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Vir Unis

Stand Still Like the Hummingbird
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Artist Spotlight on Vir Unis
I began music in the early to mid 80's as a drummer and occasional
keyboardist for a couple bands heavily under the influence of the new
wave/new romantic music that was mainly coming out of England those
days; most notably bands like Japan, (early) Duran Duran, Adam &
The Ants, Gary Numan, The Human League, Modern English, Talk Talk, and
Tears for Fears.
Going into the late 80's and early 90's (and quite disullusioned with
the big hair/eyeliner bands) I began searching for a yet even more
atmospheric sound beyond what 4AD and other more ethereal labels were
producing at the time. Heavily influenced by the studio isolationist
and cerebral works of Brian Eno and the more sensual quality of David
Sylvian's instrumental albums, I started on a quest to make my own
music for inner reflective spaces and something entirely new.
After spending nearly 7 years in the studio with a very small analog
recording setup and minimalist sound devices, I delved into the world
of digital/computer audio in the spring of 1996. My studio expanded
with more synthesizers and drum machines added. I began to forge a
stronger sound and began a deeper work into sound organization and
manipulation, but always striving to keep it entertaining, visceral,
and not fall into the alluring trap of experimenting for its own sake,
which I always found way too repetitive.
From there I had a quite fortutious meeting a fellow artist and pioneer
of Ambient/Tribal music, Steve Roach. At this time I was also working
with Ma Ja Le a duo from Wisconsin. We recorded an album called
"Imaginarium", which was produced by Steve Roach and released on
Mirage, a division of Oasis Music in Canada. Spending nearly 8 weeks as
the number one album on The New Age Voice playlist, "Imaginarium"
introduced myself and Ma Ja Le to the broader ambient music community
around the globe and brought many more opportunities to meet and work
with some very talented musicians.
The next several years were spent working on a more rhythmically driven
sound, going back to the source as a drummer, and fusing elements of
all the past and present influences in an electronic and ambient
atmosphere.
The subsequent beat driven tribal/electronic albums were
"Body Electric" (with Steve Roach, released on Projekt), "Light
Fantastic" (with Steve Roach, released on Fathom/Hearts of Space),
"Blood Machine" (with Steve Roach, released on GreenHouse Music),
"Pulse n Atmo" (released on Groove Unlimited), "Thermal Transfer" (with
Saul Stokes, released on Binary/Hypnos), "Live at Gathering 23"
(released on Space for Music). "Mercury and Plastic", "Symbology",
"Book of Mutations", "2012" (with The Elf Machine), "Tokyo Highway"
(with the Elf Machine), "I/O" (with the Elf Machine), "Live at the
Miramar" (with Interstitial), the Perimeter series (with James
Johnson), and The Live Transmissions series (with James Johnson) were
all released on AtmoWorks Music, which is a small artist owned label
that I co-founded with James Johnson in late 2001. In between these
more rhythmically charged albums, I also focused on the meditational
and ethereal work with albums like "The Drift Inside", "Aeonian Glow"
(both released on GreenHouse Music), "The Yellow House" (with Chris
Short), "Live at Lakeview Planetarium", "Everything Seeks Balance",
"Dreamers at the Edge of Decaying Light (early works vol.1)", "Primary
Space (early works vol. 2)", "The Endless Days of The Mono Gods (early
works vol. 3)", "A Flame That Leaves No Ashes", "Lumen", "Aquaculture"
(with James Johnson & Chris Short), and "Not Even The Rain".
I've also contributed as a guest artist for Steve Roach and have
contributed to some compilations and label samplers.
In addition to my own work, I've also done commercial work Sony
Music/Sonic Foundry for the past 8 years.
I've produced three loop
libraries with them, "Infusion: Fractalized Grooves & Atmospheres",
"Bug Report", and "Rhythmicronics". These loop libraries were
specifically designed for Sony's music program, Acid and contain a lot
of beats and grooves which were typical of the solo and collaborative
music I was working on. They also contained a lot of atmospheric washes
and other electronic odds and ends. I've also contributed loops and
themes for their latest program, Cinescore, which is a music generation
program for filmmakers.
These days I am working on a number of ongoing collaborations with
fellow artists and a few solo efforts. I am also focusing on my label
AtmoWorks as a source to release music at will, without the possible
impediment of a third party's agenda and occasionally host our online
radio program, AtmoStreams.
I am more inspired by paintings, drawings, films, and books, for
creating music than I am by other's music. I consider myself a painter,
primarily, using audio as a form of "paint" and the mind/ear as the
"canvas". However, I do enjoy quite an eclectic array of music from
many other composers, but I realize that I get more ideas for sound out
of other things that occur in life, which I think keeps me from being
too derivative of other's work. Music doesn't exit in a vacuum, I know,
so I'm sure I could be compared to others, and generally find that i
visit similar worlds of other musicians, but hopefully, have left my
own mark.
Visit Vir Unis on the web
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