Andrew Garton
| Andrew Garton | |
|---|---|
Andrew Garton, recording, Melbourne 2007
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Andrew Richard Matthew Garton |
| Born |
19 May 1962 Guildford, New South Wales, Australia |
| Genres | Instrumental, psychedelic, ambient, folk |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician, songwriter, producer, film maker |
| Instruments | Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, saxophone, theremin |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Secession Records |
| Associated acts | Sun-Bus-5, Lost Time Accident, Son of Science Ensemble, Benguela, Private Lives, Lingo Babel |
| Website | agarton |
Andrew Richard Matthew Garton (born 19 May 1962) is a creative producer, musician and media artist working within community and cultural development fields in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. He is the founder and co-manager of The Secession Records, which produce, publish and archive audio recorded works and short-format documentaries and events.
Andrew Richard Matthew Garton was born on 19 May 1962 in Guildford. His grandmother, Jelena aka Elena (30 May 1903–1972), had fled the Russian Revolution post-1917 and worked as a nurse in former Yugoslavia. Elena met and married Andre Garton, a Red Army guard, they had two sons, Alex and Igor (born 14 January 1920). The family initially relocated to Germany; Igor, his mother and other family members migrated to Australia on USAT General Haan in October 1949.
Since the mid-1970s Garton participated in numerous independent and community media initiatives in Australia and South East Asia: from radio and public access video in his teens to computer networking in the late 1980s and 1990s with Pegasus Networks. Garton was motivated at an early age towards collaborative media art works, combining interests in music, performance and public media. In the past twenty-five years he has written and performed plays, joined and formed bands, written scores for television documentaries, penned countless songs, piano and electronic compositions, experimented with recording and performance techniques.
Garton began composing music in the late 1970s and studied composition with composer and pianist, Sykes Rose in the early 1980s. Garton went on to perform, write and record with numerous bands, ensembles and free improvisation groups including Private Lives. By 1983 the line-up was Garton on keyboards and Don Brown on drums (ex-Flowers); Bob Morton on saxophone; Phil Munro on bass guitar; and Jon Needham on guitar. In September that year, Shelley Dempsey of The Canberra Times felt the group were a "not in the least unpleasant sounding Sydney quintet, [they] feature a very stylish mix which is clever, but not too clever". His later groups were Astrobeatniks, Lingo Babel, White Punks on Hope and Back from Nowhere.
In the mid-80s Garton began composing for film and stage. He completed scores for numerous documentaries produced by UK's Channel 4 and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), most notably, the award winning Anyone Can be A Genius and In Grave Danger of Falling Food, a three-part series investigating the life-time work of Permaculture founder, Bill Mollison. Garton and Nick Jeanes co-composed the music for Mollison's ABC-TV series, Global Gardener (1991).
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