17 Facts About Tim Hodgkinson

Timothy George Hodgkinson was born on 1 May 1949 and is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards.

Tim Hodgkinson first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968.

Tim Hodgkinson graduated in social anthropology from Cambridge in 1971, but chose to pursue a musical career instead.

Tim Hodgkinson remained with Henry Cow as one of the band's core members until their demise in 1978 and composed a number of their musical pieces, most notably, "Living in the Heart of the Beast", and "Erk Gah".

Henry Cow was the foundation of Tim Hodgkinson's musical education, and it was an opportunity for him to work closely with other instrumentalists and develop new musical landscapes.

In November 1973, Tim Hodgkinson participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the BBC.

In 1980 Tim Hodgkinson formed The Work, a post-punk band with guitarist-composer Bill Gilonis, bassist Mick Hobbs and drummer Rick Wilson.

In February 1987 Tim Hodgkinson toured with South African band Kalahari Surfers, playing at the "Rote Lieder DDR" Festival of Political Songs.

In December 2006, Cutler, Frith and Tim Hodgkinson performed together at The Stone in New York City, their first concert performance since Henry Cow's demise in 1978.

From 1983 to 1985 Tim Hodgkinson managed the Cold Storage Recording Studios in Brixton, London, producing records for Fred Frith's Skeleton Crew, Peter Blegvad and others.

Tim Hodgkinson appeared in Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel's 1990 documentary film on Fred Frith, Step Across the Border, rehearsing with Frith at Tim Hodgkinson's home in Brixton, London in December 1988.

Tim Hodgkinson followed it up with KLARNT in 2008, an album of eleven solo clarinet improvisations.

In 2000 Tim Hodgkinson made Sang, a collection of new compositions.

The first and third pieces were performed by Tim Hodgkinson alone, playing viola, piano, alto saxophone, percussion and MIDI instruments; the second piece GUSHe, which he has often performed live, is for clarinet with electronic accompaniment, while the last, MA was performed by Federica Santoro with a montage made from recordings of other pieces of Tim Hodgkinson's.

Tim Hodgkinson then released Sketch of Now on the Mode label in 2006.

Tim Hodgkinson started formal piano and clarinet lessons as a child, but quickly abandoned them.

Tim Hodgkinson then began writing down music, initially using a keyboard but soon switched to writing the sounds in his head directly onto paper.