Tony Mansfield

•  дискография
•  участие в альбомах

Early work. Mansfield is best known as the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that performed from 1979 to 1982. The band had three UK Top 40 hits in 1980 (and a Number 1 hit in France), releasing three albums: From A To B (1980), Anywhere (1981) and Warp (1982). The group also released a compilation album for the United States in 1981, known as Sanctuary. It consisted of tracks from the first two albums.

After the disbanding of New Musik in 1982, Mansfield embarked on a similar project entitled Planet HaHa, with his younger brother Lee Mansfield and Rob Fisher (of Naked Eyes). They released just one single, Home, inspired by the popular film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial of 1982. It featured Lee's sing/speaking child vocal. The single was removed from sale for legal reasons.

Production. Mansfield then turned exclusively to production, producing a number of successful albums and singles for various popular artists in the 1980s, most notably Naked Eyes, Captain Sensible, a-ha, Mari Wilson, The B-52s and After The Fire. In the 1990s he produced the album Puntos Cardinales for Spanish female artist Ana Torroja, amongst other production works.

His productions are distinctive and characteristically impart a rich and atmospheric sound to the artist's songs. He is known for his inventiveness in the studio. His "sound" is full yet spacious, with elements of electronics which are not overly crude or trendy, providing an often moody and pleasing sound which is carried over from his New Musik days. Notably, he usually plays keyboards and acoustic guitars on his productions, which, along with one or two other favourite studio "trademarks", are unmistakable to fans of his sound.

Recent work. The 2000s have seen fewer productions, notably a 2000 Eurovision Song Contest entry single, My Star, for the Latvian band Brainstorm, as well as their 2001 album Online.

Rumours have emerged of the release of another New Musik album, supposedly entitled e-Musik. It was believed to be the work of Mansfield and his brother. Later rumours suggest the album will be released under the band name Planet HaHa, resurrecting the name of that project after a gap of more than twenty years.

It is believed that, whatever the title will be, this new album's tracks were finished some time ago but release has been delayed on more than one occasion for unpublicised reasons. What is certain however, is that Tony Mansfield appears reclusive and not keen on any form of publicity, so finding out what he is currently doing is never easy.