O Yuki Conjugate (OYC) are an English post-industrial/ambient musical group founded in 1982 in Nottingham by Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme and still - intermittently - active today. Their music has been variously described as 'ambient', 'fourth world', 'ethnic', 'tribal' and 'dark wave'; the band prefer to call it 'dirty ambient'. They are currently in their fourth incarnation based around Horberry and Hulme. Previous members include Clare Elliot, Tim Horberry, Malcolm McGeorge, Dan Mudford, Pete Woodhead and Rob Jenkins, with Joe Gardiner contributing sax.
Originally inspired by the spirit and sound of post-punk, they soon started pioneering their own brand of ambient at a time (early 80s) when few people were interested in such a low-key approach. Their debut album 'Scene In Mirage' (a mission 1984) perfectly encapsulated their position: one side was beat driven and 'electronic', the other side was 'organic' and made up of ambient soundscapes. Today their approach to music-making is deliberately eclectic, combining high tech editing, low tech electronics and found instrumentation.
In May 2017, following a lengthy period of hibernation (a regular feature of the band's career), OYC released a new album called 'Tropic', essentially two long pieces generated out of material recorded during the Equator sessions almost 20 years earlier. As such it is an excellent example of OYC's self-described "wilfully obscure" approach.
Dark wave or darkwave is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics, and have been perceived as being dark, romantic, and bleak, with an undertone of sorrow. Common features include the use of chordophones such as electric and acoustic guitar, violin, and piano, as well as electronic instruments such as synthesizer, sampler, and drum machine. The genre embraces a range of styles including cold wave, ethereal wave, gothic rock, neoclassical dark wave, and neofolk.
Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak. The band has performed in many genres such as avant-garde, experimental, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone.
Vidna Obmana is a pseudonym used by Belgian composer and ambient musician Dirk Serries. The name Vidna Obmana, a phrase in Serbian, literally translates to "optical illusion" and was chosen by Serries because he felt it accurately described the music. Serries created music under the Vidna Obmana pseudonym from 1984 until 2007, when he official retired the name. Most of his current work is released under the Fear Falls Burning pseudonym.
Projekt is a Portland, Oregon-based independent record label that specializes in darkwave, ambient, and shoegaze, started by Sam Rosenthal in 1983. Projekt is also known for releases in the gothic rock, ethereal, dream-pop, and dark cabaret genres.
Black Tape for a Blue Girl is an American dark wave band formed in 1986 by Projekt Records' founder Sam Rosenthal. Their music takes on elements of dark wave, ethereal, ambient, neoclassical, and dark cabaret music. Their 12th album, To touch the milky way, was released on October 26, 2018 on Projekt Records.
Lycia is an American dark wave band formed in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona. The main personnel of the band are Mike VanPortfleet, Tara Vanflower and David Galas. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the ground breaking groups in darkwave and ethereal wave styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle and Then Dust received some attention for the power pop hit song "Pray," and the album "remains a high point of American dark rock," according to Allmusic. Lycia's music is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of echoed guitars, dark and ethereal keyboards, doomy drum machine beats, VanPortfleet's melancholic, whispered vocals and Vanflower's vivid voice. Trent Reznor and Peter Steele are some of their more well-known fans.
Muslimgauze was the main musical project of Bryn Jones, a British ethnic electronica and experimental musician who was influenced by conflicts and history in the Muslim world, often with an emphasis on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. With dozens of albums released under the Muslimgauze name, Jones was prolific, but he never made mainstream success due to his work being issued mostly in limited editions on small record labels and being deeply experimental in style. His music has been described by one critic as "among the most startling and unique in the noise underground."
Esa Ruoho, better known as Lackluster, is a Finnish electronic music producer and performer from Kontula, Helsinki. He is also known as Esa Ruoho, XLLV, Can'O'Lard and Kökö and the Köks.
Maeror Tri was an ambient, noise and drone music band from Germany founded in the 1980s which consisted of Stefan "Baraka H" Knappe, Martin "GLIT[s]CH" Gitschel and Helge S. Moune
Nocturnal Emissions is a sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music. The sound art has been part of an ongoing multimedia campaign of guerrilla sign ontology utilising video art, film, hypertext and other documents.
Controlled Bleeding was an experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York, United States. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member. Most of Controlled Bleeding's released recordings feature two main collaborators, Chris Moriarty and vocalist Joe Papa, who both died in the late 2000s. In February 2020 Lemos announced that the band had dissolved.
Ethereal wave, also called ethereal darkwave, ethereal goth or simply ethereal, is a subgenre of dark wave music and is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly". Developed in the early 1980s in the UK as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal wave was mainly represented by 4AD bands such as Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.
The Leaf Label is an independent record label based in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Initially an electronic music label, releasing mainly instrumental music, the company's approach has broadened over the last few years and now features an eclectic range of artists, with a focus on live performers.
Hate Forest was a Ukrainian black metal band formed by Roman Saenko, the leading member of Drudkh, Dark Ages, and Blood of Kingu. Thurios joined the band in 1998 after the recording of Scythia. The music is mostly very fast, but occasionally slow, with low, distorted vocals, raw low fidelity quality production, programmed drums, and dark ambient elements. Musical influences are mostly from Scandinavian black metal to traditional death metal, especially Bolt thrower. According to the band, its lyrics are about mythology, mainly Slavic, and inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's stories and Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. The band never gave interviews, never released photos, and held its distance from the black metal scene. After Hate Forest disbanded, Saenko focused on Blood of Kingu, a band similar in style but of different inspiration but had also ceased to exist in 2016. Despite accusations of being a national-socialist black metal band, there is no definitive evidence available to prove the statement, and the band and their record label had previously expressed an aversion to political lyrics, endorsements, or any sort of mention of modern issues prior to their disbandment.
Erik Wøllo is a Norwegian composer and musician, guitarist and synthesist. He has a background in various genres in music. As a solo recording artist, he is most known for his electronic and ambient musical soundscapes. Music that can be classified in the genres of space, drone, new age, and electronic music. Through his many albums he has gained recognition for his unique sound and style. Using guitar as the primary instrument in a highly imaginary and emotional music, building a bridge between grand symphonic realms and gentle, minimalistic and serene atmospheres.
Maarten van der Vleuten is a Dutch producer, composer and recording artist born in Vught, The Netherlands in 1967. Between 1987 and 2007 he used over two dozens of aliases, producing Detroit techno, electro, house, experimental and ambient music. In early 2008 he announced that he would only use his real name for future releases. He recorded for R&S Records, Outrage Recordings, Apollo Records (Belgium), Djax-Up-Beats, See Saw, ESP and Klang Elektronik to name just a few. Since 1996 he is also releasing music on his own label Signum Recordings. Maarten's musical vision knows no limits: working in his own studio, he's constantly experimenting and exploring all aspects of (danceable) music, looking for innovation and bringing new angles to it. Due to his experimental vision towards his music, Van Der Vleuten's productions are not mainstream material. As a result of that he has gained more credits from within the "underground" scene. Or as the database of the Dutch Rock & Pop Institute writes; "one of the pioneers of the dutch dance scene".
Robert Solheim is an electronic music composer from Norway. His styles are techno and deep/tech-house, downtempo and electronica with a strong emphasis on Nordic sound. Influenced by all kinds of electronic music, he has developed his characteristic style from his first ambient and ambient-techno releases in the 1990s, through down tempo and deep/tech-house and techno for clubs and home entertainment.
Pump was an experimental, pre-electronica, band, active between 1979-1993. They released five cassette albums as MFH on the YHR label before changing their name to Pump in 1986 and recording the LP “The Decoration of the Duma Continues” in 1987 and “Sombrero Fallout” in 1992.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is a multi-instrumentalist, member of several bands and co-founder of the Root Strata record label based out of San Francisco, California. Cantu-Ledesma got his start in the band Tarentel. He was one of the founding members and is still a primary figure in the band's line-up. In addition, Cantu-Ledesma is, and has been, involved in a slew of other musical projects. His label, Root Strata, is highly regarded by the drone/ambient music community and has an extensive catalog that includes artists such as Tarentel, Grouper, Yellow Swans, Charalambides, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Oneohtrix Point Never, Barn Owl, Starving Weirdos, Gregg Kowalsky, and more.
Eden is a Dark Wave band that was formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1987, by Sean Bowley, Pieter Bourke and Ross Healy.
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