Browse by Artist: BIOTA

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Object Holder BOX VERSION
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD BOX
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD4BOX

A limited edition box set version of the 4th Biota CD (the regular version is now deleted), produced by the band in limited quantities back in 1995. A simple card box with rubberstamped cover encloses the CD (same as the regular edition), and attached to the bottom inside of the box is a small original painting by various Biota members -- in the same style as the fantastic art that has graced their releases since day one. If you've never gotten this album, your opportunity to get a one-off deluxe version has never been greater. Limited stock.

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Tumble
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD

A 1989 release, their first intended strictly as a CD issue. A loose, studio-only collective from Colorado, Biota's reputation is based on an unparalleled ability to create a reality-shaking wall of dense sound, though they generally limit themselves to acoustic instrumentation ("treated" to devastating levels). Pure sound aesthetic and attention to detail dominates every second of their various releases; few American sound artist collectives have ever maintained such sonic integrity for so long. "...where nothing is quite in focus, timing is distinctly idiosyncratic, and landmarks loom in and out of the fog."

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Object Holder
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD4

Biota's fourth CD finds the band expanding into new, almost recognizable styles (ie. songs!). "...the group's 12th major release... and its first to involve the singing of Susanne Lewis and percussion of Chris Cutler. These new voices join the delicate, Satie-like piano of C.W. Vrtacek amid the circus fray. The usual Biota trademarks are still present: dangerous studio-based sound processing, unsteady, tripping rhythms, strange, medieval fanfares, and undersea melodies featuring bizarre instruments."

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Invisible Map
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD5

"If fans of Biota were shocked by the pop songs that appeared for the first time on the previous Biota release, Invisible Map is going to send them reeling. They are sung by Genevieve Heistek, from the same school of Montreal musicians who spawned Godspeed You Black Emperor. The songs provide a central point around which Biota hang their esoteric production ideas. Crazy shawms suddenly spurt out of the mix, unsteady tripping rhythms from the drums counterpoint interlocking guitars, and unsettling sound processing pushes the material to the edge of oblivion. The tracks were built up from solo accordion or rubab, drums and guitar, and the whole piece is woven into an ambiguous cinematic journey. Mixing and effects were applied in real time, 'by hand'. This gives a wonderful spontaneous feel to the music, and Biota have made an art out of accepting and working with freak accidental effects."

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Half A True Day
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD6

"Six years in the making, this is the sixth CD released by ReR from the visual/sonic art group Biota. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concrète techniques, with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources: from kit drums, through medieval winds, strings and barrel organs, to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and interleaved with successive stages of lamination, imbrication of parts, and radical pre- and post-processing. 'As the title suggests, in this new work a portion of a cycle -- a repeating segment of time -- is explored. We employed repeating and overlapping motifs of different lengths, allowing their staggered interaction to produce varying degrees of harmonization, dissonance, masking and reinforcement. Unpredictability of outcome was furthered by electronic processing -- both manual and automated, random and predetermined -- and by the appearance, taken out of context, of unrelated passages taken from earlier projects. Real-time performers had to interact with this instability as they constructed their contributions, and later as they gave form to the final composition. Although there are elements of chance at work in the process, the eventual architecture is intentional, and carefully worked. Mixing was done by hand and without the aid of computers, then the composition was assembled and integrated digitally.' --William Sharp, Biota. The interaction of staggered, overlapping elements reveals a changeable truth about the whole as the parts variously harmonize or dissent; reinforce or cloak one another in their unfolding. The project is, at heart, about uncertainty. Players encounter the shifting interplay between previously recorded parts juxtaposed with instrumental snippets -- out of context -- introduced from the group's archives. Electronic processing programs are employed to apply semi-random and semi-intentional alterations to the proceedings."

Previous Page Index of Artists Next Page