Richard H. Kirk, who discovered the industrial band Cabaret Voltaire’s electronic musician, has died at the age of 65. Kirk was born in Sheffield in 1956, Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder founded Cabaret Voltaire in 1973. They got this name from a nightclub in Zürich that was the core of the early Dadaist avant-garde art movement. The group was a forerunner in industrial music, fusing electronic and pop sounds with post-punk grit by utilizing DIY methods and the “non-musical” stylings of Brian Eno and Roxy Music. Upon signing with Rough Trade in 1978, Cabaret Voltaire went on to release a number of successful singles and EPs such as ‘Extended Play’ and ‘Nag Nag Nag.’ They also released early albums such as ‘Mix-Up,’ ‘Three Mantras,’, ‘The Voice of America’ and ‘Red Mecca’. In total, Voltaire released 14 studio albums, as well as numerous EPs, live albums, and a soundtrack. Watson left the group in 1981, although Kirk and Mallinder steered the project in a more electronic direction. A growing interest in the sounds of house and techno led them to work with legendary producer Marshall Jefferson on their album ‘Groovy, Layback and Nasty’ in 1990.
After Mallinder’s flight in 1994, Kirk was the sole remaining part of Cabaret Voltaire, in spite of the fact that he never discharged beneath the title, instep selecting to put out music beneath the nom de plumes as a Sandoz and Electronic Eye, as well as beneath his possess title. Kirk restored the Cabaret Voltaire moniker in 2014 with a string of live exhibitions, counting one at Berlin Atonal, and one at Dekmantel in 2016. In November 2020, Cabaret Voltaire was discharged, to begin with, unused collection in nearly three decades, ‘Shadow of Fear’, with Kirk as sole part. This was taken after in 2021 by three discharges: ‘Shadow Of Funk, ‘Dekadrone’ and ‘BN9Drone’Tributes have been paid to Kirk on social media taking after the news of his passing.
