The Art of Noise

Art of Noise
Dudley, Morley, Creme and Horn (from the fourth and final Art of Noise line-up in 1998–2000)
Background information
Also known as	The Image of a Group, Vision
Origin	London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Synthpop, electronic, avant-garde, new wave
Years active	1983–1990 1998–2000
Labels	ZTT, Island, China, Chrysalis, Polydor, Universal
Associated acts	Yes, The Buggles, The Trevor Horn Band, The World's Famous Supreme Team, Malcolm McLaren
Website	theartofnoiseonline.com
Past members	Anne Dudley J. J. Jeczalik Gary Langan Trevor Horn Paul Morley Lol Creme

Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synthpop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn and music journalist Paul Morley. The group had international Top 20 hits with "Kiss" and the instrumental "Peter Gunn", which won a 1986 Grammy Award.

The group's mostly instrumental compositions were novel melodic sound collages based on digital sampler technology, which was new at the time. Inspired by turn-of-the-20th-century revolutions in music, the Art of Noise were initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators. The band is noted for innovative use of electronics and computers in pop music and particularly for innovative use of sampling. From the earliest releases on ZTT, the band referred to itself as both Art of Noise and The Art of Noise. Official and unofficial releases and press material use both versions.

The technological impetus for the Art of Noise was the advent of the Fairlight CMI sampler, an electronic musical instrument invented in Australia. With the Fairlight, short digital sound recordings called samples could be "played" through a piano-like keyboard, while a computer processor altered such characteristics as pitch and timbre. Music producer Trevor Horn was among the first people to purchase a Fairlight. While some musicians were using samples as adornment in their works, Horn and his colleagues saw the potential to craft entire compositions with the sampler, disrupting the traditional rock aesthetic. (Others were also working contemporaneously toward this goal, such as Jean Michel Jarre, Yello, and Tony Mansfield, who had made extensive use of the Fairlight for the eponymous debut album by Naked Eyes').