About Cinema Volta
Cinema Volta consists of John Maxwell Hobbs, a stack of electronic equipment, musical instruments in various states of disrepair and occasional collaborators.
John Maxwell Hobbs is an electronic musician based in Stockholm and Glasgow who has been working with computer multimedia and telecommunications for more than eighteen years
Although most of his work is solo, he has played with a variety of musicians, including Rhys Chatham, David Gamper of the Deep Listening Band, Bronx Style Bob, DJ David Azarch of the Mudd Club, and on one late, drunken evening, Cheeta Chrome of the Dead Boys.
As a producer, he has worked with DJ Spooky, Glen Branca, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Diamanda Galas, David Hykes, every member of the New York Dolls, and more.
He is known for the Daily Ambience project in which he recorded and released a new piece of music every day for a year.
His contributions to the early days of music on the web have been documented in the book Virtual Music: How the Web Got Wired for Sound
From the book:
“In a review of his interactive online instrument, Web Phases, Kyle Gann of the Village Voice described it as being ‘on a noticeably higher artistic level’ than the earliest tape-music and computer-music pieces, concluding that ‘the potential for social reorientation is even more incredible,’ and predicting ‘we’ll look back and say 1998 was the year our relationship to music entered a new era.'”
For much of the ’90s he was the Producing Director of The Kitchen in New York where he produced the work of Philip Glass, DJ Spooky, David Hykes and many others.
He is currently the heading a new music initiative for BBC Music, and is the Vice President of the board of directors of Vanguard Visions, an organization dedicated to fostering the work of artists experimenting with technology and also served on the Digital Arts subcommittee of the Mayor’s Council on New Media in New York City. His interactive composition Web Phases was one of the winners of ASCI’s Digital ’98 competition. He has collaborated with artist/programmer Mark Napier on p-Soup, an interactive musical instrument.
John Maxwell Hobbs can be reached at:jmax@cinemavolta.com
Listen to Cinema Volta on Spotify
Listen to John Maxwell Hobbs on Spotify
Listen to Your Monkey’s Not Funny on Spotify
Buy Cinema Volta tracks on Bandcamp
Buy Cinema Volta tracks at the iTunes Music Store
Cinema Volta albums are now available at Amazon.com.
Cinema Volta is featured in the book Virtual Music, by Willam Duckworth available now at Amazon
John Maxwell Hobbs 