The Noiseblast Hour, Episode 9: IAMEVE and Orphx

Noise Engineering

https://www.orphx.com/

"'Described as '... if Alice took Ziggy Stardust’s hand and followed him down the rabbit hole to a world guided by the twists and turns of ethereal and colorful vocals," by The Huffington Post, IAMEVE is a singer, songwriter and storyteller. Her evocative sound tapestries are inspired from a world of a supernatural nature full of hypnotic vocals, spacey sounds, and surrealism.

IAMEVE has won several awards for her short music film “Starman” and is currently in production on a 360 Fulldome show. She has been featured in numerous TV shows and Films, most notably for the theme song “To Feel Alive” in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters with composer Andrew Lockington and Nicholas Dodd on Sony Classical. She has performed with many celebrated artists, notably as a guest vocalist for Moby, The Today Show, Fox Good Day NY and is featured in TC Helicon’s 'The Ultimate Guide To Singing'.

Orphx have been creating their unique fusion of rhythm and noise since the early 1990s, combining and recombining elements of techno with the experimental techniques and critical spirit of industrial music.

The project began in 1993 as the trio of Rich Oddie, Christina Sealey, and Aron West, creating improvised soundscapes and audio/visual performances inspired by industrial, power electronics, and other forms of extreme music. Following cassette releases on their own Xcreteria label, West departed to focus on his absurdist noise project Tropism while Oddie and Sealey began to push Orphx in a more rhythmic direction. Their distinctive sound used powerful layered rhythms, modulating soundscapes, and processed vocals and samples to explore themes of psychological conflict and social control. By the late 90s, Orphx was drawing further inspiration from the more experimental fringes of techno, electro, and dub. Working closely with Germany's Hands Productions label, the duo gained an international following as one of the pioneering acts within the European "rhythmic noise" scene. From 1997 to 2008, studio recordings were primarily created by Rich Oddie, while Oddie and Sealey continued to collaborate on live performances across Europe and North America. Oddie and Sealey have collaborated on both live performances and studio recordings over the past decade, further developing their fusion of techno and industrial music across a series of acclaimed releases on the Sonic Groove label and remix work for a wide variety of artists, including Front Line Assembly, Conrad Schnitzler, Nomeansno, Oscar Mulero, Perc, and Svreca.

Orphx have refined their sound across numerous releases and many changes in tools and techniques, moving from reel to reel tape machines and scavenged instruments to software sequencing and processing, and then back again to hardware following Sealey's adoption of modular synthesizers in the late 00s. Oddie and Sealey are renowned for delivering improvised live performances that combine modular synth, drum machines, software, and live vocals. They have toured throughout Europe, North America, Japan, and China, appearing at international festivals such as Berlin Atonal, Katharsis, Labyrinth, Mutek, Rural, and Unsound, and regularly performing at techno temples such as Berghain, Tresor, and Khidi. Their work has been featured in films and documentaries, including I Dream of Wires (2014) and Soundtrack for the Urban Decay (2015). In recent years, they have been working on new audio/visual performances using infrasound and multi-channel speakers systems, working in collaboration with video artist Patrick Trudeau and McMaster University's Institute for Music and the Mind. Active collaborations and side projects include Orphx + JK Flesh, Eschaton (Orphx + Ancient Methods), Ontario Hospital (Rich Oddie + Huren), and Oureboros (Rich Oddie + Aron West)."