Richard Pinhas is internationally recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians: the "father" of French electronic music. He was the founder of Heldon, a band whose violent fusion of electronics and guitar in the '70s rivaled the German electronic school. As a guitar player he has been compared to Robert Fripp. Cited as an influence by many electronic musicians, Richard Pinhas has helped to define the Spacemusic genre. Since founding the seminal spacerock band Heldon in 1974, Pinhas has released over 15 albums, had involvement in dozens more and shaped the way we listen to music today. At one time a professor of philosophy at The Sorbonne, Pinhas left academia to found Heldon and pursue music full-on. Influenced by the political climate, science fiction literature and the ambient music of Fripp & Eno, Pinhas' music is "specifically emotional yet tinged with theory. He has developed an attitude towards music that goes far beyond the sounds one actually hears to an almost mystical conceptualization of the meaning behind the sounds."