Chris Carter is one of the Bureau's foundational Tier-I entries in this archive's post-1975 industrial cluster. Born 28 January 1953 in Islington, North London; one of the most-technically-developed single working figures in this archive's entire post-1975 catalogue. The catalogue centres on four sequential and overlapping working positions: founding member of Throbbing Gristle (1975–1981); long-running working partner of Cosey Fanni Tutti across Chris & Cosey / Carter Tutti / Carter Tutti Void (1981 onward); solo catalogue from the 1974–1978 The Space Between through the 2018 Chemistry Lessons Volume 1; long-running instrument-design position (Gristleizer + TG ONE + Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument). The Bureau files Carter at Tier I on the foundational TG synthesist position, the 45+ year partnership with Tutti, the 50+ year sustained electronic-music technical-engineering position, the instrument-construction method, and the recently reaffirmed solo-working vein across the 2018 Chemistry Lessons entry.
The biographical opening positions Carter in the technical-and-engineering context that later shaped the catalogue's entire 50-year electronic-music method. Educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School; from the late 1960s onward worked as a sound engineer for various UK TV stations including Thames, Granada and LWT on numerous TV shows and documentaries. The pre-TG technical-training position provided grounding in sound and audio techniques. Later Carter became involved in the visual side of entertainment; designed and presented light shows and visual effects for numerous festivals, events and gigs including bands as diverse as Yes and Hawkwind; later commissions for BBC TV shows including Colour Me Pop and The Old Grey Whistle Test. The TV-and-light-show position the pre-TG technical foundation that anchored the catalogue's later sonic-engineering method.
By the early 1970s Carter was touring universities, colleges and arts centres with a solo multimedia show playing his self-built modular synthesiser, keyboards and effects, incorporating an array of lighting effects gleaned from the previous light-show work. The pre-TG instrument-construction position anchored Carter's later long-running instrument-design catalogue. During the same early-1970s period Carter worked extensively with visual artist John Lacey on a series of 8mm and 16mm experimental films and multimedia presentations; through this connection Carter began an experimental music / sound collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge, who at the time were performing as COUM Transmissions with Peter Christopherson. The Lacey connection the pre-TG bridge between Carter's technical-engineering position and the COUM Transmissions performance-art cluster.
The 1975 founding of Throbbing Gristle alongside Tutti, P-Orridge and Christopherson opened the catalogue's early-career position. Carter brought the catalogue's most significant technical and engineering position; synthesist across the TG catalogue; later 1976 founding of Industrial Records (TG's own label). In 1976 Carter worked at the London bureau of ABC News as a sound engineer; designed and constructed their London radio studio. In 1977 offered a contract to build another ABC studio in Rome; turned the offer down to continue with TG. During the early years of TG the four members each continued with other solo projects and work. It was during this period (1980) that Carter recorded his first solo album The Space Between for Industrial Records (recorded between 1974 and 1978 at the Industrial Records studio London; first released as a 90-minute cassette in 1980; later 1991 Mute Records CD reissue). One of the most cited early-1980s solo industrial-electronic records from the TG cluster.
Shortly after the demise of TG in 1981, with help and backing from Rough Trade Records, Carter and Tutti formed their Conspiracy International (CTI) record label and began working together as Chris & Cosey and CTI; the post-TG band-direction position. Initially releasing only music; later expansion into experimental video works with the help of Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision label including the Elemental 7 video (1983, later issued as an LP). The late-1980s and 1990s Chris & Cosey catalogue across multiple labels (Rough Trade initially, later Canada's Nettwerk, Belgium's Play It Again Sam, America's Wax Trax!) is documented at the duo file. Carter's second solo album Mondo Beat appeared in 1985 on the CTI label. Around the dawn of the 21st century Chris & Cosey changed their stage name to Carter Tutti; the project turned toward more experimental ambient sounds.
2004 saw the Throbbing Gristle reformation alongside Tutti, Christopherson and P-Orridge; later the 2007 album Part Two: The Endless Not and a 2007-onwards tour catalogue including the reformed performances at Tate Modern Turbine Hall plus the April 2009 US tour. After the 23 October 2010 first date of the European tour at London Village Underground P-Orridge announced unwillingness to continue performing with TG and returned to New York; Carter, Tutti and Christopherson finished the tour as X-TG; later Christopherson's November 2010 death substantively closed the active TG-cluster period. X-TG continued briefly as a position, including completing the posthumous TG Desertshore Installation rework of Nico's 1970 album with Steven Stapleton.
The post-2010 catalogue extended across two working positions. Carter Tutti Void with Nik Colk Void of Factory Floor opened at Mute's Short Circuit Festival 13 May 2011; debut Transverse (2012) recorded live with an additional studio track; later f(x) (2015). Carter Tutti revisited their past work with the 2014 Remix Chris & Cosey and the 2015 Carter Tutti Plays Chris & Cosey. The late-2010s solo-catalogue return opened with Chemistry Lessons Volume 1 (2018, Mute) and the Miscellany 2018 Mute box set comprising three previous Carter solo albums (Mondo Beat, Disobedient, Small Moon) plus a disc of previously unreleased recordings dating from the 1970s (later issued individually as Archival Recordings 1973–1977).
The long-running instrument-design position documents Carter's technical-engineering method across the entire catalogue. The Gristleizer effects unit the TG-era electronic-noise-generating circuit, later widely replicated and commercialised; the TG ONE Eurorack module; the Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument. Throughout the 2010s Carter remixed tracks for numerous artists including Liars, Erasure, Perc and Solvent. The instrument-design method the sustained technical-engineering position that continues into the post-2020 catalogue and distinguishes Carter from the TG-cluster individual working positions.