From: Mark McCormack - mfpdesign@hotmail.com
To: webmaster@forevernow.com
Subject: Andy Sojka obituary
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 14:39:43 GMT
From The Guardian, March 10 2000.
Andy Sojka, record producer, born July 10 1951; died February 12 2000
In 1979 Andy Sojka, who has died of multiple myeloma aged 48, formed,
produced and recorded the five-strong music group, Atmosfear. The first
fruit of the liaison was their single, Dancing In Outer Space. Thus did
he pioneer a new British dance music.
Dancing In Outer Space fused disco, funk, jazz and psychedelic production.
It sold 100,000 copies 96 and the tune survives, still played and
frequently sampled.
Educated at Kingsbury high school, north London, in the late 1970s, Sojka
opened All Ears, a dance music shop in Harlesden. It quickly became a focus
for the 12inch 45rpm dance single boom, which had begun in the United States.
Many of the customers at All Ears were DJs buying American imports and the
British releases that followed.
After Dancing In Outer Space, in 1980 Sojka discovered and named Level 42,
and signed them to his Elite label, producing their first single, Love
Meeting Love, and The Early Tapes album.
In the 1980s, Elite Records became a home for the new independent British
dance music, and releases by DSM (Danny D), Beverley Skeete, Projection,
Atmosfear, Sahara and many others featured regularly in the dance music
charts. With his music championed by the late Larry Levan at the Paradise
Garage Andy became a cult figure in New York.
Between 1986-88 he worked with Garry Hughes, producing two experimental
world music crossover albums. In 1987, a rhythm and blues label was formed.
Its first release was Keni Stevens's Blue Moods, a classic album of British
soul music.
In the mid-90s Andy established three new labels, Jump Cut, Meta4, and
Chemical Discs, whose catalogue included such notable works as Atmosfear's
Trance Plants (1994) and Jangala Spirits (1997). His last major project was
Altered Slates (1998), made with the US group, Masters at Work, the U2
producer Francois Kevorkian, and Dimitri from France. In 1999, he began
writing Groove World, an album by Atmosfear due for release later this year.
Sojka is survived by his wife, Karen, and two children.
David Buttle
Andy Sojka, record producer, born July 10 1951; died February 12 2000
