artist, one of those rare contemporary artists for whom it is worth trying to imagine what they might have done had they lived in a post-digital era. Accompanied by an enlightened awareness of the enormous opportunities offered by technology and the integration of media and materials, never troubled by the temptation to superimpose himself on abstract theories and academic thought, Robin Rimbaud appears to move by instinct, appending his sonic ambiences to those of video artists, architects, choreographers, VJs, designers, game developers, directors, town planners and sound designers, as much as classical musicians and laptop addicts from around the globe. “When you work with sounds and images you need to be aware of the interrelations between them, especially the ability of sound to enhance the images and vice versa. Quite often when I describe my work I find I’m talking about both sounds and visuals, and when I fly from one city to another I like to visit the galleries and museums. The visual component is quite conspicuous in the things I like and that gets me excited. People label me as a music intellectual because I talk about ideas, because I try to share them by working with other artists from completely different backgrounds: often I can learn from them, working as part of a group. And my involvement with sounds and music benefits totally from this”.

The list of projects and collaborations featuring Scanner is virtually endless. On March 14, at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, he gave a hugely successful performance as part of the Ether festival: an extraordinary event that jumbles contemporary electronic music and electroacoustic experimentation, where laptop musicians square up to the maestros of the 21st century reproduced to perfection by the ensemble of the London Sinfonietta. That was where we met him. In Italy he was involved in Netmage 2003 and, in September last year, Audiovisiva, where he presented 52 Pieces, a liberal urban-sound interpretation of the final two minutes (or 52 frames) of Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece L’eclissi, commissioned by the British Institute to celebrate the director’s ninetieth birthday.

The number and variety of Scanner’s collective efforts over the years is impressive: he has worked with composer Jean-Paul Dessy and fashion designer Hussein Chalayan; he has remixed pieces by Salvatore Sciarrino and collaborated with Alter Ego, he sound-tracked the visions of Jean Luc Godard and worked with video artist Edith Garcia, he has experienced working alongside choreographers like Wayne McGregor and Daniel Larrieu and has explored the works of Andy Warhol, played with sound toys and sound polaroids with Tonne and produced records solo and with other musicians like Stephen Vitiello, Kim Cascone, Carsten Nicolai and Dj Spooky.

Accumulating a polyhedral assortment of audiovisual experience, contributing positively to transforming electronic music from ice-cold expressive medium to warm and emotive instrument, Scanner has also demonstrated that he is a modern artist in his ability to engage in activities parallel to his normal artistic pursuits, such as contributing to London-based newsletter KULTURE FLASH or his active participation in the FREE103POINT9 collective, a non-profit media-arts organization whose aim is to promote electronic transmission arts. Swathed in a humanity and affability that reflect his need to communicate and revel in the results achieved, Robin Rimbaud is one of the most fascinating theorists of digital experimentation I have had the pleasure to meet down the years, as laid back on stage as he is at the conversation table. With Scanner, staying on station is simply a happy case of tuning in our emotions.