Birth name Tony Harn Name Tony Harn Labels self-released | Years active mid-1990s–present Occupation(s) Musician Role Musical Artist | |
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Instruments guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, organ, programming, loops Associated acts Nerve Toy Trio, Tim Bowness, Samuel Smiles, Resindust, Lifebox, Psychiatric Challenge Albums Revealed in black and white, Loops Genres Progressive rock, Jazz fusion, Art rock, Experimental rock, Ambient music Profiles | ||
Tony Harn is an English musician. A multi-instrumentalist (predominantly guitar but also bass guitar, synthesizers, organ, percussion, programming and is active within the north-west English progressive rock and avant-garde music scenes.
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Harn's music features elements of rock, jazz, post-punk and experimental noise, but is generally highly melodic and noted for a precisely orchestrated, multi-layered style of playing. He has released five solo instrumental albums, more recently moving towards loop music stylings. As well as maintaining a solo career he is a member of Nerve Toy Trio and has previously been a member of Resindust, Lifebox and Spacematic. He is an active collaborator with other musicians, most notably with Tim Bowness of No-Man.
Career
Tony Harn began his musical career as the instrumental half of the Warrington duo Spacematic in the mid-1990s. Following that project's split, he began working on solo material, playing or programming all of the instruments himself. Harn released his debut instrumental album From the Inside in 1997, on his own home label. This was followed by a second album, Lifebox in 1999. During this period Harn also recorded material with a fellow Warringtonian musician, Tim Bowness of No-Man, leading to an appearance and co-write on the Tim Bowness/Samuel Smiles album World of Bright Futures' in 1999.
In 2000, Harn formed a short-lived trio called Lifebox in which he played guitar alongside David Jones (bass guitar, ex-Plenty) and Howard Jones (ex-After The Stranger and a contributor to the debut album by Porcupine Tree). Lifebox played new material as well as music from Harn's solo records. The band split up after releasing one EP, Charismatic Couch.
Returning to solo work, Harn released his third album Moving Moons in 2001 and engaged in work with the Warrington experimental music scene via bands such as Psychiatric Challenge. He subsequently teamed up with Lewis Gill (Psychiatric Challenge, Vivahead) to form the experimental duo Resindust, who released one eponymous album in 2002. Harn's fourth solo album, Revealed in Black and White was released in 2005: although arguably his most accomplished to date, it gained less attention than his previous work.
Harn's next album did not appear for another three years, when he released Loops in 2008. As the title suggested, it displayed a shift in his working methods towards further improvisation and loop music.
Harn is currently a member of Nerve Toy Trio, which also features his former Lifebox bandmate David Jones on bass guitar and drummer Henry Rogers (Touchstone, Sort Code, Final Conflict, DeeExpus). In 2011, the band released their debut EP The Hard Cell, which gained them reviews in Classic Rock Presents Prog and Jazzwise. In the same year the band performed at Blackpool's Electric Garden Progressive Rock festival. In 2012, Nerve Toy Trio contributed the track "The Riddle Of Anything" to the cover-mount CD of Prog magazine issue 27.