Born in 1956 in Sheffield, UK. After leaving school worked in computers for 3 years, in 1978 formed The Human League.
Formed production company/label British Electric Foundation in 1980 and formed Heaven 17 the same year.
Martyn has written, performed and produced two Human League, two BEF and nine Heaven 17 albums.
As record producer and artist has featured on recordings totaling over 50 million sales worldwide - producing Tina Turner, Terence Trent D’Arby, Chaka Khan, Erasure, Marc Almond and Mavis Staples, etc. Etc.
Founded Illustrious Co. Ltd. with Vince Clarke in 2000 to exploit the creative and commercial possibilities of their unique three-dimensional sound technology in collaboration with fine artists, the performing arts and corporate clients around the world.
Clients include: BP, Ogilvy, The British Council, The Science Museum, The Royal Ballet, Amnesty International, The V&A Museum, Mute Records, BBC TV, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, BAFTA , Museum Of London. Tate Britain, Red Bull Music Academy, City Of Westminster Council, etc. etc.
Martyn produces and presents a series of events entitled ‘Future Of Sound’ (21 so far) in UK and around the world and has created sonic architectural works at the British Pavilion at the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2006 amongst many others.
Martyn is also…
• Honorary Doctor of Science and Visiting Professor at C4DM at Queen Mary College, University of London
• Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts
• Visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art, Bartlett School of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Bournemouth, Goldsmiths College, etc.etc.
• Founding member of the LA-based 5D; Future Of Immersive Design
• Fellow of the Academy of Urbanism
• Member of the Writer’s Guild of America
• Member of the advisory board for the De Montfort University ‘DMU Creative’ record label/internet radio project
• Mentor at Queen Mary College, University of London, Doctoral Training Centre in Digital Music & Media for the Creative Economy
• Curator for the main stage at the Vintage At Goodwood festival in August 2010
• Honorary Patron of the Sensoria Festival, Sheffield
He also lectures extensively on music production, technology, and creativity at universities and colleges across the world and he is co-founder of the world-leading sound-branding agency - SonicID.
Recent and forthcoming projects include…
• Tales From The Bridge (July-September 2012) – world’s largest ever 3D soundscape composition covering the entire Millennium Bridge, londo during the Olympic period – commissioned by the Mayor’s Office and featuring a one-hour electronic ambient composition with script and poetry by Mario Petrucci, and also Water Night – a composition by Grammy-award-winning Eric Whitacre and his Virtual Choir
• Heroes – (July/august 2012) a 3D soundscape composition featuring famous commentary from past British Olympic gold medal winners – at Wembley Stadium approach.
• West Street Story(November 2011)
Massive 3D soundscape in the centre of Brighton as part of the White Night Festival
• Tate Topology (November 2011)
3D soundscape embodying immersive three-dimensional topology manifestations at the Tate Modern
• Beatles Immersive (ten year install – opened July2011)
3D soundscape celebrating the early years of the Beatles in the brand new Museum of Liverpool
• Michael Clarke Company (June 2011)
Huge-scale immersive 3D soundscape to accompany Michael Clarke’s ne w show in the enormous Tate Modern turbine hall
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Museum (April 2011)
3D soundscape featuring history of famous women’s medical and social campaigner at the brand new museum in London
• Creators Project (June- Oct 2010)
New York, London, Sao Paolo, Seoul and Shanghai play host to the most amazingly eclectic group show of installations, talks, performance and events. Illustrious has created a 3D spatialization of Nick Zinner’s composition fro his immersive photographic and sound installation called A.D.A.B.A.
• Yves Saint Laurent, ‘Belle D’Opium’ Five Senses installation (June 2010)
Together with Skrapic Consulting in Paris, Illustrious created a 3D soundscape composition together with 360 degree projection, theatrical lighting, rotating stage and olfactory installation to create an immersive impression of the essence of their brand new perfume.
• Pret-A-Porter Paris (January 2010) – a large scale immersive 3D soundscape created for this Paris fashion trade fair based around the sounds and impressions of the various quarters of the city – incorporating contemporary and historical recordings to create a ‘magic realist’ impression of Paris.
• 3D DJ Soundclash (February 2010) – Two DJ teams (Warp Records and Ninja Tunes) battle it out in a huge Illustrious 3D soundscape underneath the Royal Albert Hall – in collaboration with Red Bull Music Academy
• Soundlife London (June 2009) – a giant 3D soundfield one-hour looping composition distilling the sonic essence of London into three dimensional space occupying the whole of Leicester Square in June 2009 for 10 hours a day for 10 days – playing to over 2 million people. This was created in collaboration with a variety of community groups, schools, ethnic associations and reminiscence groups and in association with the City Of Westminster Council
• Large Scale Audio Immersion Experiment (November 2009) – in collaboration with Goldsmiths College, London and Duran Audio, Illustrious created a 70m x 70m outdoor sound installation using unique Intellivox speakers controlled by Wave Field Synthesis technology and 3DAudioScape. A competition was held for students’ soundscape compositions and the winning pieces were exhibited in the space.
• Acoustic Ecologies (2010-2012) – in collaboration with arts organization Education4Conservation, a series of works entitled ‘Nocturne/Wild Echoes’ based upon the notion of outdoor immersive soundscapes in countryside environments, creating unexpected sonic interventions in natural environments.
• Breathing Trees (2010) – a collaboration between light artists Creatmosphere and Illustrious, the third iteration of this exhibition will take place in Lima, Peru and will feature a huge scale (200m x 50m x 25m) installation in a park in the centre of the city based on the concept of wordless communication in sound and light between two trees, one male and one female.
• Threeways SEN School Sensory Studio (2006–2012) – this ongoing project is at the core of the working philosophy of Illustrious – a world-first Sensory Studio for autistic, disabled and SEN pupils using state-of-the-art technology to create a highly responsive, immersive 3D sound, light and HD projection environment which can be easily controlled and modulated using a variety of sensors and controllers by teachers and the pupils themselves.
