John Balance
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John Balance (first name also spelled Jhon and Jhonn; born Geff Rushton/Geoffrey Laurence Burton; February 16, 1962 - November 13, 2004) was the founder and half of the experimental music group Coil. He was responsible for vocals, lyrics, chants, synthetics and various esoteric sound-making instruments and devices. Outside of Coil he collaborated with Nurse With Wound, Death In June, Psychic TV, Current 93, Thighpaulsandra, and produced a couple of Nine Inch Nails remixes. His early work and wide-ranging collaborations made him one of the most influential figures in the industrial, experimental minimalist and neo-folk music scenes.
Balance was considered by many to be one in a long line of magicians and occultists such as Brion Gysin, John Dee, William Burroughs, Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare. He drew on the works of Crowley, Dee, Spare, Ex-Velvet Undeground member/mystical poet/percussionist Angus Maclise, poet/painter William Blake and Surrealist painter/sculptor Max Ernst for inspiration and guidance. He blended belief systems such as Shamanism, Christianity, Buddhism, Paganism, Hermeticism and Gnosticism and imbued Coil's vast output with a magickal current designed to have a functionally transcendant effect on listeners. He employed magick devices such as sigils in and around the music to create the sense of an otherworldly "presence". Jhonn's musical concepts were of actual sonic alchemy, combining the mechanics of avant electronic music and archaic synthesizers with the physics of magick and mysticism. This would define much of Coil's sound.
He had long struggled with alcoholism, which was cited as one of the major contributing factors to the breakup of his long-standing relationship with Industrial Records co-founder Peter Christopherson, and was a recurring theme in his later musical work. He died after falling off a balcony at his home while under the influence of alcohol.
External sites
- The Solar Lodge (http://www.brainwashed.com/coil)
- Threshold House (http://www.thresholdhouse.com/) memorial sitede:John Balance