Robin Rimbaud is an ambient/electronic musician who works under the alias Scanner. The name comes from his field recordings taken from police scanners and mobile phones, which make up the bulk of his work. 

Rimbaud began releasing his material in the early 90s, alongside performing sets at his London club The Electronic Lounge. His songs were entirely based around the illicit recordings he’d taken on his scanner, which were mainly conversations between people who had no clue that somebody else was listening in. He’d incorporate atmospheric noise and simple beats, using background noise such as footsteps or the radio to create texture within the tracks. (Toop, 1995, p.35)

Scanner notably took inspiration from Brian Eno, who can confidently be named as the creator of ambient music. Eno decided to focus less on the making of the music and took more of an interest in the art of listening; considering the energy and sonic architecture of a track. Eno ended up opening the door to ambience for a lot of artists (Laraaji, Harold Budd, Jon Hassell), paving the way for a new genre/movement within the UK.

Different forms of ambient music ( ambient techno, ambient house etc…) started to gain commercial success during the early 90s, with artists such as The Orb, Future Sounds of London and Aphex Twin performing sets in clubs. This was a real turning point for electronic music, the DJ was now seen as more of an artist than just a technician.  

Scanner was an important part of this movement, his music attracted a niche audience with voyeuristic tastes, the act of listening almost became a compulsion; an obsession with spectatorship. Although I recognise his significance, in my opinion, Rimbaud used his platform to try and highlight the gradual disappearance of privacy that happened alongside the evolution of digital technology. Ironically, his recordings resulted in him becoming part of the problem he was trying to prevent; exploiting the privacy of the public for his own personal gain as an artist.

Biography (2022) Scanner. Available at: http://scannerdot.com/robin-rimbaud-scanner-biography/ (Accessed: December 5, 2022).

An introduction to ambient music (2020) An HTML standard template. Available at: https://sites.barbican.org.uk/ambientmusic/ (Accessed: December 5, 2022).

Taylor, E. (2009) ‘scanner’ Robin Rimbaud, RSS. Available at: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2009/10/scanner-robin-rimbaud/ (Accessed: December 5, 2022).

Toop, D. (1996) Ocean of sound. Virgin.