Cindytalk

Cindytalk originated in 1982 as an experimental music endeavor based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Gordon Sharp, who performs under the name Cinder and identifies as a transgender vocalist, poet, and musician, has remained the project’s only continuous participant from the outset. Its sonic palette has encompassed abrasive, unstable post-punk and industrial textures alongside dark ambient and noisy drone passages, frequently incorporating field recordings that emphasize processes of deterioration and fragmentation. During the 1980s the outfit issued material through the British imprint Midnight Music, whereas the majority of its releases since 2000 have appeared on Peter Rehberg’s Editions Mego label.

While enrolled at college in the mid-1970s, Sharp established the punk group the Freeze alongside fellow student David Clancy. After recruiting drummer Graeme Radin, the band issued two singles and supported numerous punk and new-wave acts on tour. Following John Peel’s interest in recording a session, Sharp and Clancy relocated to London and adopted the name Cindytalk. Sharp contributed to the Cocteau Twins’ inaugural Peel session, prompting 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell to feature him on This Mortal Coil’s debut EP and album. With the addition of John Byrne, Cindytalk delivered its first full-length, Camouflage Heart, in 1984; despite its volatile and unyielding character, the record connected with listeners and entered the U.K. indie albums chart. The follow-up, 1988’s In This World, initially appeared as two distinct LPs—one devoted to noisy post-punk and another consisting of eerie piano improvisations. The project pursued the latter approach on 1990’s The Wind Is Strong, music created for Ivan Unwin’s unreleased film Eclipse. A return to guitar-based material occurred with the 1991 EP Secrets and Falling, while 1994’s Wappinschaw, issued on Sharp’s Touched Recordings, retained that orientation yet adhered more closely to conventional song forms.

After Midnight Music ceased operations in the early 1990s, Touched reissued two earlier Cindytalk albums on CD. In 1994 Sharp and bandmate Simon Carmichael launched the hardcore techno side project Bambule, whose debut, Cunning Meets Bambule, surfaced on Christoph Fringeli’s Praxis label in 1996. That year also marked Cindytalk’s first American tour, after which Sharp spent several years residing in the United States. Periods in Columbus, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, preceded a move to Long Beach, California, where he participated actively in the local underground electronic scene, co-founding the breakcore label and crew Darkmatter Soundsystem and organizing events at the downtown Los Angeles venue The Smell. During this time Sharp began developing concepts for subsequent Cindytalk work oriented toward noise and musique concrète.

Following a relocation to Hong Kong, the project re-emerged in 2003 with the Klanggalerie 7-inch “Transgender Warrior.” After settling in Kobe, Japan, the 10-inch “Silver Shoals of Light” was released on Bluesanct in 2008, leading to a signing with Editions Mego. The Crackle of My Soul appeared in 2009 and Up Here in the Clouds in 2010; both albums, together with the “Transgender Warrior” single, were later compiled on vinyl as The Poetry of Decay. A split single with Main’s Robert Hampson also emerged on Editions Mego in 2010. The label issued Cindytalk’s third full-length, Hold Everything Dear, in 2011, while a collaboration with Philippe Petit yielded the single A Question of Re-Entry on Lumberton Trading Company late that year. Editions Mego released the full-length A Life Is Everywhere in 2013, and 2014’s TouchedRAWKISSEDsour came out on the American imprint Handmade Birds. Cindytalk returned to Editions Mego for 2016’s The Labyrinth of the Straight Line. Separately, Sharp initiated the project In the Mouth of the Wolf with techno artist Ancient Methods, whose debut EP appeared on Powell’s Diagonal label in 2016.