Hugh Davies

British Experimental Music Composer and Instrument Inventor

For the American recording engineer use Hugh Davies (2). English composer, improviser, instrument builder, archivist and teacher. Born April 23, 1943 in Exmouth, Devon, England; died January 1, 2005 in London. He studied music at Worcester College, Oxford from 1961 to 1964 where his classmates included future members of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the late 1960's, he was Karlheinz Stockhausen's personal assistant. He left to work for the GRM in France, helping them update their listing of electronic music compositions and studios, and greatly expanding upon their original work. He continued compiling additions and corrections for this volume for the remainder of his life. When he returned to England, he helped found the ensembles Gentle Fire and The Music Improvisation Company. He held a position at Goldsmiths College and composed electronic music in their studios. He also collaborated with Daphne Oram, whose archives he was to care for after her passing. Throughout his career, Davies was interested in building new instruments from common items, such as an eggslicer. His most famous instrument was the Shozyg, an assemblage of electronic circuits in the cover of an encyclopedia. Though this instrument was essentially played only by him, he did also construct an additional 10 copies as a special edition for Revue OU magazine. Mostly he was interested in making simple instruments to share with children and non-musicians. Near the end of his life, he compiled many of his writings into a book, "Sounds Heard: A Potpourri of Environmental Projects and Documentation, Projects with Children, Simple Musical Instruments, Sound Installations, Verbal Scores, and Historical Perspectives."