Choirboy at Canterbury Cathedral. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London
(1953-7) and in Cologne (1957-8); assistant to Stockhausen in the scoring of
the latter’s ‘Carre’. From 1961 in London worked as a graphic artist, whence
the extraordinary graphic score Treatise. Some study with Goffredo Petrassi in
Italy in the early 1960s. Appeared regularly as a performer of works by
Stockhausen, Feldman, Cage, Wolff etc. and collaborated extensively with the
pianist John Tilbury. Became involved in improvisation (with the jazz-derived AMM Ensemble) and founded the Scratch Orchestra (of
trained and untrained players) in 1969. From 1971 he embraced Maoist concepts
of politically-committed socialist art; published the book ‘Stockhausen serves
Imperialism’ (1974); repudiated indeterminacy, turned to a more conventional
(or, less elitist) musical vocabularty and wrote works implicitly or explicitly
supportive of the Irish liberation struggle. He was killed when run down by a
car; the circumstances have never been properly investigated.