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- Ambient Temple of Imagination: http://www.a-toi.com/
See also Seofon.
- The Apiary -
The Apiary is another name under which M. Bentley works (see below). Using specific techniques and approaches, The Apiary has recorded an album, Descent and the soundtrack for The Hunting of the Wren, both projects inspired by the work of Charles Browning. The album A.D. has been in production for many years.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.foundrysite.com/bentley/
- Michael Bentley - founder of The Foundry label, has recorded under several names [eM, The Apiary and Rhomb (with Nathan Kreisberg), among others] and has released a number of EPs and CDs of electronic and experimental music. Beyond the many projects for his own Foundry label, Michael's output includes releases for the Irish label Fällt (as eM, Import was part of the invalidObject series); for SlapArt (the Retrograd cassette EP as eM), and inclusion on CD compilations from MIT Press' Computer Music Journal (Winter 2000), No Type (as eM with n.kra on The Freest of Radicals), Little Fury Things (as eM for the No Compression Festival comp) and aquaFM (ambient@hyperreal vols. 1 & 2). Michael continues to work with the Archipelago collective on both releases (Bibimbap in 2004, the Islands EP series in 2000), and performances (the monthly Archipelago LIVE series Feb.through May 2004). Video work has also become part of Michael's artistic out[ut, combining his years of experience in graphic work to create Chronos & Kairos, St. Michael Oubliette, and Scenes from Thing Asunder, among other works.
More information on The Foundry can be found here, and more information on M. Bentley can be found here.
- Ian Boddy: http://www.DiN.org.uk
- Steve Brand: http://www.stevebrand.us
Since 1995, Brand has released more than 20 disks as Augur, and more recently under his own name, on various independent labels in USA, Canada and Italy. Brand has also collaborated with a number of artists and his music has been distributed worldwide. Most recently, his work has become widely available on CD Baby and iTunes, and was included on the nationally syndicated radio show, Hearts of Space, in October 2007 edition entitled, Darkwater, along with the work of Michael Stearns and other artists.
"I grew up in a family that loved music; we danced and sang together to all kinds of music. I used to spend my allowance on 45's and LP's that I would balance on the handlebars of my bike. Even at that early age, I was aware of the power of music to unlock emotion and memory. I was, and am, obsessed with the history of the place I've grown-up in; I am fascinated by the archeological history, the American Indians that lived/live here, the migrations west, the Civil War - that interest in history and time is still with me, and inhabits the work I do today. I plunked away in garage bands as a teenager, but I was always a little too unfocused and ponderous, to turn it into a real gig. Later, my experiences in graduate school made me aware of the work of many artists, but I always felt closest to folk, naive, primitive, and outsider, art. It was in school, in the early 80's, that I began to create simple soundtracks for my painting and scuplture exhibitions, using tape loops (made out of gutted cassette tapes), turn tables, guitar, toys, found sounds, etc. In 1993, after becoming aware of :Zoviet*France:, Jeph Jerman, G*Park, Alio Die and other DIYers, I began to bring my old sound ideas back to life again.
"More theoretically, I am committed to the idea that art/music, more than being a thing or an industry, is actually a fluid and transformative process, with it's roots in our common ancient past and preconscious depths, and that the results of this process are maps of/to lost and uncharted realms. In a culture of encroaching technology, increasing hyper-rationality, and stifling binary thought, I feel it is not only a radical approach, but of increasing importance (as both an artist and as a male in this society), to address feeling and intuition - the unacknowledged subtleties of the totality of being."
- Kim Cascone -
Formally trained in electronic music at the Berklee College of Music and the New School in New York City. Founded Silent Records in 1986. Worked on David Lynch's Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart as Assistant Music Editor. Sound designer and composer for Thomas Dolby's company Headspace. Since 1980, Kim has released numerous albums of electronic music on Silent, Mille Plateaux, Anechoic and 12k to name a few. Kim Cascone has performed/lectured at the Lovebytes Festival (UK), Micro 2 Mutek (Montreal), Transmissions Festival (North Carolina), Tate Modern (London), Observatori Festival (Spain). Cascone was one of the co-founders of the microsound list (http://www.microsound.org) and writes for Computer Music Journal (MIT Press) and Artbyte Magazine.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.anechoicmedia.com
- Chris de Giere - is an electronic musician and software engineer based in San Francisco. His music is characterized by a dynamic mix of soupy digital ambience and bass heavy abstract beats. Dense layers of sound engage the listener and encourage active attention throughout. Also driven by an interest in chaotic systems and real-time synthesis, de Giere improvises both live and in the studio with custom interactive software tools to encourage moments of spontaneous convergence and harmony. He has released material with Emanate, No Type, Volta Vinyl, and The Foundry and has performed across the west and east coast United States and in Germany.
Chris de Giere information: http://degiere.net/
- dreamSTATE: http://www.dreamstate.to
- Earwicker - is a collaboration between Kimoscio, Chris Cones, and Seofon (see below). They have also worked under the name Content Provider. Avast!
Earwicker information: coming soon
- eM -
eM is the name under which Michael Bentley, see above. Works by eM cover a range of experimental and ambient shadings, and include the titles Greater than Zero, Less than One and All the Stars Burning Bright (for The Foundry), and Import (part of the critically acclaimed invalidObject series from Irish label Fällt). eM tracks have also appeared on various compilations (including MIT Press' Computer Music Journal Sound Anthology 2000 and No-Type's Freest of Radicals) and internet sites (Tiln and, later this year, No-Type).
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.foundrysite.com/bentley/
- Susanne Brokesch: http://www.diskob.com/a/brokesch/
- Forrest Fang - is a Bay Area multi-instrumentalist and ambient musician whose recordings have been released on the Projekt, Cuneiform and Ominous Thud labels. He has also appeared as a guest artist on several Robert Rich releases, most recently on the 2003 CD, "Temple of the Invisible." Fang also composed a multimedia opera for George Coates Performance Works and an original score for the contemporary shadow theater production, "In Xanadu." He is currently working on a collaborative project with guitarist Carl
Weingarten and on a follow-up to his 2000 Projekt CD, "Gongland."
Forrest Fang information: http://pwp.value.net/~ffcal/FFANG1.HTM
- High Skies(Mat Jarvis) -
Mat Jarvis' first releases were under the name Gas on Emit/Time Recording. He released a string of tracks on various electronic compilation albums and an album 0095 on Emit. This included the electronic/ambient classic Microscopic, which regularly scored 10 out of 10 in reviews.
This will be the first release under the new name High Skies, and there are a whole bunch of other releases due in the next few months.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.highskies.com
- Jonathan Hughes - Jonathan Hughes has released a handful of CDs under the pseudonym Subspace, including the inventive two disc set Fluid: environmental sound modules one through ten and the wonderful Low Frequency Oscillator. Jonathan also recently collaborated with Mollusk on four tracks (one of which is available on Mollusk's Foundry release Accretions and another on the Lost and Found compilation). Jonathan's CD Trillium will be released by The Foundry in the Spring of 2002.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.foundrysite.com/hughes/ or
http://www.dronelab.com/
- Hussalonia: http://www.hussalonia.com/
- Tetsu Inoue: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/tetsu/
- Interstitial - As Interstitial, John Koch-Northrup creates ambient, pulse, and experimental music. His music varies widely - from songs focusing on subtle changes in sound and texture to heavily processed drums - more melodic jazz influenced work to noise experiments. He's played piano for over 25 years and has played bass, synths/electronics, and trumpet in numerous bands and projects.
Releases include the full length Temporal Arc and Live at the Miramar with Vir Unis (recorded at the 2001 Space for Music Festival in Milwaukee). John also contributed a remix to the Vir Unis/Saul Stokes CD Thermal Transfer (Hypnos/Binary), as well as tracks to the compilations Red Antanna [Assembled], Portraits, The New Electric Policy/1. Upcoming projects include his second full length release Kinetoscope planned for early 2003 and the Relaxed Machinery EP based on the sounds a factory makes when the machines are at rest on a Sunday morning.
More information can be found via http://www.interstitial.info
- Mollusk - features the work of Malcolm Bly, who became interested in the possibilities of web music through work in web design. The music of Mollusk is created entirely through digital means, including sampling and sundry DSP applications. Bly has also experimented with the process of encoding MP3s, often choosing lower kbps rates in order to create a "low resolution" sound.BTW, Malcolm Bly/Mollusk is yet another in a seemingly endless line of pseudonyms used by M. Bentley. Why does he do this?
MOLLUSK INFO VIA: Mollusk notes
- David Mussen: http://www.opalinemusic.com/
- Naryan Padmanabha: http://www.epochmusic.com/
- Rhomb - Rhomb, Nathan Kreisberg and Michael Bentley, have been playing and composing music together since high school, with breaks for travel and graduate school . Rhomb have been influenced by many artists, including Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, Vangelis, and Tonto's Expanding Head Band, as well as more recent artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre. Rhomb's releases include Hidden
Topographies and the 3" CD EP Lunatic, as well as contributions to the Foundry release Mote. Several future projects are in the works for Rhomb.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.foundrysite.com/rhomb/
- Dean Santomieri - has been working with electronic music and musique concrete since 1971, as well as creating multi-image pieces, super-8 and 16mm films and videos. In recent years Santomieri formed the electro-acoustic performing duo Donkey Boy (with Luther Bradfute in 1995) which employed live electronic music, slides or video, story-telling, costumes, and props in their many Bay Area performances. In 1996 he collaborated with Joyce Todd to form the baroque performance group Theater of Memory. Since 1997 Santomieri has also been performing with Malcolm Mooney & the10th Planet (Mooney was the original singer with the German progressive-rock group Can), providing electronics and guitar. In 1998 Santomieri formed a multi-media group with musicians Bruce Anderson, Karen Stackpole and David Kwan, for live performance of his short stories (narration accompanied by live music and video). This ensemble's first show, The Boy Beneath the Sea, was performed numerous times in the Bay Area, and lead to this CD release. In 2000 the Archipelago imprint released Santomieri's Crude Rotation, a 3" CD, EP of musique concrete/electronic pieces, to critical praise.
Dean Santomieri information: http://www.foundrysite.com/santomieri/
- Seofon -
Seofon is the theoretical identity of a student of world mystery.
Best known for his long-standing production work with the Ambient Temple
of Imagination, Seofon also records esoteric electronica under his own
name, collaborates heavily within the Archipelago collective, and is
involved in a variety of other experimental projects including San
Francisco's Content Provider. Last year Seofon completed Zero
Point, an Ambient Temple collaboration with ambient music luminaries
Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, and others, also released on Foundry/Hypnos. In
2000 Seofon attained a degree in cognitive science from the University of
California at Berkeley, with which he intends to rigorously explore the
interplay between sound and consciousness.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.a-toi.com/seofon/
- Sketch -
Sketch is a duo of Tor Jørgensen (Programming, samples, electronics, guitar & bass), and Kai Mikalsen (Programming, samples, voice & electronics) who have made music together since 1987. Releases include Reasons to Sway (on Apollo Records), Abeyance (on Sketch's own Mold label, containing two discs of material originally slated to appear on R&S), Zincanode (on Racing Junior), and 59*56'N 10*44'Ø 21.09.00 (on Subtopia, a live recording from the Zincanode release party), as well as appearances on Arctic Circles Vol. 1 & 2 (on Beatservice) and Det Norske Hut (on D-but). Sketch also provided the soundtrack for Erik Sjolbjergs short-movie I sirkel in 1995, and perform regularly in their native Norway and the rest of Europe, including appearances at Olso's So What festival, the infamous Blå, and as support for legendary psychedelia-band Gong.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.looop.no/sketch/english.php & http://drugie.here.ru/achtung/sketch.htm
- Saul Stokes - Saul Stokes was born in Seattle Washington. After adolescent training on both the violin and trumpet, Stokes discovered the tonal possibilities of the synthesizer and started
creating electronic music as a teenager in the mid 1980's. His fascination
with the palette of sounds available via synthesizer led him to learn the
basics of analog synthesizer construction. While attaining a degree in
Industrial Design, Stokes used his knowledge of synth DIY to build highly
eccentric music devices, and began to restructure his musical ideas focusing
on music created purely from home-made synthesizers and sampling technology.
In 1997, he signed with Hypnos Recordings and has released three solo
albums, Washed in Mercury, Zo Pilots and Outfolding, all of which have been praised for their originality and musicianship. In 2001, the album
Abstraction was released on Minneapolis' GreenHouseMusic label. Abstraction fuses the best of 3 years of concert recordings with Stokes' latest multitrack atmospheric work. In 2002, Stokes teamed up with Vir Unis to
release Thermal Transfer. "Released on the new Hypnos sub-label, Binary,
the electronically hyperactive Thermal Transfer from Chicago based Vir Unis
and Berkeley based Stokes sets the standards for a new era in relaxing
uptempo electronic music (Outburn Magazine)." Stokes currently lives in
Northern California and is finishing up his next solo CD titled Fields,
which will bring together close to 2 years of intense song writing and hand
forged instrument design. Fields will be released on Hypnos' Binary label
in the fall of 2002. Other projects in the works include a track written for
The Foundry's upcoming Sub-Terra project as well as a sample cd of
percussion sounds from hand forged instruments.
Further information about Saul Stokes can be found via http://www.saulstokes.com.
- Ben Swire's interest in music, early on, took the form of building a studio in the basement of his home in Newton, MA (a suburb of Boston) and engineering for a variety of acts. He played drums with the band Bode, and gradually became interested in exploring different unique production techniques and creating his own music.
Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2000 with a BA in Media Arts. While there he studied electronic music composition with Charles Bestor, winner of the 1999 Bourges (France) International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition (Dr Bestor had studied with Vladimir Ussachevsky). In 2000 Ben released a split 7" record with the band Audio Explorations which caught the attention of Riz Maslen (aka Neotropic) with whom he later collaborated on an NTone (a division of Ninja Tune) 7" that included the work of ex-Verve guitarist Nick McCabe. During this time time Ben was living in London and performed as a member of the act "Minus" crafting live experimental and improvisational electronic music. More recently Ben scored "FM," an animation piece by Australian artist Rebecca Cannon which was premiered at the 2002 Transmediale Festival in Berlin. Ben relocated to San Francisco in January 2002.
Ben Swire information: http://foundrysite.com/benswire/
- Thermal -
Thermal has been making music for many years, both as a member of M-1 Alternative and as a sometimes member of the Ambient Temple of Imagination and Freezer. Thermal has also produced several solo projects, and his releases include the Span 3" CD EP for Archipelago; A Monument of Chance and Time out of Mind for his own Boxman Studies label; and appearance on several compilations including Knots (on Thousand/WMO), Sleeping Off Stolen Dreams (on Little Echoes), and Excursions in Ambience: The Fourth Dimension (on Astralwerks). New releases are immanent.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.boxmanstudies.com/
- Jussi & Jaana Väisänen: http://ambient.aldabra.fi/
- Mark Van Hoen -
Mark Van Hoen has worked both as a musician/composer (under his own name and as Locust) and producer (Autocreation and Scala). Releases as Locust include: Weathered Wall, Natural Composite, Morning Light, Truth is Born of Argument (all on Apollo), and the intriguing double disc Wrong (on Touch). Releases as Mark Van Hoen include: Playing With Time (on Apollo) and The Last Flowers From the Darkness (on Touch). New material will be released later in 2002.
MORE INFO VIA: http://www.locustsound.com
- vidnaObmana - The moniker vidnaObmana was chosen by this Belgian composer for his musical persona because it means 'optical illusion.' Eighteen years hence, vidnaObmana still finds this name allows him a sense of freedom to place his music first before his own personality and philosophy. As a self-taught electronic musician, Obmana explored different musical realms before discovering the techniques of looping and shaping harmonies, merging layers of sound while minimizing the configurations to just a few notes. vidna refines his minimalistic sound-sculpting while expanding the range of rhythms and performance on various acoustic instruments, like the fascinating Slovakian overtone flute ‘Fujara’, and combining his array of sounds with contemporary elements, slowly changing pace with a great interest in the avantgarde. Recognized internationally for his solo and collaborative work, with international artists like Robert Rich, Alio Die, electro-acoustic composer Asmus Tietchens, guitarist Serge Devadder, organist Willem Tanke, Steve Roach and Dreams in Exile, spanning over thirty-four albums, commissioned works for the Dutch National Radio, Zoo Antwerpen, a Japanese TV documentary, MTV US and several Belgian video art productions, including his critically acclaimed releases, continuous productivity has paved the way for expanded visibility and recognition of vidnaObmana. Throughout Vidna Obmana's career, he has explored the abrasive side of electronic composition, the freeform landscapes of the isolationist ambient aesthetic, the structured interactivity of Fourth World soundworlds, international music traditions and post-classical experimentations. His music has been released by a wide range of independent labels worldwide, including: Hypnos, Multimood, Projekt and Relapse/Release. His 2001 solo album Tremor is an essential re-birth of inspiration and spirituality. Currently is vidna working together with jazz musician Joris De Backer on double bass manifesting the fusion between modern electronica, ethnic and jazz acoustics. The story continues.
More inforamtion can found via http://www.vidnaobmana.org
- Vir Unis - Biographical notes coming soon.
Information about Vir Unis can be found at http://www.virunis.com
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