That's interesting. No doubt those vinyls are worth a fair bit of money.
I almost see Beaumont as a sort of Syd Barrett-esque figure in the UK 90s electronic scene - someone who just went off the map. He's still around - or was the last I heard - but he's the great enigma of that whole period. The music was good, too - great in places. He clearly wasn't entirely happy, though. The sleevenotes of Sculptured make that very, very clear, as do some of the song titles near the end of his GPR period.
I remember that ambient guide piece and the alleged issues with GPR. There's a whole book to be written on that label alone. Some terrific music on there, but all sorts of alleged issues with contracts/money. The Black Dog / Plaid didn't have good things to say about them. But I think Beaumont was their Aphex - the mythic figure who gave the label profile / edge etc. Then it all went pear-shaped for the label and, it seems, for Hannant.
I'd like to think that Beaumont just went back to working in a record shop in York and still makes music for his own amusement. He certainly keeps an extremely low profile.
Maybe he's done a Salinger.
But if things had worked out differently with Bjork, he could have gone up to Iceland like Mark Bell did. There was no reason why he couldn't have been a major figure. Unless he simply didn't want that for himself.
I know people who will tell you that the Release to the System track on AI2 is not Beaumont's at all - just a slight tweaking of a track he and Franklin did together. We don't know what Beaumont's take on that is, though, but you can judge for yourself.
Maybe he'll come out and talk one day.
But if he was going to do that, he'd probably have done it by now.
