Jonathan Sharp (musician)

Jonathan Sharp is an electronic body music / industrial musician and professional sound designer from Cumbria, Great Britain, who has released music under the names New Mind, Bio-Tek, Black Rain, and others. He was also a member of Cyber-Tec Project, Hexedene, and Hyperdex-1-Sect.

Jonathan Sharp
Also known as
  • New Mind
  • Bio-Tek
  • The Heartwood Institute
  • Psionic
  • Tyrophex 14
OriginCumbria, Great Britain
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • producer
  • sound designer
Years active1990-present
Labels
Associated acts
Websitehttps://sonic-boom.com/mission-control/

Career

Early life

As a child he had piano and violin lessons, and as a teenager taught himself to play guitar and synthesisers[1] Jonathan was a classically-trained musician who was inspired by experimental guitar oriented music in the vein of Swans, as well as early industrial and electronic music including Neu! and Helden.[2]

New Mind

New Mind was formed as a solo project of Jonathan Sharp in 1990. Prior to creating New Mind, Jonathan played guitar and sampler in an experimental band and thought of electronic and industrial musics as being distinct. It was when Jonathan took a suggestion to listen to Skinny Puppy that he had a revelation that led to the creation of New Mind.[2]

The first New Mind demo, Bacteriophage, was recorded on 4-track in 1991.[2] This was followed by the EP Body Politic which was released by the Sadisque, an imprint of the UK-based Vinyl Solution label. New Mind was initially offered an expanded record deal with Sadisque but the deal fell through. Jonathan contributed tracks to several compilations during the following year including releases by Sentrax Records, Dossier, and The Empty Quarter before being signed to Machinery Records in 1993.[3]

The first New Mind album, Fractured, was released by Machinery Records in 1993. This was the only release on Machinery as the label did not find the initial material for the second album, Zero To The Bone, to their liking.[3] Zero To The Bone was eventually released by Fifth Colvmn Records in 1995.[4][5]

After setbacks with both Fifth Colvmn and Cyber-Tec, Jonathan sent initial demos of tracks from Forge to Stefan Herwig at Off Beat. This led to a multi-album deal with Off Beat.[3]

Cyber-Tec Project
Main article: Cyber-Tec Project

In 1995, Jonathan became a founding member of Cyber-Tec Project along with Jean-Luc De Meyer and Ged Denton. Jonathan was unexpectedly replaced in the band by Marc Heal after the release of the band's first album.[3]

Bio-Tek

Jonathan considered New Mind to be his main musical project and did not wish to constrain his musical output under that name to any particular genre or style. His affinity for "European" EBM, however, led him to develop a second solo project, Bio-Tek, as an outlet for that particular style.[2] While he was releasing music as New Mind on Off Beat, Jonathan secured a deal with seminal German record label, Zoth Ommog, to release music as Bio-Tek.[3]

Hyperdex-1-Sect

The relationship with Zoth Ommog via Bio-Tek led to a collaboration between Jonathan and André Schmechta of X Marks the Pedwalk that became Hyperdex-1-Sect. Their album Metachrome was released by Synthetic Symphony in 1997 and featured tracks that Jonathan had originally written for Cyber-Tec Project, reconstructed by André and reformatted with female vocals.[3]

Hexedene
Main article: Hexedene

In 1997, Jonathan formed Hexedene with Katie Helsby and Ian Palmer.[2]

Production & Remixes

During the 1990s, Jonathan produced many remixes as New Mind for bands such as Aïboforcen, Birmingham 6, Scar Tissue, Inertia, Aghast View, and Attrition. He also recorded many one-off compilation tracks under various names, including: Datura, Gunhed,[2] Lashtal,[3] Nova, Psionic, Tyrophex 14, Vent, and Zodiac.

The Heartwood Institute

Beginning in 2015, Jonathan began releasing 1970s-inspired, "haunting" music under the name The Heartwood Institute. Jonathan began performing live at themed events as Heartwood beginning in 2017.[6]

Discography

As New Mind

As Bio-Tek
  • A God Ignored Is A Demon Born (CD, 1996, Zoth Ommog, Cleopatra)
  • Darkness My Name Is (CD, 1997, Zoth Ommog)
  • Punishment For Decadence (CD, 1999, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)
  • The Ceremony Of Innocence (CD, 2002, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)

As The Heartwood Institute
  • Astercote (CD, 2015, Reverb Worship)
  • The Wild Hunt Of Hagworthy (CDr, 2015, Reverb Worship)
  • Calder Hall: Atomic Power Station (CDr, 2016, Reverb Worship)
  • Mix Tape One (Cass, 2017, The Heartwood Institute)
  • The Whispering Knights (CDr, 2017, Reverb Worship)
  • Secret Rites (LP/digital, 2018, Polytechnic Youth)
  • Barsham Faire (7" single, 2018, Polytechnic Youth)
  • The Divided Self (EP, 2018, Sleep FUSE)
  • Tomorrow's People (LP, 2019, Polytechnic Youth)
  • w/ Tomorrow Syndicate, The Home Current Remixes (7" single, 2019, Polytechnic Youth)
  • w/ Panamint Manse, Parapsychedelia (LP, 2020, Castles in Space)
  • Lovely Lightning / Ringstone Round (7" single/digital, 2020, Sleep FUSE)

As Jonathan Sharp
  • Divided Time (LP/digital, 2019, Castles in Space)
  • Kensington, 1974 / Kendal Steam Gathering, 1975 (7" single, 2019, Castles in Space)

References
  1. Sharp, Jonathan. "About". Heartwood Soundware. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  2. Crawford, Al (December 1996). "Interview: New Mind". Sonic Boom. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  3. Sage (1997). "Interview: New Mind". Culture Shock. Genocide Project. 1 (97): 30–31. ISSN 1093-1651.
  4. Zero to the Bone at MusicBrainz
  5. Christian, Chris. "New Mind: Zero To The Bone". Sonic Boom. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  6. "Debut live appearance for 1970s-inspired recording project". Times and Star. Newsquest Media Group Ltd. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
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