Janek Schaefer
Monday 11 January 2010, 6:30pm

Sound Artist & Composer Janek Schaefer was born in England to Polish and Canadian parents in 1970. While studying architecture at the Royal College of Art (RCA annual prize), he recorded the fragmented noises of a sound activated dictaphone travelling overnight through the Post Office. That work, titled Recorded Delivery (1995) was made for the Self storage exhibition with one time postman Brian Eno and Artangel. Since then the multiple aspects of sound became his focus, resulting in many site-specific installations, exhibition & dance soundtracks, albums and concerts using his self built record players with manipulated found sound collage. The ‘Tri-phonic Turntable’ (1997) is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘World’s Most Versatile Record Player’.

He has performed, lectured and exhibited widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA], USA/Canada, (The Walker, XI, Mutek, Princeton), Japan, and Australia (Sydney Opera House). In 2008 he won the Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers Prize, and The British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art for Extended Play (Triptych for the child survivors of war and conflict).