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Pierre Henry

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Pierre Henry (1927 to 2017) was a French composer, best known for his contribution to musique concrète, music made from recorded sounds. He was born in Paris and at the age of fifteen was already experimenting with the sounds of all kinds of objects. From 1938 to 1948 he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, among others. Between 1949 and 1958 he worked at the Club d'Essai studio of French radio, founded by Pierre Schaeffer. With Schaeffer he wrote Symphonie pour un homme seul in 1950, an important early example of the genre.

Music and breakthrough

Henry wrote the first musique concrète in a commercial film, Astrologie ou le miroir de la vie from 1952, and made much more film and ballet music. Two years after he left the radio, he founded Studio Apsone-Cabasse with Jean Baronnet, the first private studio for electronic music in France. In 1967, with Michel Colombier and the choreographer Maurice Béjart, he made the ballet Messe pour le temps présent. In 1970 he recorded the album Ceremony with the British rock band Spooky Tooth.

Influence

His influence extends to pop music. Psyché Rock from 1967 inspired Christopher Tyng in the theme of the animated series Futurama. The sounds from Jericho Jerk became a favourite sample in hip hop and electronic music, with D'Angelo, A Tribe Called Quest and James Blake, among others. In 1997 artists such as Fatboy Slim and Coldcut made remixes of his work.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Psyché Rock and notice the repeating bass motif with the fast, electronic sounds around it. Then compare it with the theme of Futurama.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists