The Cosmic Crofter was the webmaster of the EHX website, home to the earliest Boards of Canada web page. He is the founder and curator of the Benbecula label in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A native of Edinburgh, Crofter appears to have had a close connection with many of the bands featured on EHX, including Boards of Canada. He posted exclusive content, such as clips of the band's famous Super 8 footage shown during their concerts and audio clips of pre-Twoism work that have still, to this day, not surfaced in any other form.

He was also privy to knowledge about BoC's legendary pre-Twoism catalog, some snippets of which he posted to an early version of the official Boards of Canada website. However, despite having access to this information, he stated that even he himself had not heard much of this material. Many still contest its existence.

He was also a frequent contributor to the IDM mailing list. He was responsible for the dissemination of many of the original copies of Twoism, which he mailed to interested mailing list members. It was also on this list that the controversy over the pre-Twoism catalog arose, eventually prompting its removal from the Boards of Canada site (see: EHX Boards of Canada web pages announcement for Crofter's reaction to the increased scrutiny by fans on the pre-Twoism catalog inclusion on the website). [1]

Always a mysterious figure, the Cosmic Crofter never revealed his real name (though in personal affairs, he goes by Steven) and deflected questions about himself. When asked if he himself was involved in any musical projects, he replied:

"I exist only within a Cosmic Zone, formed by incantations spoken by the Crofters during the Clearances, to safeguard the future cultures, whatever they may be, in Scotland."

He did, however, provide an email address (crofter AT ehx.ednet.co.uk) and a phone/fax number (0131 220 1205)

After running the Boards of Canada site, Crofter moved on to form Benbecula Records, and is now the driving force behind the label. He is thanked on the credits section of Benbecula's page, possibly to deflect the true scope of his involvement with the label. Benbecula has pressed a label CD of his own field recordings. The CD was never publically released, and Crofter is reported to have the only copy. He recently penned obituraries for Ivor Cutler and John Peel for the website.

He is now reported to be living pleasantly in the country in a small cottage. However, this information could be merely a play on his alias, Crofter (link directed to definition of word).

Releases

• BEN 003: The Cosmic Crofter - Clear This (CD)

External links

• The Cosmic Crofter (interview) by GrafiK, Inner Space Magazine, 1997
• Cosmic Crofter - Google Groups profile
• Benbecula Records