About Me
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.
