Atom TM
Atom TM is but one alias for the ever-inventive German electronic
musician Uwe Schmidt. Schmidt has recorded under a dazzling array of aliases including Atom Heart, Lisa Carbon, Coeur Atomique Datacide, Flanger, Flextone, Odd Machine and perhaps his most notorious moniker Señor Coconut. It would take the rest of this page to list more of his aliases, and the same goes for his discography - it simply makes the word "prolific" seem insufficient. Last year alone he released three albums "Music is Better Than Pussy" and "1i3835tra3um3" for his own long-running Rather Interesting label, and "Alien Symphony," a Japan-only collaboration with Masaki Sakamoto.Schmidt has collaborated with an endless array of musicians, including Hosono (YMO), Pete Namlook, Tetsu Inuoe, Bill Laswell, and Pink Ellin.
Schmidt first came to prominence in the early 90s with a series of acid house and Techno 12"s under many different aliases, but he soon went beyond club music and started to record ambient music for Pete Namlook's Fax imprint and others. Then he moved from Germany, setting up shop in Santiago, Chile. There he continued to expand his styles and also inspired a whole generation of Chilean producers including Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos. In recent years his musical adventures have shown no sign of becoming less diverse incorporating, classical, glitch, Latin, lounge and experimental music elements. The fact is, one hardly ever knows what to expect from Schmidt next - only that it will undoubtedly be music of high quality.
Schmidt has performed live throughout his career but after large-scale shows as Señor Coconut he stopped, returning to perform solo again following his 2009 album "Liedgut" for Raster Norton. These shows saw him on stage with one machine, not a computer, playing, improvising music and video in real time, at the same time. Oh yes, we should add Schmidt has been a graphic and visual artist for as long as he has been a musician. Schmidt's appearances live in the US have been exceptionally few, so this long overdue Atom show in New York will provide a very rare insight into the current musical mind of one of the most treasured cult heroes of electronic music.
