Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter.

In Erasure, he is known for his deadpan and low-key onstage demeanour, often remaining motionless over his keyboard, in sharp contrast to lead vocalist Andy Bell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics.

[8] Clarke provided vocals until lead vocalist Dave Gahan joined the band, which was renamed Depeche Mode.

The band initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the studio album Speak & Spell and the Clarke-penned singles "Dreaming of Me", "New Life", and "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981.

[10] He also stated: "I think everybody in the band, especially myself, imagined that the reason we were doing so well was because of themselves ... We were pretty young and very lucky, and things had happened very quickly for us, and I don't think we were really mature to handle the situation.

Clarke then teamed with lead vocalist Alison Moyet (at the time known by the nickname of Alf) to form the popular synth-pop duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US), which produced two studio albums and a string of hits, including "Only You", "Don't Go", "Situation", "The Other Side of Love" and "Nobody's Diary".

During 1983 and 1984 he produced four singles, "The Face of Dorian Gray", "I Just Want to Dance", "Claudette", and "Calling All Destroyers" for his friend Robert Marlow, which were released on this label.

[12] In early 1985, Clarke placed an advertisement in Melody Maker for a singer, and one applicant was Andy Bell, who was a fan of his earlier projects.

He teamed with Bell to form the group Erasure, and the duo became one of the major selling acts in British music with international hits like "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Chains of Love", "A Little Respect", "Drama!

In 2011, Clarke collaborated with his former Depeche Mode colleague Martin Gore for the first time since 1981, as techno duo VCMG, on an instrumental minimalist electronic dance album called Ssss, released on 12 March 2012.

The duo collaborated again in 2001 for the album Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, which was created with "3D music technology" specifically designed for listening in headphones.

[14] Clarke also did DJ sets in various locations in North America and Europe and also continued his production work of remixing songs for Dido and Chad Valley.

[20] On 14 July 2015, Clarke announced a collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre called "Automatic", released as a part of the studio album Electronica 1: The Time Machine on 16 October 2015.

[21] On 10 June 2016, in collaboration with Paul Hartnoll, Clarke digitally released the album 2 Square on his new record label, VeryRecords.

[24] When Clarke started making music, synthesisers were predominantly analogue; digital synthesizers were rare and would remain so until the launch of the Yamaha DX7 in 1983.

When an industry-wide standard called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was introduced in 1983, Clarke, like most other electronic musicians, gradually migrated to the new technology.

"[26]"In 1993 Clarke described his approach to songwriting: "Andy [Bell] and I get together with a guitar and a tape recorder, I'll strum some chords, he'll sing a melody, and we work in little sections, four or eight bars long.

"[26] "Clarke continued to expand his collection of analogue synthesisers and in 1994 set up "37B", a recording studio built adjacent to his custom-made home, "Ammonite", in Chertsey, Surrey.

While waiting for his studio equipment to be shipped from the UK he began using an Apple Mac laptop with Logic Pro, Max/MSP, and various software synthesisers (many of which were analogue emulations).

"[30] "As of 2009, Clarke has installed his analogue synthesisers alongside his Logic Pro-based workstation in a custom-built commercial studio called "The Cabin" in Maine.

[37] Among the musicians Tracy served as a publicist for included Prince, George Michael and Clarke's former band Depeche Mode.

[37][40][41] with Depeche Mode with Yazoo with the Assembly with Paul Quinn with Erasure Solo Collaboration with Martyn Ware with Family Fantastic RadioActivators