Peter Christopherson

Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy, 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis.

He was one of the original members of the Industrial Records band Throbbing Gristle. After Throbbing Gristle he participated in the foundation of Psychic TV along with Geoffrey Rushton, aka John Balance. After his short time in Psychic TV, Christopherson formed Coil along with Balance, which lasted just under 23 years, until Balance died of a fall in their Weston-Super-Mare home. Christopherson participated in the reuniting of Throbbing Gristle and he composed an album for his solo endeavour The Threshold HouseBoys Choir.

Biography

Prior to his musical career, Peter Christopherson was a commercial artist, designer, and photographer. Notably, he was one of the three partners of the album cover design group Hipgnosis, which was responsible for many notable album covers of the 1970s. Christopherson remained involved with commercial art through his later musical career as a director of music videos and television commercials.

Born in Leeds, Christopherson was a founding member of Throbbing Gristle, who are credited with creating theindustrial music genre before disbanding in 1981. Throbbing Gristle members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti formed their own group while Peter Christopherson and TG's other member Genesis P-Orridge formedPsychic TV along with other musicians. John Balance met Christopherson as a Throbbing Gristle fan and the two became partners. Christopherson worked on the first two Psychic TV albums, Force The Hand Of Chanceand Dreams Less Sweet, joined by Balance on the second one. The two performed live several times with Psychic TV then formed their own project, Coil. Along with Chris Carter, Christopherson has personally documented on his MySpace blog (with photographic evidence) of having played a custom-made (for him) keyboard-triggered sampler before the first sampler (Fairlight CMI) was available in UK. While not the first sampler, this was a major step towards the use of samplers in live performance, as noted by Christopherson himself.

Despite Christopherson's long and extensive history as a musical artist, he only released two tracks under the name Peter Christopherson. The first, "In My Head A Crystal Sphere Of Heavy Fluid", appeared on the compilation Foxtrot, a benefit album for former partner John Balance's rehabilitation from alcohol addiction while the second, "All Possible Numbers", appeared eleven years later on Autumn Blood (Constructions).

In 2005, Christopherson relocated from England to Bangkok, Thailand and undertook the project The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. He also released the final Coil CDs: The Ape of Naples, The Remote Viewer, Black Antlers, The New Backwards, and reissued Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1 and Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2, which were formerly being manufactured in England.

2005 also marked the reuniting of Throbbing Gristle for a few concerts. Throbbing Gristle announced a new album Part Two. The group announced several additional concerts in 2007 to promote the album.

In 2007 Christopherson released the debut album of his solo effort The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. The album, Form Grows Rampant, is broken down into five "parts" or songs, and includes a DVD of the album set to video of Thai rituals in Krabi. He was a guest and jury head of the 2007 Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

In 2008 Christopherson and Ivan Pavlov (aka CoH) started a new project called Soisong. The band officially premiered in Tokyo on 9 March 2008 and later toured Europe with several shows, having self-released their debut EP. In the course of the tour Soisong performed a live soundtrack to Derek Jarman's filmBlue in Rovereto, Italy. In April of the same year Christopherson and Pavlov, alongside David Tibet, Othon Mataragas and Ernesto Tomasini, also performed a live soundtrack for The Angelic Conversation in Turin, Italy.[2] In 2009 Soisong recorded their first full-length album xAj3z, the release of which was followed by a European Reunion Tour and a world-wide campaign in search for the band's missing virtual vocalists featured on the record. In 2010 Soisong declared aSplit Phase 2010, during which all of the members would concentrate on their personal work, however with a planned release of two independently recorded solo EPs, both entitled Soisong. Peter Christopherson never finalized his work towards the release. Soisong Split release was eventually published in September 2012, nearly two years after Peter's demise. The release consists of a CoH Soisong CDEP by Ivan Pavlov, originally recorded in 2010, and a collection of 4 unpublished sketches by Peter Christopherson made available from the band's website.

In 2010 Christopherson started collaborating with Hirsute Pursuit featuring Harley Phoenix and Bryin Dall via email. They finished two songs together One Sleazy Night in Bangkok and One Sleazy Night in New Orleans for the album Tighten That Muscle Ring. Phoenix wrote to Christopherson to inform him that the album was signed to Cold Spring Records. Phoenix didn't receive a response and three days later Christopherson was dead.

Christopherson died in his sleep on November 25, 2010. The cause of his death has not been made public.