Ergo Phizmiz is a UK-based experimental musician and composer whose work moves across pop, pranksterism, mutant electro and other forms, often avoiding fixed genre boundaries. The Wire describes him as a “one man movement”, and BBC Radio 3 describes him as one of the most inventive composers around, comparing him to Chris Morris.

Work and output

Phizmiz is a highly prolific artist who creates audio and video work across live performance, installation, radio art, video art, residencies and interactive music. His output includes more than 300 hours of audio and video. He works both alone and in collaboration.

His music draws on hip-hop, world music, lo-fi, ambient, plunderphonics, traditional dance music, Eastern European music, gamelan and cartoon music, while continually shifting between styles rather than settling into one. He is described as “wrongwriter”, reflecting an approach that treats and reshapes human culture into new forms.

Collaborations and commissions

He collaborates with artists including People Like Us, Safety Scissors, Irene Moon, Martha Moopette, Blank Beats, Scanner, The The, Luke Fowler, Xper Xr, Alex Nielsen and Man From Uranus. His work appears in projects for Tate Modern, the Royal Festival Hall, the Dutch Academy of Fine Art, Cologne Kulturbunker, Arts Council England, Geneva School of Art, Cherbourg-Octeville College of Music & Atagatomusi-k, Resonance FM, UbuWeb, WFMU, Sonic Arts Network and BBC Radio 3.

He creates Wholepole - The Discotheque of Erotic Misery, which becomes the first full-length electronic music commission for BBC Radio 3.

Recordings and labels

Phizmiz releases music on labels including Sonore, Mukow, Sonic Arts Network, ~Scape, Soleilmoon, The Wire, LMC, Egotwister and Match My Foot. His projects include work planned on Womb Records and Slag Records, a radio series and installation called 1000 Year Mix, and Perpetuum Mobile, an album made with People Like Us for Soleilmoon.

Broadcast work

He mixes and presents The Phuj Phactory, a weekly radio show on WFMU in New York.

Background

He lives in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.