Daniel Menche

Last updated
Daniel Menche
Daniel Menche Official Photo.jpg
Background information
Born (1969-12-04) December 4, 1969 (age 53) [1]
Portland, Oregon, USA [1]
OriginPortland, USA
Genres Noise, drone, field recordings [2]
Occupation(s)Musician
Years active1989–present [1]
Labels Soleilmoon, Alien8, Editions Mego, Sige
Website danielmenche.blogspot.com

Daniel Menche (born December 4, 1969) [1] is an American experimental musician and multidisciplinary artist from Portland, Oregon. [3] Since 1989 he has recorded many albums that are categorized as electro-acoustic, noise music, dark ambient music, abstract, avant-garde, experimental, field recordings, drone, minimalist music, percussion and soundtrack film music.

Contents

His music has a range minimalist quiet to densely loud. The sound sources of his music are wide ranging and diverse. They include manipulation of acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings such as storms and nature sounds, feedback noise, electric Rhodes pianos, pipe organs, brass horns, granular synthesis, effects pedals, vocal choirs, prepared guitar and cellos. The core instrumentation is and continues to be far ranging. Recordings are created with analog and digital technology.

Career

Daniel Menche has performed hundreds of concerts since 1991. Countries that he has performed in are: USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Mexico and Spain. Multimedia art and music festivals specializing in experimental music and video art have showcased Menche’s work since 1995.

Daniel Menche has collaborated with many artists in recording and performance such as: Mamiffer, Aaron Turner, KK Null, Zbigniew Karkowski, Anla Courtis, Damion Romero, Andrew Liles, Kiyoshi Mizutani, Kevin Drumm, Mike Shiflet, John Weise, Joe Preston, John Haughm, Arcn Templ. Menche has also contributed vocals to Sunn O))) song Hunting&Gathering (Cydonia) on the Monoliths & Dimensions album.

Since 2008 Daniel Menche has created abstract video art with mostly his own music as the soundtrack. The style of his videos can be described as stop motion photo animation. Black and white photos of nature are animated in a dense and abstract manner. Menche has created music videos with other musical artists such as: Mamiffer, Mara, Nordra, William Fowler Collins and Oakeater, Atriarch and John Haughm. Menche’s videos were presented at the 2012 MUTEK festival at Montreal, Canada.

Daniel Menche’s music has been used for several short movie soundtracks. They include:

BEAST is a band that was formed in 2013 by Daniel Menche along with various other guest musicians (Joe Preston, John Haughm, Jason Walton). It is a rhythmic noise band that has themes of animalism and is focused on polyrhythmic beat patterns. BEAST is a strictly an online digital only music entity without any physical media releases. His pet Chihuahua dog "Arrow" contributes vocals. Menche manipulated his dog’s noises to be mixed with the drum beats. Arrow has become a cult icon in the social media world for his involvement with BEAST and he was profiled in SPIN magazine for the "Pet Sounds" segment. In 2017 BEAST was featured in an online Adult Swim compilation called NOISE .

Daniel Menche has appeared four times as a guest in the studio at WFMU radio.

Daniel Menche has never received any music training or composition schooling. He is regarded as a self-taught artist.

In 1980 to 1985 Daniel Menche was a successful juggler. He occasionally appeared on children’s television shows such as Bumpity. He frequently juggled as a street artist and at children's theaters throughout Portland, Oregon.

Since 2007 Daniel Menche has been employed as a school librarian and is a literacy advocate for children.

Selected discography

Related Research Articles

Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by Peter Rehberg a.k.a. Pita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim O'Rourke (musician)</span> American musician

Jim O'Rourke is a Tokyo-based American musician, composer and record producer. He has released albums across varied genres, including singer-songwriter music, post-rock, ambient, noise music, and tape experiments. He was associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene when he relocated to New York City in 2000. He now resides in Japan. O'Rourke is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative music projects, many of which are entirely instrumental, and for his tenure as a member of Sonic Youth from 1999 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naut Humon</span> Musical artist

Naut Humon is a San Francisco-based composer, curator, performer, and leader in experimental electronic music and audiovisual projects such as Rhythm & Noise, Sound Traffic Control. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Recombinant Media Labs (RML) and its internationally touring project RML CineChamber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Drumm</span> American musician

Kevin Drumm is an experimental musician based in Chicago, United States.

Merzbox is a box set compilation by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It consists of 50 CDs spanning Merzbow's career from 1979 to 1997. 30 discs are taken from long out of print releases, while 20 are composed mainly of unreleased material. The box also contains two CD-ROMs, six CD-sized round cards, six round stickers, a poster, a black long-sleeve T-shirt, a medallion, and the Merzbook, all packaged together in a "fetish" black rubber box. It is limited to 1000 numbered copies. A Merzbox Sampler was released in 1997.

Asphodel Ltd was a San Francisco-based independent record label founded by musician Mitzi Johnson and Naut Humon in 1992. The label is named after the mythological flower that grows along the banks of the River Styx in Hades. The label had shut down as of January 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masami Akita discography</span> Discography

This is a comprehensive discography of the Japanese noise musician Masami Akita, best known for his project Merzbow. Since 1980 he has released hundreds of recordings, collaborated with dozens of musicians, contributed over two hundred exclusive tracks to compilations, and made numerous guest appearances on recordings by other artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Turner</span> American musician (born 1977)

Aaron Turner is an American musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal bands SUMAC and Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom, Lotus Eaters and Split Cranium, a collaboration with Jussi Lehtisalo of Finnish band Circle who toured with Isis in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lasse Marhaug</span> Norwegian musician (born 1974)

Lasse Marhaug is a Norwegian musician who primarily works in the field of noise music but frequently drifts into other areas such as improvisation, jazz, rock and extreme metal. Marhaug has also been involved in creating music for theatre, dance, art installations and video art. Active since the early 1990s, he has participated as a performer and composer on over 200 releases in CD, vinyl and cassette tape formats. He currently resides in Oslo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merzbow</span> Japanese noise project

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and has collaborated with numerous artists.

Alan Courtis is an Argentine musician, artist, composer and sound artist. He studied classical guitar, piano, theory and composition. He holds a degree in Communication Science from the University of Buenos Aires, where he currently runs an annual music workshop. He played electric guitar in diverse bands and in 1993 he co-founded the group Reynols. With this group he has released more than one hundred CDs and vinyls worldwide in labels like Trente Oiseaux, Digital Narcis, Drone Records, Locust, Sedimental, Beta-Lactam Ring Records, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, RRR, Audiobot Records, Roaratorio, JDK, Reverse, Matching Head, American Tapes, Last Visible Dog, Carbon Records, Mikroton, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Liles</span> Musical artist

Andrew Liles is a British sound artist and multi-instrumentalist. He has a vast output of recordings that he has released since the mid-1980s, covering a variety of styles as experimental music, dark ambient music, progressive rock and hints of hard rock.

Kommissar Hjuler works as a sound recordist in the field of Noise and Post-industrial music, visual artist, film maker and police officer at Flensburg, a town on the German border with Denmark. He often works together with his wife Mama Baer as Kommissar Hjuler und Frau. As self-taught artist he began making music in 1999 and visual art in 2006. He is considered to work in the field of neo dada, whereas his output also contains elements of fluxus, art brut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall Dunn</span> United States record engineer and rock musician

Randall Dunn is an American record producer, audio engineer, composer, and musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okkyung Lee</span> South Korean composer

Okkyung Lee is a South Korean cellist, improviser, and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamiffer</span> American post-rock band

Mamiffer is an American band based in Seattle, Washington. It started out as a solo project for former Pyramids and Everlovely Lightningheart member Faith Coloccia that later saw several session musicians and collaborators, most consistently Aaron Turner of Isis fame and who would later become Coloccia's husband. Turner and Coloccia also perform in House of Low Culture together. Mamiffer has released several albums, splits and collaborations through various record labels, most prominently through Turner's now-defunct Hydra Head Records and Turner and Coloccia's own SIGE Records. The band is known for its collaborations, including albums recorded with Locrian, Circle and Daniel Menche; and working with session/guest artists from bands including members of These Arms Are Snakes, Helms Alee, Sunn O))) and Wolves in the Throne Room.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faith Coloccia</span> American artist and musician

Faith Coloccia is an American artist and musician. She is most known as being the founding member and primary songwriter for the post-rock band Mamiffer. Coloccia has also been a member of Everlovely Lightningheart, Pyramids, House of Low Culture and Split Cranium. In 2009, she co-founded the independent record label SIGE Records with her husband Aaron Turner.

<i>Crater</i> (Daniel Menche and Mamiffer album) 2015 studio album (collaboration) by Daniel Menche & Mamiffer

Crater is a collaborative studio album between American drone/noise artist Daniel Menche and the American post-rock band Mamiffer. The album was released on November 13, 2015 through SIGE Records, an independent label founded by Aaron Turner and Faith Coloccia of Mamiffer. Crater was created over the course of four years and was inspired by hikes through the Pacific Northwest. On those hikes, Turner, Coloccia and Menche collected field recordings of nature, which make up a portion of the music on Crater. About the collecting of these recordings, Turner said: "the process of making many field recordings together for this record while hiking and exploring nature, was a lot of fun—our mutual obsession with field recordings is one of the things that drew us together in the first place. The enjoyment of each others company in the process of making something together added a lot of meaning to the music itself, and made it all much more like play than work."

<i>An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music</i> 2001 compilation album by Various Artists

The An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music is a seven album compilation of 176 tracks of historic noise music and electronic music released on 15 CDs between the years 2001 and 2011. It was curated, noted and edited by Guy-Marc Hinant.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Montone, Paul. "Daniel Menche Music Biography". danielmenchebiography.blogspot.com. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. Ham, Robert (25 January 2017). "Daniel Menche's Crushing Drone and Noise Sometimes Features His Dog". Bandcamp. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  3. "10 Burning Questions: Daniel Menche - EnzymePDX". Archived from the original on 2011-10-17. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  4. "Dirt | Chel White". 3 September 2013.