A guitarist who first found fame in the progressive rock era only to later resurface as an ambient techno cult hero,
was born August 2, 1951. In 1967 he co-founded the group
's 1968 departure for university. He did not return to music for another three years, reuniting with
After touring in support of
Kevin Ayers,
Hillage joined
Gong, winning acclaim for his echo- and delay-heavy brand of guitar work over the course of the group's 1972-1975 "Radio Gnome Invisible" trilogy (consisting of the LPs
Flying Teapot,
Angel's Egg, and
You). In 1975
Hillage went solo with the album
Fish Rising, the first fruits of a longstanding writing partnership with keyboardist
Miquette Giraudy. He next traveled to New York to cut 1976's
L, produced by
Todd Rundgren and featuring guest appearances from
Utopia as well as jazz great
Don Cherry.
At the peak of the punk era,
Hillage's work was by no means fashionable, but he pressed on regardless; in 1977 he issued
Motivation Radio, an album recorded with
Malcolm Cecil (the creator of an influential early electronic project, the studio-synthesizer
T.O.N.T.O.). He subsequently issued 1978's
Green, 1979's
Rainbow Dome Musick (an early ambient outing) and
Open, and 1983's
For to Next/And Not Or, but as interest in his music continued to dwindle,
Hillage turned to production, helming records for the likes of
Robyn Hitchcock and
Simple Minds.
By the close of the 1980s,
Hillage had largely disappeared from music; however, in 1989 he was visiting the ambient room of a local club when, much to his surprise, his own
Rainbow Dome Musick began to play. He introduced himself to the DJ, one
Alex Paterson, and soon
Hillage was working with
Paterson's seminal group
the Orb; out of their collaboration grew a new
Hillage-
Giraudy project,
System 7, a dance collective also comprised of club luminaries including
Paterson and fellow DJ
Paul Oakenfold.
After debuting with an eponymously titled 1991 LP,
System 7 plunged completely into blissed-out ambient sound on 1993's
777, which reached the Top 40 on the U.K. album charts. Released in 1994, Point 3 appeared in two different versions: the first,
The Fire Album, offered heavy beats and rhythms, while
The Water Album featured drumless mixes of the same music. With 1996's
Power of Seven,
System 7 turned to Detroit techno, recruiting the services of mixers
Carl Craig and
Derrick May. The group continued to release studio albums for many years to follow, including
Golden Section (1997),
Seventh Wave (2001),
Encantado (2004), and
Phoenix (2008).
Hillage also reunited with
Gong on the album
2032, released in September of 2009.
–
Jason Ankeny, Rovi