Artist description An unconventional mix of 80s synthpop, trance and electronica.

Music Style Electronic

Musical Influences Daft Punk, Air, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, The Blue Nile, Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode, The Human League

Similar Artists Daft Punk, Air, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream

Artist History "FGO and The Strange Case of Dr Per Fraus-Dolus" During the summer of 1943, an unusually high level of sunspot activity produced severe disruption in radio communications across the globe. Dr Per Fraus-Dolus of the German Advanced Sciences Institute was appointed to lead a team of brilliant scientists charged with finding a solution to this problem, which was crippling Germany's wartime intelligence communications. His team developed an advanced radio receiver, the FRT, which was capable of filtering out unwanted noise and intrusive radio broadcasts. The Axis powers were excited by this invention but Fraus-Dolus concealed from them a most unusual and unexpected side effect of the ingenious circuitry. In private experiments, he had discovered that careful adjustment allowed the FRT to isolate very weak electromagnetic radiation bouncing around in the ionosphere, effectively allowing it tune in to radio broadcasts from the past and future. He deliberately disabled the prototype FRT given to the Nazi government to remove this feature, fearing the technology might fall into enemy hands but continued researching and developing the device on his own. Fraus-Dolus was particularly fascinated by broadcasts which seemed to emanate from over forty years into the future. He heard brief fragments of music the like of which had never been heard before; music constructed of unusual sounds and heavy rhythms. He speculated that this music was created using a Theremin, an electronic instrument he had seen demonstrated some ten years earlier. But this Theremin-like instrument was capable of producing a far wider range of sounds and polyphony than the primitive instrument he had heard. Over the next two months Fraus-Dolus listened avidly to these extraordinary broadcasts, making copious notes and recording the enticing musical fragments on to magnetic tape. He was able to keep his discoveries secret until his fortieth birthday celebrations when, having consumed too much beer and wine, he let slip his discovery to a colleague at the Institute. Two days later, the SS raided his laboratories and confiscated his equipment and notes. Fraus-Dolus was arrested and placed in a concentration camp. There he was tortured regularly as the Nazis tried to discover how to use the modified FRT. He resisted the torture for three weeks, finally revealing the secret settings when the physical and mental abuse became too much to withstand. But by this time, the sun spot activity was over and the FRT behaved like any ordinary radio receiver. It was eleven years until sunspot activity had increased to a suitable level to begin using the FRT again. By this time, Fraus-Dolus was living in America and working as a lecturer and senior research fellow at the De Varre Institute of Science. He enlisted the help of a gifted student to redesign the FRT using modern technology. Fraus-Dolus found that the FRT2 had the same time reach as before - about forty years - but this time the clarity of the broadcasts was higher and the fragments longer, sometimes as much as 70 seconds. Once again extensive notes were made along with high fidelity recordings of the musical fragments. As the research continued, Fraus-Dolus's gifted assistant became increasingly frustrated by his insistence that their findings should remain secret. She eventually approached the US Government with details of the FRT2, hoping to gain recognition and a substantial career boost. The equipment, notes and recordings were once again seized by a Government determined to gain any advantage over its enemies. Fortunately Fraus-Dolus had removed some of his notes and recordings to a safety deposit box a few weeks earlier. Nevertheless, betrayed for a second time by a trusted colleague, Fraus-Dolus slipped into a severe depression. In a subsequent investigation, the House on Un-American activities branded him a communist and he was blacklisted by every research institute and University in America. He spent the next thirty years a destitute, alcoholic vagrant, regaling passers-by with insane ramblings about space and time and the origin of the Universe, years before such theories gained acceptance by the scientific establishment. FGO's album Adoration of the Electron, first released in 1984 was accompanied by a bizarre press release. It described how the reclusive French synthesiser duo had received a scrawled letter from Fraus-Dolus in late 1983, wrapped around a cassette tape containing short fragments of music. The letter explained how these recordings had been made and that certain elements were strangely reminiscent of the band's music. Inspired by these scratchy snippets of sound, FGO used the latest sampling technology to rework them into fully realised pieces. The album created an intriguing paradox: as FGO assembled their music, were they unwittingly copying the work of another composer or had Fraus-Dolus actually heard snippets of these very compositions thirty years earlier? And if the cassette had never reached the band, would they still have created the album? It is rumoured that Fraus-Dolus sent similar cassettes to other popular artists of the time but to date, only FGO have publicly acknowledged his involvement in their creative output. The singles Play My SH101 and Space/Time helped the album achieve top twenty status in five European countries but FGO never again achieved the same level of success. Their follow-up album, Symphonie Mécanique De Bête, a seventy five minute ambient soundscape of sampled animal sounds and industrial machinery, was poorly received both critically and commercially. Chelouti was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1989 and died of an overdose in 1992. Jacquard re-emerged on the music scene in 1999 under the pseudonym Critical Mass, scoring a minor trance hit with the single Tomboy Love Confusion. He is now working on new material and is said to have revisited the FRT2 cassettes for further inspiration. Fraus-Dolus became a popular figure on television chat shows following the success of the album and steadily improved his fortunes. His conversations were still riddled with insane ramblings which provided tremendous entertainment value but occasionally punctuated with startling flashes of brilliance and insight. In an extraordinary interview published shortly after his death in 1989, Fraus-Dolus produced from his pocket a small glass phial which he claimed contained a single electron, sealed in a vacuum. He described the electron as his constant companion, best friend and only love. He told the interviewer that the electron never had and never would betray him.

Group Members Xavier Chelouti, Jean-Pierre Jacquard. Artistic collaboration: Patrick Champault and Richard Poyle.

Instruments Casio VL-Tone, Yamaha VSS200 Sampler, Evolution Audio Sequencer, Voyetra Orchestrator Mixer, Data Becker Technomaker, AnalogX Vocoder, Goldwave and Yamaha DJX Synthesizer

Albums Adoration of the Electron

Press Reviews For afficionados of 80s synth pop, FGO's debut album 'Adoration of the Electron' is a delicious delight. Working behind the fictional guises of Xavier Chelouti and Jean-Pierre Jacquard, FGO's creator Richard Poyle gleefully resurrects the sounds and ironic pretentiousness of bands such as OMD and The Human League in both his music and the accompanying sleeve notes. The unusual combination of vintage keyboards (such as the Casio VL-Tone) and modern sampling techniques makes for enjoyable listening. It's been some years since I've heard snare sounds this loud and even longer since I heard the type of bouncy bassline used to great effect on the exceedingly catchy 'Space/Time'. Elsewhere, sampled and filtered radio noises pop into the mix, along with short vocodered phrases and joyful, bleeping lead lines. Fans of Air and Daft Punk will find much to enjoy here but anyone with the remotest interest in 80s music should give this CD a spin.

Location Nottingham, Nottinghamshire - United Kingdom

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