British synthesist Mark Shreeve died August 31, 2022, at the age of 65.
Shreeve was part of the first generation of synthesists inspired by the ‘Berlin School’ music of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. He was prolific as a solo artist, starting with Embryo and Ursa Major in the ’80s, but is probably best known to synthesists for his work in the second-generation Berlin School groups Redshift and Arc.
Redshift (Mark Shreeve, Julian Shreeve, James Goddard, Rob Jenkin, Ian Boddy) built on the late ’70s sound of Tangerine Dream and created its own take on the classic Berlin School sound – less experimental than first generation artists, but often more polished and melodic.
The group released over a dozen albums, starting with the self-titled Redshift:
The music was composed and arranged by Mark Shreeve.
Redshift’s music owes an obvious debt to ’70s Tangerine Dream, contrasting ambient soundscapes with melodic sections, driven by propulsive sequenced Moog modular basslines. But Shreeve dug deep into the space carved out by TD albums like Phaedra and Rubycon, and demonstrated that there’s a lot more interesting musical territory to be explored.
Shreeve also paired with fellow British synthesist and DiN label founder Ian Boddy, releasing a great series of albums as Arc.
Arc released a series of sophisticated second-generation Berlin School albums, most of which document live performances by the duo. Here’s an excerpt from 2009 from Arc’s live performance on the Stars End radio show, from WXPN Philadelphia:
“In these days, when so much live electronic music consists of a guy staring into the light of a laptop screen,” notes Echoes host John Diliberto, “It was a joy to watch Mark Shreeve bounding about his large modular synthesizer, throwing switches, moving patch cords, and twisting knobs, shaping and shifting his interlocking cycles of sound in real-time.”
Shreeve’s best known work, though, would be as one of the writers for Samantha Fox’s ’86 debut hit, Touch Me (I Want Your Body).
The hit came about as a bizarre stroke of luck.
“It was originally a 13-minute piece of ‘cosmic’ music dating from 1982,” explained Shreeve in a 1995 Sound On Sound interview. He put the original track together using a Sequential Pro One, Yamaha CS-30 and a Dr Rhythm drum machine.
“I didn’t know anything about the structure of pop music at all. Most of my compositions back then were about 15 minutes long.”
“When I was doing the Legion album, we started working up this track with all the others, but with the idea that we’d have some vocals on it,” he added. “They called in John Astrop, a producer and writer who had also been in a pop band. He went downstairs and came back with the ‘Touch Me (I Want Your Body)’ words. I thought to myself, ‘No one is going to buy this stuff in a million years’ — boy, was I wrong!”
The song was an international hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard charts in the US.
Shreeve leaves behind a legacy of four decades of work, including dozens of albums and a wealth of music for listeners to explore.
Mark, Your art and spirit will always be with us. Condolences to your family, and friends.
“I don’t get all the love or worship folks layer onto any kind of artists; it’s like a contest you only win when you’re dead and gone – and a lot of reverb.“ – John
So often childlike and refreshingly naive, your delightful word salads always make me laugh.
Thank you.
i am here to enjoy! lol! age has it’s perks; we don’t care what anyone things anymore.
Thought the same thing but now we have broken the spell. I like a lot of the Redshift and ARC music. I grew up on TD and Shreeve managed to capture the spirit of TD without falling into the hole that was later TD. RIP.
I liked TD too!
artists are merely means to an end – good music; that’s all the counts in my book.
Lorenzo, what nonsense. RIP Mark
Thank you for your pointless, unwarranted and uninvited critique of my opinion. Now I remember why I dont bother commenting frequently.
I didn’t ask for your opinion on my opinion – thanks.
What a fucked up year it is for all the greats in music history 🙁
So sad…
Agreed. This has been a tough one for some of the giants in electronic music. I can’t remember a year where I have had so many listening binges of catalogs of departed artists.
Mark, rest in peace. Thank you for the music.
Mark, you were my first inspiration into the world of electronic music. I still listen to Legion and Nocturne to this day, and saw you play live at EMMA 94. You erre unique and there will not be another such as you. Rest in peace.
I was not familiar with Mark’s work but I have been listening to Redshift a lot since seeing this article. Wonderful music. He makes it sound easy to achieve the TD sound! RIP
Only just heard the news. how sad. This will leave a massive hole in the Berliner Schule genre. RIP Mark, you will be dearly missed.
I had no idea until now. Really saddened by this. I met Mark a few times and even interviewed him for Ashley Franklyn at Radio Derby after Redshift’s inaugural concert at Jodrell Bank. This is a huge loss.
Very sad to read the passing of Mark Shreeve. He has been a favourite of mine and my Brother since 1985. We bought his Legion Album on Cassette for £6.99 from Our Price in Canterbury, purely for the cover art which -as kids – just captured our imagination. We played that on the drive home and we were absolutely astounded at what we bought! The best impulse buy ever and I continue to love his work to this day. Very sad loss indeed. Condolences to his family and friends. Many thanks for the hours of captivating sonic joy you brought to me. Rest In Peace Mark. You will be missed.