JAMES GARDNER

James Gardner was born in Liverpool in 1962. He spent much of the 1980s playing keyboards and samplers for a variety of well-known artists, as well as writing and co-writing music in many bands, including Pete Shelley’s band and Luxuria. In addition he took part in free improvisation events at the London Musicians Collective and Liverpool’s Bluecoat Chambers, including an outdoor performance of Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen.
In 1990 he co-founded the band and remix team Apollo 440, reworking tracks by artists such as U2 and Scritti Politti. The title track of Apollo 440’s most recent CD was co-written by Gardner.
In 1991 Gardner’s virtuosic solo piano piece Shattered/Blue Ground, was runner-up in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Composers' Competition, after which he wrote two pieces—Errors and Disturbed—for the ensemble Ixion. In 1993, Gardner attended Brian Ferneyhough's classes at the Viitasaari Summer Academy in Finland. Gardner moved to New Zealand in 1994, and in 1996 set up 175 East, Auckland’s leading contemporary music ensemble. His some other plots for Babel, written for the violinist Mark Menzies and 175 East, was premiered in August 2000.