Given a musical career spanning almost 50 years it’s almost impossible to estimate the effect Richard’s output has had on both listeners and musicians that he’s inspired — Richard H. Kirk passed away on Sept. 21, 2021.
A musical career spanning almost 50 years
Richard Harold Kirk, best known as a founding member of the influential industrial music band Cabaret Voltaire, has passed away on Sept. 21, 2021 at the age of 65. As of publication no cause of death has been given.
Given a musical career spanning almost 50 years it’s almost impossible to estimate the effect his output has had on both listeners and musicians that he’s inspired. Cabaret Voltaire’s influence on industrial music is wholly apparent but the great Dadaist/Surrealist band’s influence on hip-hop, electro, techno, among others, is less known though integral to their origin. Starting as contemporaries of Joy Division and The Human League they played alongside these and other legends as part of Northern England’s groundbreaking electronic music scene in the mid 1970’s. No doubt further generations will discover and grow to love the music of Cabaret Voltaire’s “Nag, Nag, Nag,” “Sensoria,” and “Don’t Argue” as others did when hearing these tracks for the first time.
Both during and after the heyday of Cabaret Voltaire, Kirk’s solo work was as prolific as it was groundbreaking. As half of Sweet Excorcist with DJ Parrot he created the entirely new style of “bleep techno” with the Clonk EP (famously sampled by Big Audio Dynamite). His own work in the genre of IDM and ambient electronica is a cornerstone of each with works like Virtual State, The Number of Magic and others. His love of ethno-tribal music was evident in works under his Sandoz alias most notable with the Chant To Jah album as well as the depth to which dub reggae influenced his music with the Sandoz in Dub album as well as the use of dub techniques in most of the songs he recorded or produced.
While many tributes pour in across social media, perhaps the most poignant is that of Stephen Mallinder, the 2nd longest running member of Cabaret Voltaire (Chris Watson departed the group in the early 1980s):
I’m shattered. my Cabs music partner, and often sparring partner, difficult to live with but impossible not to love. Stubborn, no sufferer of fools, but insightful, spontaneous, and with vision .. and underneath the spiky shell a warm heart. I’m truly devastated. RIP Kirky
Igloo Magazine will post further information as it becomes available.
