Biography
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Born
20 January 1929
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Born In
Paris, Île-de-France, France
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Died
4 November 2016 (aged 87)
Jean-Jacques Perrey (January 20, 1929 – November 4, 2016) was a French electronic music producer and he was an early pioneer in the genre. He was a member of the electronic music duo Perrey & Kingsley.
An avant-gardist with sense of daftness, his name resounded throughout the land since the track "E.V.A." was remixed by Fatboy Slim. At the age of 76 he released a new album. Nowadays he is known as one of the creators of pop music.
Perrey was born in France in 1929. He was studying medicine in Paris when he met George Jenny, inventor of the Ondioline. Quitting medical school, Perrey travelled through Europe demonstrating this keyboard ancestor of the modern synthesizer. At the age of 30, Perrey relocated to New York, sponsored by Caroll Bratman, who built him an experimental laboratory and recording studio. Here he invented "a new process for generating rhythms with sequences and loops", utilising the environmental sounds of "musique concrète." With scissors, splicing tape, and tape recorders, he spent weeks piecing together a uniquely comique take on the future. Befriending Robert Moog, he became one of the first Moog synth musicians, creating "far out electronic entertainment". In 1965 Perrey met Gershon Kingsley, a former colleague of John Cage. Together, using Ondioline and Perrey's loops, they created two albums for Vanguard — The In Sound From Way Out (1966) and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations (1967). Perrey and Kingsley collaborated on sound design for radio and television advertising. Perrey returned to France, composing for television, scoring for ballet and continuing medical research into therapeutic sounds for insomniacs.
The rap group Beastie Boys released an instrumental CD titled, as a tribute to Perrey & Kingsley, The In Sound From Way Out.
Most recently, Perrey had been collaborating with Seattle music/composer Dana Countryman, and they have released two CDs on Oglio Records, "The Happy Electropop Music Machine", and "Destination Space".
In 2010, his song "Chicken on the Rocks" was featured in an episode of "South Park".
His official website can be found at: http://www.jeanjacquesperrey.com/
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