Robert Vincs

Rob Vincs is a musician, composer and academic specialising in improvised, interactive and electro-acoustic music making. He is well known for his high velocity and textural approach drawn from Afro-American Jazz, ECM, experimental, electronic and world genres. Vincs favours emotive, deep psyche and transcendent experience in his music that comes from immersion and the embrace of natural elements and other-worldly access granted through AI and non human generative processes.

In 1988 Vincs won the B.P. Quiet Achiever Award for his early work in Artificial Intelligence in Improvised Music and continued his creative work looking to develop and refine his embrace of interactive technology. His awarded doctorate studies were on “Artificial Intelligence and Technology in Improvised Music Performance”.

Vincs has collaborated with many leading Australian and international contemporary artists including: Barney McAll, Polymorphic Orchestra, David Jones, Simon DeHaan, Judy Jacques, Chloë Sobeck, Vijay Thillaimuthu, Ronny Ferella, Sunny Kim, Varden Ovsepian (US), Kenneth Nash (US) Raff Sudan (Swiss) Hyun Suk Lee (Sth Korea), Melbourne Ballet Company, Seoul Contemporary Dance Theatre, Kim Vincs, and Dianne Reid to name a few.

Vincs has performed in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia in a variety of performance contexts specializing in music for contemporary dance. In 2017 he was invited to tour and perform with the International Society of Improvised Music in their 10th anniversary celebration in South Korea with workshops and special performance at the SORI Festival.

Vincs’ performance career started early as a member of Separate Tables / Girl Overboard between 1983 and ‘86. It was during this time that he became a major exponent of the Fairlight CMI (computer music instrument) leading to his sounds being used by Thomas Dolby and Kate Bush.

As a studio engineer Vincs has experienced an exceptionally diverse array of situations and ensembles. This includes recording the VCA Symphony Orchestra, Germiniani Chamber Orchestras, improvisation and jazz groups, string quartets, experimental ensembles, world music groups, brass choirs and opera. Vincs has also recorded Mornington Island indigenous sacred songs and stories and was assistant engineer for Melbourne’s successful Olympic bid presentation direct via satellite to Tokyo from GTV Channel 9.

Vincs was Associate Professor of music, Head of the Sound Research Studio, Head of Graduate Studies and Head of Jazz and Improvisation at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA, now the Faculty of Fine Art and Music at the University of Melbourne). Now retired from the academy Rob holds the position of Principal Fellow of the University of Melbourne and has an extremely active musical life with eight releases of his music in the past two years and a special new vinyl release entitled Chaomorphic released through the Extreme Label in 2023.

Selected Discography

Robert Vincs Devic Kingdom (Extreme)

Zeno’s Wig Eyes and Instinct (Newmarket 3017.2)*

Zeno’s Wig Bare (Newmarket 3057.2)

Robert Vincs Pneumatikos (Extreme)

Robert Vincs Chaomorphic (Extreme)

*ARIA nominated for ‘Best Jazz Album 1997’

robvincs.com