Protogonos is the working name adopted by Stefan W. Bojczuk and any musical collaborators, the most enduring partnership having been with Matthew Shaw for the last six years.
Protogonos: Derivation: alchemical, the first seed: cabbalistic, adam kadmon, the blueprint of humankind.
Stefan became interested in playing electronic music in the late '70s. It was while he attended Newcastle University that he met Ian Boddy. Their mutual interest in electronica led them to Spectro studios where they experimented with VCS3s and other wobbly analogue synths. Stefan returned to his native Halifax, where, for a number of years he dabbled with punk/new wave, keyboard player in the legendary Phantom Limbs. He continued to experiment in the field of Throbbing Gristle- inspired industrial music, eventually releasing an album called Factories and Temples, a mish-mash of dreamy Glass type rhythms contrasted with dark and menacing noise beats.
In 1990 he met Matt Shaw who enthused about the then modern and eclectic techno coming from such labels as Warp. After some time they released an album called Noumena and Phenomena which received good reviews and, happily, sold out. Towards the end of the production of Noumena they realised that there was an idea here which looked both backwards (to works such as Zeit) and forwards (dance audiences were slotting extended ambient works into their collections).
So over the last two years Protogonos wrote Strange Geographie, an extended musical journey into sonic territories, some partially mapped familiar landscapes, others leading the listener to places only previously explored by alchemists and cabbalists and a few mathematicians. In the same period Stefan put together an album of various ambient works by artists from around West Yorkshire. It features six artists, nine tracks in total, including two short tracks by Protogonos. Going by the name of Mind Out it is available on CD from Wandering Aimlessly Records.
Matthew Shaw works regularly with musician and DJ Josh Holt. Their work involves experimentation with sounds, twisting them and processing them in a manner similar to musique concrete. They have produced extensive pieces for a variety of platforms including TV, film, art exhibitions and company marketing. They soon hope to release an album which showcases their orthogonal approach to composition.
