Jonathan Sharp

Jonathan Sharp is an electronic body music / industrial musician and professional sound designer from Cumbria, England, who has released music under the names New Mind, Bio-Tek, The Heartwood Institute, and others. He was also a member of the bands Cyber-Tec Project, Hexedene, and Hyperdex-1-Sect.

Career Early life As a child Jonathan was a classically trained musician, having played piano and violin. As a teenager taught himself to play guitar and his interests began drifting from classical music towards experimental guitar oriented music in the vein of Swans, as well as early industrial and electronic music including Neu! and Helden. Drawing on a fascination with the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Jonathan eventually acquired a Roland synthesizer in order to make sounds of his own. an imprint of the UK-based Vinyl Solution label. New Mind was initially offered an expanded record deal with Sadisque but the deal fell through. Jonathan contributed tracks to several compilations during the following year including releases by Sentrax Records, Dossier, and The Empty Quarter before being signed to Machinery Records in 1993.

The first New Mind album, Fractured, was released by Machinery Records in 1993. This was the only release on Machinery as the label did not find the initial material for the second album, Zero To The Bone, to their liking. While Fractured displayed the obvious influence of Skinny Puppy with a more straightforward EBM and electro style, Zero explored a wider variety of electronic music styles infused with guest female vocalists.

After setbacks with both Fifth Colvmn and Cyber-Tec, Jonathan sent initial demos of tracks from Forge to Stefan Herwig at Off Beat. This led to a multi-album deal with Off Beat.

Hyperdex-1-Sect The relationship with Zoth Ommog via Bio-Tek led to a collaboration between Jonathan and André Schmechta of X Marks the Pedwalk that became Hyperdex-1-Sect. Their album Metachrome was released by Synthetic Symphony in 1997 and featured tracks that Jonathan had originally written for Cyber-Tec Project, reconstructed by André and reformatted with female vocals.

Production & Remixes During the 1990s, Jonathan produced many remixes as New Mind for bands such as Aïboforcen, Birmingham 6, Scar Tissue, Inertia, Aghast View, and Attrition. He also recorded many one-off compilation tracks under various names, including: Datura, Gunhed,

Library music and solo recordings

By the year 2000, Jonathan discovered library music Over the next several years Jonathan temporarily ceased his commercial music production in deference to his new career.

Contemporary with his work as The Heartwood Institute, Jonathan embarked on recordings under his own name of "elegiac piano-led pieces" with an autobiographical theme inspired by photographs taken during his childhood. His release Divided Time focuses his childhood years of 1970—1977 when he would split his time between his parents' houses in London and Cumbria.

Henning Zinoviev & Floating Candles

In 2022, Sharp produced a pair of releases inspired by classic 1970s era horror soundtracks under the name "Henning Zinoviev & Floating Candles."

Discography

As New Mind Body Politic (12" EP, 1991, Sadisque) Fractured (CD, 1993, Machinery Records, Think Tank) Zero to the Bone (CD, 1995, Fifth Colvmn Records) Forge (CD, 21 October 1997, 21st Circuitry, Off Beat) Deepnet (CD, 1998, Off Beat, Gashed!) – #18 CMJ RPM Charts, U.S. Phoenix (CD, 2001, Doppler Effect)

As Bio-Tek A God Ignored Is A Demon Born (CD, 1996, Zoth Ommog, Cleopatra) Darkness My Name Is (CD, 1997, Zoth Ommog) Punishment For Decadence (CD, 1999, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions) – #15 CMJ RPM Charts, U.S. The Ceremony Of Innocence (CD, 2002, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)

As Barking At Butterflies Disappear With The Stars (CD EP, 2008, Lakeland Records) Armor Plated (digital, 2011, Doppler Effect)

As The Heartwood Institute Astercote (CD, 2015, Reverb Worship) The Wild Hunt Of Hagworthy (CDr, 2015, Reverb Worship) Calder Hall: Atomic Power Station (CDr, 2016, Reverb Worship) Mix Tape One (Cass, 2017, The Heartwood Institute) The Whispering Knights (CDr, 2017, Reverb Worship) Secret Rites (LP/digital, 2018, Polytechnic Youth) Barsham Faire (7" single, 2018, Polytechnic Youth) The Divided Self (EP, 2018, Sleep FUSE) Tomorrow's People (LP, 2019, Polytechnic Youth) w/ Tomorrow Syndicate, The Home Current Remixes (7" single, 2019, Polytechnic Youth) w/ Panamint Manse, Parapsychedelia (LP, 2020, Castles in Space) Lovely Lightning / Ringstone Round (7" single/digital, 2020, Sleep FUSE) Witchcraft Murders (LP, 2021, Library Of The Occult) w/ Hawksmoor, Concrete Island (Cass/digital, 2021, Spun Out Of Control) Land Of The Lakes (LP, 2021, Castles in Space) Noah's Castle (7" single, 2021, Library Of The Occult) Mardale (CDr, 2022, Sleep FUSE) The Carhullan Army (Cass, 2022, Bibliotapes) Witch Phase Four (CDr, 2022, Sleep FUSE) Hedges (Cass, 2022, Woodford Halse) Conqueror Worm (7" single, 2022, Feral Child Records)

As Jonathan Sharp Titanium Rain, Episode One (Dramatized) (LP/digital, 2011, AudioComics) Divided Time (LP/digital, 2019, Castles in Space) Kensington, 1974 / Kendal Steam Gathering, 1975 (7" single, 2019, Castles in Space) Niavka (Soundtrack, Cass, 2023, Spun Out Of Control)

As Henning Zinoviev & Floating Candles Die Nude For Satan (Soundtrack, 2022, Library Of The Occult) La Quinta Vittima (Soundtrack, 2022)