Janek Schaefer

In 2009/10 the Bluecoat gallery in Liverpool mounted a retrospective exhibition of his 20-year career to date.

In 2008, Schaefer won The British Composer of The Year Award for Sonic Art for his project Extended Play Triptych for the child survivors of war and conflict. The same year he won The Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers Prize. He was the 'McKnight Composer in Residence' for the American Composers Forum, USA 2002/3. In 2004 his Random Playing LP called 'Skate' received the 'Award of Distinction' at the Prix Ars Electronica, Austria.

His CD Above Buildings (2000) was released on Fat Cat. He has played in duos and released albums with Philip Jeck (Songs for Europe CD), Robert Hampson (Comae CD), Stephan Mathieu (Hidden Name CD) and Charlemagne Palestine (Day of the Demons LP). He lives and works at the audiOh! Room in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, with his wife and two children.

Schaefer was born in 1970 in England to Polish and Canadian parents. While studying architecture at the Royal College of Art, Schaefer recorded the fragmented noises of a sound activated dictaphone travelling overnight through the Post Office. That work, titled 'Recorded Delivery' 1995 was made for the 'Self Storage' exhibition Time Out critics choice with one time postman Brian Eno and Artangel. The 'Tri-phonic Turntable' (1997) is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the 'World's Most Versatile Record Player'. He has performed, lectured and exhibited widely throughout Europe Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, USA/Canada, The Walker, XI, Mutek, Princeton, Japan, and the Sydney Opera House.