David Cunningham ‎– Water

Producer, composer and founder of the Piano label David Cunningham was born in Ireland in 1954 and lives and works in London. His first significant success came with The Flying Lizards’ single ‘Money’, an international hit in 1979. Currently he is AHRB Research Fellow in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle. Specialising in studio processes, loops and treatments, Cunningham’s work has ranged from pop music to gallery installations, including work for television, film, contemporary dance, and a number of collaborations with visual artists.
Since his first album release ‘Grey Scale’ in 1976 he has worked as a composer and record producer, engaging with an eclectic range of people and music, from rock groups (This Heat, Owada) to improvisors (David Toop, Steve Beresford) to Michael Nyman’s music for Peter Greenaway’s films and work with Ute Lemper and others. ‘Canta’, commissioned by Ian Spink, was the first of a series of works for dance and performance through the 1980s and onwards which has included commissions from Goro Namerikawa, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane and collaboration with Finnish choreographer Tiina Huczkowski. Live work has involved collaboration and performances with John Cage, Kathy Acker, Michael Nyman, Peter Gordon, Panasonic, Michael Giles, Scanner and others. Music for film and television has included Ken McMullen’s films ‘Zina’ and (in collaboration with Michael Giles and Jamie Muir) ‘Ghost Dance’, and a series of television collaborations with visual artists which has included John Latham, David Hall, Stephen Partridge, Bruce McLean. Related work has included the production and treatment of sound for installation and broadcast artworks by Sam Taylor-Wood, Susan Hiller, João Penalva, Gillian Wearing and others. Since 1993 David Cunningham has been developing a series of installations based on real time exploration of acoustics including ‘The Listening Room’, Biennale of Sydney (1998). He showed 2 installation works in “Days Like These”, The Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain and most recently has shown installations at ICC, Tokyo and Ikon, Birmingham.