JEFF MILLS - Julie Tippex

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”.