Robin Crutchfield
Encyclopedia
Robin Crutchfield is an American
artist. He is best known as one of the founding musicians of the former New York No Wave
scene. He has performed at such hallowed musical grounds as CBGB's, Max's Kansas City
and Artist's Space; as well as had his work on display at prestigious venues like MoMA
and The Whitney Museum of American Art
.
band DNA
alongside Arto Lindsay
and Ikue Mori
. He played keyboards in the first version of the band, getting to work with musical luminary Brian Eno
on the seminal No New York
album. Robin left the band to form his own group in 1979. His band, Dark Day, explored wide varieties of keyboard and synthesizer textures and went through several lineup changes. Early on Robin worked with Ninal Canal of Ut
, and Nancy Arlen of Mars
. Towards the end of the band's existence Crutchfield, now working solo, explored a style somewhat reminiscent of European medieval and baroque music.
In 1978 Robin dabbled in acting, taking a small part in cult New York film director Amos Poe
's The Foreigner. As well as acting, Crutchfield, true to the DIY attitude of the punk movement, created his own record label, Nigh Eve, on which he released many of his albums.
Crutchfield resumed Dark Day as a solo act in the late 1990s, returning to a familiar electronic sound but with a noticeable natural progression. The albums that followed saw his music turn away from the cold synthesizer textures he'd become known for. In the year 2000 Robin's music was used in the Bravo television series First Person
created by Errol Morris
.
In early 2002, after a twenty year hiatus, Crutchfield resumed both painting and writing. His work centered around fairy tales and his music changed to reflect this. By the summer of that same year Crutchfield had exhibited both his new images and words at a gallery show curated by Norman Shapiro at the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation entitled Verbal/Visual/Tactile: Book Artist's Show.
In 2008, Marc Masters, a contributing writer for The Wire
magazine, published his book entitled No Wave. The book, as its name implies, focuses solely on the No Wave scene and features many sections on both DNA
and Dark Day, as well as performance and promotional photographs of Crutchfield from that time period. Robin is also featured in Simon Reynolds
post-punk opus Rip It Up and Start Again.
As of 2009, Robin has worked with noted independent label Important Records to release his fourth CD of harp/drone folk music entitled The Hidden Folk, which has received rave reviews from both critics and fellow contemporaries such as Kurt Weisman, and Thurston Moore
. In late 2009 Crutchfield decided to enter the publishing world with a short book entitled Eleven Faerie Tales. Expanding his world of faeries from music into the written word, Robin used the creation of these fairy tales as a kind of therapy, to best express the emotions he had felt dealing with particularly difficult relationships or friendships over the years. These eleven tales deal with what it means to be a person, living through all the ups and downs of love, while trying to get to the very heart of what makes up our lives. Robin still lives in New York City and continues to create and be involved with the art world, most recently guest deejaying for Ceci Moss on East Village Radio
.
As Dark Day
As Robin Crutchfield
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist. He is best known as one of the founding musicians of the former New York No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
scene. He has performed at such hallowed musical grounds as CBGB's, Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South, in New York City, which was a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Origin of name:...
and Artist's Space; as well as had his work on display at prestigious venues like MoMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
and The Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
.
Biography
Born in Ohio, Robin moved to New York in the mid 1970s. He was a performance artist in the SoHo and Tribeca art scene before becoming an original member of the seminal No WaveNo Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
band DNA
DNA (band)
DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
alongside Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
and Ikue Mori
Ikue Mori
, also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, composer, and graphic designer.-Biography:Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock...
. He played keyboards in the first version of the band, getting to work with musical luminary Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
on the seminal No New York
No New York
No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave...
album. Robin left the band to form his own group in 1979. His band, Dark Day, explored wide varieties of keyboard and synthesizer textures and went through several lineup changes. Early on Robin worked with Ninal Canal of Ut
Ut (band)
Ut originated from New York City's downtown No Wave scene in December 1978. The inheritors of the fertile collision between rock, free jazz and the avant garde that first manifested itself in the Velvet Underground, Ut soon became a serious force within the New York music scene.- History :Ut's...
, and Nancy Arlen of Mars
Mars (band)
Mars was a New York City No Wave band formed by vocalist Sumner Crane in 1975. He was joined by China Burg , Mark Cunningham , and artist Nancy Arlen , and briefly by guitarist Rudolph Grey. The band played one live gig under the name China before changing it to Mars...
. Towards the end of the band's existence Crutchfield, now working solo, explored a style somewhat reminiscent of European medieval and baroque music.
In 1978 Robin dabbled in acting, taking a small part in cult New York film director Amos Poe
Amos Poe
Amos Poe is a New York City director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."-Career:Amos Poe is one of the first punk filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation —co-directed with Ivan Kral— is one of the earliest punk films...
's The Foreigner. As well as acting, Crutchfield, true to the DIY attitude of the punk movement, created his own record label, Nigh Eve, on which he released many of his albums.
Crutchfield resumed Dark Day as a solo act in the late 1990s, returning to a familiar electronic sound but with a noticeable natural progression. The albums that followed saw his music turn away from the cold synthesizer textures he'd become known for. In the year 2000 Robin's music was used in the Bravo television series First Person
First Person (TV series)
First Person was an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals....
created by Errol Morris
Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
.
In early 2002, after a twenty year hiatus, Crutchfield resumed both painting and writing. His work centered around fairy tales and his music changed to reflect this. By the summer of that same year Crutchfield had exhibited both his new images and words at a gallery show curated by Norman Shapiro at the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation entitled Verbal/Visual/Tactile: Book Artist's Show.
In 2008, Marc Masters, a contributing writer for The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
magazine, published his book entitled No Wave. The book, as its name implies, focuses solely on the No Wave scene and features many sections on both DNA
DNA (band)
DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
and Dark Day, as well as performance and promotional photographs of Crutchfield from that time period. Robin is also featured in Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
post-punk opus Rip It Up and Start Again.
As of 2009, Robin has worked with noted independent label Important Records to release his fourth CD of harp/drone folk music entitled The Hidden Folk, which has received rave reviews from both critics and fellow contemporaries such as Kurt Weisman, and Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
. In late 2009 Crutchfield decided to enter the publishing world with a short book entitled Eleven Faerie Tales. Expanding his world of faeries from music into the written word, Robin used the creation of these fairy tales as a kind of therapy, to best express the emotions he had felt dealing with particularly difficult relationships or friendships over the years. These eleven tales deal with what it means to be a person, living through all the ups and downs of love, while trying to get to the very heart of what makes up our lives. Robin still lives in New York City and continues to create and be involved with the art world, most recently guest deejaying for Ceci Moss on East Village Radio
East Village Radio
East Village Radio is an Internet radio station which broadcasts from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City. EVR serves both as a voice for the local downtown cultural scene and as a forum for the community at large...
.
Discography
With DNA- "You & You" b/w "Little Ants", 1978 - Lust/Unlust Music
- No New YorkNo New YorkNo New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave...
: various artists (Four DNA tracks), 1978 - Antilles - DNA On DNA, 2004 - No More Records
As Dark Day
- "Hands in the Dark" b/w "Invisible Man", 1979 - Lust/Unlust Music
- Exterminating Angel, 1980 - Lust/Unlust Music
- "Trapped" b/w "The Exterminations 1-6", 1981 - Lust/Unlust Music
- Window, 1982 - Plexus USA
- Darkest Before Dawn, 1989 - Nigh Eve Productions
- Dark Day Collected: 1978-1982, 1998 - Daft Records
- Strange Clockwork, 1999 - Self-released
- Loon, 2000 - Self-released
- Robin Crutchfield reading from The White Things, 2001 - Self-released
- The Happy Little Oysters, 2001 - Self-released
- Fifty: A Half-Life, 2002 - Self-released
- Dark Day: Strange Clockwork, 2003 - Nigh Eve Recordings
- Strange Remains, 2005 - Self-released
As Robin Crutchfield
- SongsForFaerieFolk, 2006 - Self-released
- ToadstoolSoup, 2006 - Nigh Eve Recordings
- For Our Friends In The Enchanted Otherworld, 2007 - Hand/Eye
- The Hidden Folk, 2009 - Important Records
External links
- The Official Robin Crutchfield Artist Page
- Robin Crutchfield's MySpace
- Robin Crutchfield's Facebook
- DNA Wiki PageDNA (band)DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
- No Wave: The Book