Muslimgauze

Muslimgauze was the one-man musical project of Bryn Jones (June 17, 1961–January 14, 1999), a prolific British electronic-music artist, strongly influenced by everything to do with the Middle East and South Asia.

Political beliefs

The name Muslimgauze was derived from the word "muslin," which is a type of gauze, and changed into an adjective describing the area in which he was interested. He was a supporter of the PLO and he believed Palestine should be freed from the Zionists. Born in Manchester, England, United Kingdom, he never visited the Middle East, explaining, "I don't think you can visit an occupied land. It's the principle. Not until it's free again.

Musical career

He first began making music in 1982, under the alias of E.g Oblique Graph, to protest the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He released three cassettes and a 7-inch EP as E.g Oblique Graph: Extended Play (1982), Piano Room (1982), the 7" Triptych (1982), and Inhalt (1983). After he changed his name to Muslimgauze, he released a 7" EP (Hammer & Sickle), his first full-length LP (Kabul), and another cassette (Opaques) in 1983. In 1990, the Australian record label Extreme signed him, but he left it in 1994 for Dutch-German label Staalplaat and its sister American label Soleilmoon because his albums were not being released as promptly as he had wanted, and he was also not receiving payment. Since he had put out seven releases since he signed, money was becoming a problem. His output was always very high. In 1995, he had six releases; in 1996, 15; in 1997, 9; in 1998, 16. After his death, the many record companies with which he had associated released unreleased material and re-pressed older, out-of-print material. In 1999, the year of his death, 22 new (and old) albums and EPs on several media were released.

Strongly opposed to the use of computers and samplers in music, Jones always recorded his music with old analog equipment, but never equipment from the United States or Japan. He would record himself playing various Middle Eastern instruments and record voices of Middle Eastern or South Asian people from old tapes. Jones's music was heavily percussive; a review of a rare live performance notes that Jones used a "backing DAT tape with pretty harsh, rhythmic textures, his sort of patented spiralling hypnotic beat, to which he played on two or three different drums with great skill. He never looped his music: it was all recorded live, and edited/mixed afterward. The end result was often loud and laced with lots of static, with sudden changes in volume. Jones was never concerned with how many copies of his record were sold, or even how much listeners enjoyed his music, but rather how original his music was.

The Muslimgauze discography is vast. He released over 90 original albums on 32 different record labels, creating nearly 2,000 original songs. Many of his pieces were inspired by political facts or events. Many of his releases have been re-pressed as, after 1994, most of his albums were released in limited editions of 200–1,000. Including re-pressings, he had 192 releases as of 2008, but the number is rapidly increasing.

Jones disliked live shows and was rarely asked to do them, so Muslimgauze performances were very rare, though he did quite a few for Law & Auder. He always stated that he never had time to listen to other people's music, although in a 1992 interview with Impulse Magazine, he mentioned that he enjoyed traditional music of Japan, the Middle East, and India, as well as the works of artists such as Can, Throbbing Gristle, Wire, and Faust. However, despite a few collaborations, Jones didn't trust anyone when it came to remixing his music. Instead, he would take pieces of music that were sent to him and remix them to his own liking.

Death

On Wednesday, December 30, 1998, Bryn was rushed to the hospital in Manchester with a rare fungal infection in his bloodstream, for which he had to be heavily sedated. His body eventually shut down, and he died at 22:50 GMT on Thursday, January 14, 1999.

Discography

Live Performances

During his performances he would play a percussion instrument accompanied by pre-recorded loops or other musicians. On the occasion of his 1998 performance in Stockholm, the MS Stubnitz was shut down by authorities before he arrived, and so he performed outdoors. Since many ticket holders were not allowed inside the venue, Muslimgauze was the only act they were able to see. The recorded concert has been widely distributed over the internet.

Date (Year-Month-Day)	Country-Province-City	Venue	Event	Release status
1993-07-06	UK-England-Manchester	Turkish Baths		Arabbox
1995-09-XX	UK-Scotland-Edinburgh
1995-10-08	UK-Yorkshire-Edinburgh	Cafe Mex	Sunday Service
1996-02-18	UK-Yorkshire-Leeds	The Duchess	Sunday Service
1996-05-26	UK-Yorkshire-Leeds	The Duchess	Sunday Service
1996-08-24	Germany-Berlin		Staalplaat Sonderangebot Festival
1996-10-17	UK-Yorkshire-Leeds	Le Phono	Brainticket
1997-06-22	Germany-Rostock	MS Stubnitz/Rostock Harbor
1997-07-XX	Spain		4 am in a Spanish bull ring
1997-11-01	UK-Yorkshire-Leeds	The Duchess	Tandoori Space
1998-01-27	Japan-Shibuya	Club Shibuya On Air West
1998-06-13	Sweden-Stockholm	MS Stubnitz	Nursery Injection Festival
1998-09-XX	France-Normandy		The Monastery Of Sound
1998-10-28	UK-Yorkshire-Leeds	The Cockpit	Tandoori Space
1998-11-2X	Germany-Berlin	Volksbühne	Ballroom International