JEFF MILLS - Julie Tippex

JEFF MILLS

JEFF MILLS BIOGRAPHY
Mills is part of the glorious history of electronic music. Born in June 1963 in
Detroit (the historic capital of today’s techno), Jeff has built his early reputation
there hosting his own radio show on local WDRQ and WJLB radios. With
six shows a week, the young Jeff (under twenty years old at this point) was so
talented on the turntables that he was rapidly nicknamed ‘The Wizard’. But it
wasn’t until 1988 that Jeff got into music production as Final Cut, which was
originally a house duo that soon evolved into a more industrial sound. In 1990,
Jeff left Final Cut to found Underground Resistance with Mike Banks and
created one of the most mythical of all techno collectives. In 1992 Mills left
Detroit for New York and then created his own label, Axis Records. And so he
commences his rapid conquest of the global techno planet, thanks to powerful
music and a mixing technique as fast as it is ingenious.
This former architecture student is also a film buff, ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’
remains for Mills a model of the total work of art. In 2000, he embarked on the
composition of a new score for Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ and admits attempting,
by all means possible, to flee his ‘techno wizard’ image to return to his first
motivation which feeds off utopia, futuristic thought and a real passion for the
worlds and ‘extraordinary scenarios’ of science fiction. A year later, he signs
‘Mono’, a sculpture-installation dedicated to Kubrick’s film, which is exhibited
at the Sonar Festival at Barcelona.
In 2005, at the request of MK2 he composes a new soundtrack for ‘Three Ages’,
the silent masterpiece by Buster Keaton. In the same year, he remains receptive
to new experiences, like the concert alongside the Montpellier National Orchestra,
directed by composer René Koering on the 20th anniversary of Unesco’s
classification of the Pont de Gard as part of Humanity’s World Heritage. In 2007,
he was invited by the movie director Claire Denis to create the sound environment
of the exhibition « Diaspora » at the musée du quai Branly in Paris. That
same year, Jeff Mills received the title of « Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres»
from the French ministry of Culture.
While DJing at about 100 events a year all around the world, Jeff Mills is
involved in numerous projects at this time, including several film soundtracks
collaborating with Cinematheque and Cite de la Musique in Paris, the ongoing
exhibition at the Pompidou Centre, “Danser Sa Vie”.

Cinemix:
Jeff Mills re-scores and performs soundtrack live.
Metropolis (1926) Director Fritz Lang @Centre Pompidou - Paris
The Cheat (1915) silent Director Cecil B. DeMille film retrospective
@Cinematheque de Francaise - Paris
Oktober (1917) silent Director Sergy Eisenstein @ Cinematheque de Francaise
Fantastic Voyage (1965) w/dialogue Director Robert Fleischer @Cite de la
Musique -Paris
Woman In The Moon (1929) silent Director Fritz Lang @Cinematheque de
Francaise
Three Ages (1923) silent Director Buster Keaton @Le Nuit Blanche – Paris
Footages of Josephine Baker @Cannes Film Festival – Cannes
Something In The Sky film collection by Jeff Mills @Foundation Cartier - Paris
Cinema:
Metropolis (soundtrack by Jeff Mills) Pompidou Centre-Paris, ICA-London, etc
X-102 Rediscovers The Rings Of Saturn (original film and sound by Jeff Mills/
Mike Banks) Sonar-Barcelona, Cultural Center – Chicago, Le Vilette -Paris
Exhibition:
Artworks, installations by Jeff Mills:
Purpose Maker (Photos) / Tresor Gallery, Berlin (1997) London (1998)
Mono (Sculpture) / Sonar Festival -Barcelona (2001) Tokyo (2002)
Three Ages – Buster Keaton (Video Installations) / “Thank You For The Music”
Sketch Gallery -London (2006)
African Diaspora (Sound Installations) / “African Diaspora” Musee du Quai
Branly - Paris (2008)
Critical Arrangements (Video/Sound installations) / “Futurism a Paris” Centre
du Pompidou - Paris (2008)
Galaxy (Sound Installations) / “Infinite Library” Crewest Gallery, Los Angeles
(2009)
Danser – Josephine Baker (Video/Sound installatiosn) / “Danser Sa Vie” Centre
du Pompidou -Paris (2011)
Something Else (Artworks/Video) / Galerie George-Philippe and Nathalie
Vallois- Paris (2011)

PERFORMANCE PROJECTS:
Sleeper Wakes
Performance Running Time: 2 Hours.
Promotional trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCrCgzGQdHA
The Sleeper Wakes is a project created by Jeff Mills that focuses on the
proactive aspects in Electronic Music. Using the architectural concept of
Compression - Release conceptualize by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mills creates a
scenario whereabouts he makes a profound gesture through a concept entitled
“One Man Spaceship” CD/Events - Womb/Tokyo 2005; an adventurous approach
to Electronic Music by applying Classical orchestrations in ways that
were uncompromising and without much explanation. Immediately following
the debut this release, he chooses to step back and disappear from the Electronic
music scene for a scheduled time span of (4) four years 1996 - 2010. In
this time, Mills has been constantly creating a new style of music for the next
and final phase of the Sleeper Project. Conceptually, he explains that he is now
traveling the Universe in search of New Worlds to explore(“Worlds” meaning
Sounds in Music). His calculation is that such a extended absence from his long
and close relationship with the music audience would create the foundation in
which new ideas can be displayed, taking a giant step forward in terms of what
the audience would be prepared for.

The Trip
Performance running time: 1 1/2 hour.
Promotional trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmrIn--lrJI
The artist Jeff Mills presents a totally new project, called THE TRIP. Major
figure of techno music and fascinated by science-fiction cinema, Jeff Mills
pursues his work on images started in 2000, and offers a sound and image mix
of 1 1/2 hours, inviting the audience to a fully sensorial experience. Mixing live
more than a sixty of science-fiction movies extracts (from 1920’s to 1970’s),
following the same principles than in his musical mixes, Jeff Mills invites us to
enter a pulsating atmosphere of chaos and fear of Space Travel and Planetary
excursions. The Trip is a strong mental and psychological experience which
supposes that you accept to enter a particular time and to lose your marks. It is
like a full and dramatic transition which leads to a unknown place, opening to
all possible. Projected on a special modified screen, the images interact with an
stimulating DJ mix, mixing productions of some of the most innovative Techno
Artist and of Jeff Mills’ conceptual productions such as Contact Special, One
Man Space, Alpha Centauri along with new productions made specifically for
this project.

Something In The Sky
Performance Running Time: 2 Hours
Promotional trailer:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150276368760879
A sound and visual DJ performance created and performed by Jeff Mills. He
composes and then mixes a Electronic Music soundtrack as backdrop for
the various video and photographic accounts of UFO sightings.
Something In The Sky is a sight and sound experience that references the history
of Unidentifi ed Flying Objects (UFO) Sightings. It explores the extraordinary aspects
and perspective of unidentifi ed sightings in the United and States and around
the World. A multi-segmented program consisting of interviews, US documentation
and actual fi lm footage of sightings. Something In The Sky is about us, the
human being and our reactions when faced with such occurrences. No one person
is excluded from such experiences and we all share this common interest in life
beyond our own.

The Blue Potential
Jeff Mills performs with Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra
Performance Running Time: 1 Hour 20 minutes.
Promotional Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbmq6yGLoN8&feature=related
Jeff Mills has created two of the most famous electronic labels, Underground
Resistance and Axis. His productions were re scored for an exceptional concert
in a site classifi ed as part of World Heritage by UNESCO. For the very fi rst time,
this project gathers all his best productions, among which underground techno
anthems (The Bells, Amazon, Sonic Destroyer...), extracts from his soundtracks
‘Metropolis’ by Fritz Lang (Entrance to Metropolis...) and ‘Three Ages’ by
Buster Keaton (Daylight, Keaton’s Theme...).

Jeff Mills CD ALBUM discography
“Deep In 2 The Cut” Final Cut (Full Effect) 1989
“X-101” X-101 (Tresor) 1991
“Revolution For Change” Underground Resistance (Network) 1992
“Waveform Transmission vol.1 “ (Tresor) 1992
“Atlantis” X-103 (Tresor) 1993
“Waveform Transmission vol.3” (Tresor) 1994
“Mix Up vol.2 Live at Liquid Room” (mix album) (Sony/React) 1995
“The Other Day” (Sony/React/Labels) 1996
“Purpose Maker Compilation” (React/Labels/NEWS/Neuton/Energy/Watts) 1997
“From the 21st” (Sony) 1998
“Lifelike” (Sony/Labels/NEWS) 2000
“Art Of Connecting” (Next Era/Hardware) 2000
“Metropolis” (Tresor) 2000
“Time Machine” (Tomorrow) 2001
“Every Dog Has Its Day CD” (Sony/Labels/NEWS) 2001
“Actual” (AX-009CD) (Axis) 2002
“At First Sight” (Sony/React/NEWS/Energy/Intergroove) 2002
“Medium” (AX-009EF) (Axis) 2003
“Exhibitionist” (Axis/React/NEWS/Sonar) 2004
“Choice” (Azuli) (Jeff Mills selection) 2004
“Three Ages” (MK2) 2004
“Contact Special” (Cisco/Soundscape) 2005
“One Man Spaceship” (Cisco/Soundscape) 2006
“X-102 rediscovers the Rings of Saturn” (Tresor) 2008
“Sleeper Wakes” (Third Ear) 2009
“The Occurrence” (Third Ear) 2010
“The Power” (Axis) 2011
“2087” (Axis) 2011
“Fantastic Voyage” (Axis) 2011
“The Messenger” (Axis) 2012
DVD release:
“Exhibitionist” (Axis/React/NEWS/Sonar) 2004
“Three Ages” (MK2) 2004
“The Bells – 10 year anniversary” (Axis) 2006
“Blue Potential” with Monpelier Philharmonic Orchestra (UWe) 2006
open to commissioned pieces and collaboration projects
www.axisrecords.com