Vince Clarke

Canterbury knights is a compilation album containing previously unreleased archive recordings by the band The Polite Force which was active on the Canterbury scene between 1976 and 1978. It was released by Voiceprint Records in 1997. Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were recorded in 1976 in Joe Gubay’s house. Tracks 1, 6, 7, 10 and 11 were recorded in 1977 in Vince Clarke’s basement studio in Downs Road in Canterbury with one re-mix and overdub at John Murphy’s place in Herne Bay. The album contains very few overdubs and was recorded as “live performances” to a Teac 4-track recorder. Engineer and producer on all tracks was Jeremy Darby. Executive producer was Rob Ayling.

"iPop" (written & produced by dance duo Shelter) is Andy Bell’s (Erasure) 3rd solo album after Manhattan Clique's "Electric Blue" and Pascal Gabriel's "Non-Stop". The album was written and recorded by Shelter - and released on their Ministry of Pop label - but includes two tracks (‘Stars’ and ‘Electrostatic’) which were written in collaboration with Andy Bell, and one track, "Lift Me Up", which also features Vince Clarke (Erasure, Yazoo, Depeche Mode).

In the late 1970s, Jean-Michel Jarre's albums Oxygène and Équinoxe sold in their zillions, demonstrating that electronic music could be embraced by mainstream tastes. Almost 40 years later, the list of Jarre’s collaborators on Electronica 1: The Time Machine reads like a who’s who of electronic music, including Massive Attack, Moby, Air, Vince Clarke, Laurie Anderson and John Carpenter. True, by assembling such a stellar lineup, Jarre is reminding us of his status as a pioneer. But this does not feel like a cynical exercise - perhaps because Jarre was shrewd enough to work in person with his collaborators rather than remotely by sharing digital files. Jarre’s soaring washes of chords are present on tracks such as Conquistador (with French techno artist Gesaffelstein) and Zero Gravity (one of the last recordings of the late Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream)…

30 years after the release of their debut album, ERASURE (Andy Bell and Vince Clarke) celebrate their incredible career and friendship with a 13 disc anthology box set charting their award-winning songwriting partnership. Mute / BMG are delighted to announce From Moscow To Mars – An Erasure Anthology. Curated by Vince and Andy it is a sumptuous box of memories of Erasure’s intergalactic journey through the pop and glitter and love that has defined their story so far.

Vince Clarke can claim involvement in two stunning debuts in only two years: Depeche Mode's Speak and Spell and Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's. While Speak and Spell is, by far, the more consistent record, Upstairs at Eric's is wholly more satisfying, beating the Depeche record on substance and ambition, and is light years ahead in emotion...