Biota
Musique Actuelle 1990
*2023 stock* 'This rare live appearance of the reclusive Biota collective was recorded in 1990 at Montreal Musiques Actuelles in Quebec, Canada. Although the performance has its moments, overall it serves as a reminder that Biota, at their best, were and are a studio creation that owe much of their magic to the electro-acoustic alchemy of founding members Mark Derbyshire and especially William Sharp. The group makes a valiant attempt to capture the dense, disorienting studio processing in the li…
Fragment For Balance
After 4 years of work on their 11th release for ReR, Biota, this extraordinary, reclusive, and highly individual audio-visual collective continues to evolve through the painstaking accumulation and disposition of a seemingly incompatible range of both exotic and familiar musical languages, instruments, techniques and studio manipulations – into one of the few genuinely original bands at work today. It took a long time to refine their unique process of composition to this level of ambiguity and d…
Half A True Day
Six years in the making, the visual/sonic art group Biota have finally completed their Sixth CD for ReR. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources – from kit drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and i…
Funnel to a Thread
Since the late 1970s Biota has ploughed its own furrow, producing a body of work that resembles nothing anyone else has done or is yet doing. Their compositions evolve in long, constantly shifting timbral blocks filled with fragments and echoes of quasi-familiar musical languages and sounds – or none - and use instrumental resources that span half a millennium and two thirds of the planet to create unique combinations of timbral colour in constant motion; this is a music in which everything is i…
Cape Flyaway
After 5 years of extensive and careful work, the new and much anticipated CD by this extraordinary collective, who have no parallels, no rivals and no peers, is at last complete. It’s a dense and indescribable orchestration of electric and acoustic guitars, clavioline, trumpet, Hammond organ, micromoog, biolmellodrone, electric and acoustic violins, bass, mandolin, accordion, piano, rubab, kit percussion and sometimes voice, layered and radically processed in the unique Biota manner. Ther…
Object Holder
Stunning work that breaks new ground; an extraordinary achievement that was 3 years in the making and rewrote lot of rules in passing. With texts and singing by the inimitable Susanne Lewis, the CD also features contributions from Charles Vrtacek (Piano), Andy Kredt (Guitar) and Chris Cutler (percussion, electrics, and some texts).
A Dense, profound field of sound, music and silence. Currently out of print.
Invisible Map
A long time coming, but as always, well worth the wait. Technically, this is the usual uncategorise-able mixture of primitive electronic, ethnic antique and conventional instruments, multilayered processing and meticulous construction. Aurally, vast, three dimensional sonic landscapes emerge in sharp Dalian detail, matched in the generous accompanying booklet with lapidary artworks from the visual component of the band. Extraordinary.