Bill Leeb
Wilhelm Anton "Bill" Leeb is an Austrian-Canadian electronic musician and record producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the industrial music group Front Line Assembly. Additionally, Leeb is known for his work with groups such as Noise Unit, Delerium and Skinny Puppy, among others. Leeb began his musical career with industrial band Skinny Puppy in 1985 under the pseudonym Wilhelm Schroeder, contributing bass synth and occasional backing vocals to a few of their recordings and concerts, he left in mid 1986 and formed his own industrial project Front Line Assembly with Michael Balch, Rhys Fulber and Chris Peterson. Though Front Line Assembly has had consistent underground success, Leeb's most known efforts are through his side project, which had a major hit in the late 1990s with "Silence". Leeb composed the soundtrack to the 1999 video game, Quake III Arena, of which the expansion pack, Team Arena, was composed by his band, Front Line Assembly. In 2017, Leeb appeared as guest singer on the single A Shiver of Want, a release of John Fryer's project Black Needle Noise.
Musical projects in which Bill Leeb has participated in include: Front Line Assembly Delerium Synæsthesia Cyberaktif Noise Unit Mediaeval Baebes Intermix Equinox Skinny Puppy Fauxliage Pro>Tech He has both Austrian and Canadian citizenship and speaks English as well as German. He moved to Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada with his family when he was 14, he was a high school student at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School. Leeb went to Camsoun College in Victoria, he lives in Vancouver. Leeb has been in a relationship with Canadian artist Carylann Loeppky for over 20 years; the couple are now divorced. Loeppky was part of the tour personnel on Front Line Assembly tours "designing and selling merchandise and put together a visual presentation for the live performance." She created the artwork for albums of Front Line Assembly and Delerium
Tenebrae Vision
Tenebrae Vision is the only album of Canadian industrial band Cyberaktif, which consisted of cEvin Key and Dwayne R. Goettel of Skinny Puppy and former Skinny Puppy member Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly. For Cyberaktif, Leeb is credited as the stage name he used while in Skinny Puppy; the album was released in 1991 through Wax Trax! and features Blixa Bargeld of German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. Tenebrae Vision was accompanied by two singles, Nothing Stays and Temper, both of which were released in 1990 and contain different mixes of the title tracks as well as non-album tracks; the track "Nothing Stays" was voted the sixteenth greatest industrial song of all time by COMA Music Magazine in their feature article 101 Greatest Industrial Songs of All Time. It appeared in different versions on various compilation albums. According to cEvin Key, Cyberaktif is reminiscent of tape trading in the industrial music scene which the band members started off with. "Cyberaktif is the experience of discovering the whole electronic genre", said Key, " is exploring the enthusiasm we once had for that genre."
Bill Leeb described their work as "rehashing old things", but said, "it was different this time because we were a bit more established." About the collaboration with Blixa Bargeld, Leeb reported that he and Key were fans of Einstürzende Neubauten and Bargeld happened to be in Vancouver just at the right time. With Bargeld being "an icon to us" and having "major attitude back then", Leeb remembered the collaboration being both "stressful" and "fun". Tenebrae Vision features samples from the films The Unholy, Videodrome and Halloween III: Season of the Witch. All tracks written except where noted. Cyberaktif cEvin Key – engineering, mixing Dwayne R. Goettel – assistant engineering, assistant mixing, keyboard Wilhelm Schroeder – vocalsAdditional musicians Blixa Bargeld – vocals, production Amy Sinner – assistant mixing, keyboardsTechnical personnel Marc Ramaer – editing Brian Gardner – mastering
Griot
A griot, jali, or jeli is a West African historian, praise singer, poet, or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is seen as a leader due to his or her position as an advisor to royal personages; as a result of the former of these two functions, they are sometimes called a bard. Griots today live in many parts of West Africa and are present among the Mande peoples, Fulɓe, Songhai, Tukulóor, Serer, Dagomba, Mauritanian Arabs, many other smaller groups; the word may derive from the French transliteration "guiriot" of the Portuguese word "criado", or the masculine singular term for "servant". Griots are more predominant in the northern portions of West Africa. In African languages, griots are referred to by a number of names: jeli in northern Mande areas, jali in southern Mande areas, guewel in Wolof, gawlo in Pulaar, iggawen in Hassaniyan. Griots form an endogamous caste, meaning that most of them only marry fellow griots and those who are not griots do not perform the same functions that griots perform.
Amongst the Yoruba people, the arokin is a near analogue of the classical griot. Francis Bebey writes about the griot in African Music, A People's Art: "The West African griot is a troubadour, the counterpart of the medieval European minstrel... The griot knows everything, going on... He is a living archive of the people's traditions... The virtuoso talents of the griots command universal admiration; this virtuosity is the culmination of long years of study and hard work under the tuition of a teacher, a father or uncle. The profession is by no means a male prerogative. There are many women griots whose talents as singers and musicians are remarkable." The Manding term jeliya sometimes refers to the knowledge of griots, indicating the hereditary nature of the class. Jali comes from djali; this is the title given to griots in regions within the former Mali Empire. Though the term "griot" is more common in English, such as poet Bakari Sumano, prefer the term jeli; the Mali Empire, at its height in the middle of the 14th century, extended from central Africa to West Africa.
The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita. In the Epic of Sundiata, Naré Maghann Konaté offered his son Sundiata Keita a griot, Balla Fasséké, to advise him in his reign. Balla Fasséké is considered the founder of the Kouyaté line of griots; each aristocratic family of griots accompanied a higher-ranked family of warrior-kings or emperors, called jatigi. In traditional culture, no griot can be without a jatigi, no jatigi can be without a griot. However, the jatigi can loan his griot to another jatigi. Most villages had their own griot, who told tales of births, marriages, hunts and many other things. In Mande society, the jeli was an historian, arbitrator, praise singer, storyteller, they served as history books, preserving ancient stories and traditions through song. Their tradition was passed down through generations; the name jeli means "blood" in Manika language. They were believed to have deep connections to spiritual, political powers. Speech was believed to have power in its capacity to recreate history and relationships.
Despite the authority of griots and the perceived power of their songs, griots are not treated as positively in West Africa as we may imagine. Thomas A. Hale wrote, "Another is an ancient tradition that marks them as a separate people categorized all too simplistically as members of a'caste', a term that has come under increasing attack as a distortion of the social structure in the region. In the worst case, that difference meant burial for griots in trees rather than in the ground in order to avoid polluting the earth. Although these traditions are changing and people of griot heritage still find it difficult to marry outside of their social group." This discrimination is now deemed illegal. In addition to being singers and social commentators, griots are skilled instrumentalists, their instruments include the kora, the khalam, the goje, the balafon, the ngoni. The kora is a long-necked lute-like instrument with 21 strings; the xalam is a variation of the kora, consists of fewer than five strings.
Both have gourd bodies. The ngoni is similar to these two instruments, with five or six strings; the balafon is a wooden xylophone, while the goje is a stringed instrument played with a bow, much like a fiddle. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica: "West African plucked lutes such as the konting and the nkoni may have originated in ancient Egypt; the khalam is claimed to be the ancestor of the banjo. Another long-necked lute is the ramkie of South Africa."Griots wrote stories that children enjoyed listening to. These stories were passed down to their children. Today, performing is one of the most common functions of a griot, their range of exposure has widened, many griots now travel internationally to sing and play the kora or other instruments. Bakari Sumano, head of the Association of Bamako Griots in Mali from 1994 to 2003, was an internationally-known advocate for the significance of the griot in West African society. Camille Yarbrough wrote a play called Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1973.
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Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, blues and popular music styles such as pop, electronic dance music and filmi. Singing arranged or improvised, it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort or ritual, as part of music education or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication and regular practice.
If practice is done on a regular basis the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success, they take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. In its physical aspect, singing has a well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply or bellows. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort. Exhalation may be aided by lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals and sternocleidomastoid muscles; the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming; the sound of each individual's singing voice is unique not only because of the actual shape and size of an individual's vocal cords but due to the size and shape of the rest of that person's body.
Humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, the tightness of otherwise unrelated muscles can be altered. Any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound resonates within different parts of the body and an individual's size and bone structure can affect the sound produced by an individual. Singers can learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract; this is known as vocal resonation. Another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds; these different kinds of laryngeal function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singer's Formant, it has been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa.
The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds. Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function, they occur. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds; the occurrence of registers has been attributed to effects of the acoustic interaction between the vocal fold oscillation and the vocal tract. The term "register" can be somewhat confusing; the term register can be used to refer to any of the following: A particular part of the vocal range such as the upper, middle, or lower registers. A resonance area such as chest voice or head voice. A phonatory process A certain vocal timbre or vocal "color" A region of the voice, defined or delimited by vocal breaks.
In linguistics, a register language is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Within speech pathology, the term vocal register has three constituent elements: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, a certain type of sound. Speech pathologists identify four vocal registers based on the physiology of laryngeal function: the vocal fry register, the modal register, the falsetto register, the whistle register; this view is adopted by many vocal pedagogues. Vocal resonation is the process by which the basic product of phonation is en
Fauxliage
Fauxliage is a musical project consisting of Canadian electronic musicians Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, both of Delerium and Front Line Assembly, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer in 2007. The vocals are performed by Nash. Many of the songs from this album have been on the soundtrack of the television series Moonlight. All tracks written by Bill Leeb, Leigh Nash and Roy Salmond, except where noted
Mediæval Bæbes
The Mediæval Bæbes are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter and Katharine Blake. It included some of Blake's colleagues from the band Miranda Sex Garden, as well as other friends who shared her love of medieval music; the lineup rotates from album to album, ranges from six to twelve members. As of 2010, the group had sold some 500,000 records worldwide, their most successful being Worldes Blysse with 250,000 copies purchased; the Bæbes' first album, Salva Nos, reached number two on the UK specialist classical charts, was certified silver 15 May 1998. Subsequent albums include Worldes Blysse, The Rose, the Christmas-themed album Mistletoe and Wine. Mirabilis, was launched at a concert and party in London, August 2005. A self-titled DVD was released in July 2006; the first 300 preorders were autographed by the band and received a special mention in the DVD credits. A live album features two new studio tracks; each album features traditional medieval songs and poetry set to music arranged by Blake for the ensemble, alongside varying numbers of original compositions.
They sing in a variety of languages, including Latin, Middle English, Italian, Swedish, Scottish English, Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Provençal, modern English and Cornish. Their vocals are backed by medieval instruments, including the recorder and cittern, played by the singers or fellow musicians; the Bæbes' musical pieces run the gamut from traditional, such as their version of the "Coventry Carol" on Salva Nos, to songs that feel traditional but are much more modern, such as their rendition of "Summerisle", a song written for Robin Hardy's 1973 cult film, The Wicker Man. John Cale added non-medieval instruments, including saxophone and electric guitar, to some of the arrangements on Undrentide, although with subsequent albums the band returned to more traditional instruments. With these instruments, the band's current style is quite different from medieval authentic performance groups, as it displays significant modern influence - this juxtaposition is apparent in the album Illumination produced by KK.
In 2005, the Bæbes contributed Mediæval Bæbes music to the soundtrack of the BBC period drama The Virgin Queen, which portrays the life of Elizabeth I of England, including the title music, a poem written by Elizabeth set to music by Blake. The Bæbes provided the vocal track for and starred in the video of the Delerium track "Aria", they are featured on two tracks from Delerium's 2006 album, Nuages du Monde: "Extollere" and "Sister Sojourn Ghost". In 2016, the group performed the theme song to the ITV TV series Victoria, performing the composition by Martin Phipps. One of the group's founding musicians, Dorothy Carter, died of a stroke in 2003 at the age of 68. In addition to playing autoharp, hurdy-gurdy, dulcimer with the group, she performed the lead vocals on "So Spricht Das Leben" and "L'Amour de Moi". Emily Ovenden is the daughter of artists Graham Annie Ovenden, she was raised in Cornwall and now lives in London. She performed backing vocals on Dragonforce's The Power Within and Reaching into Infinity.
She is a founding member and former lead vocalist of English gothic metal band Pythia. Emily left the group at the beginning of 2016. Marie Findley is a film reviewer and television script writer for programmes such as Smack the Pony and The Ant & Dec Show, she was the lead in the Ken Russell film The Fall of the Louse of Usher. Marie left the group in March 2007. Member Maple Bee is the singer in electronic duo Huski and the younger sister of KatieJane Garside, singer of London-based rock band Queenadreena. 16 May 2007 – Audrey Evans and Maple Bee resigned due to family and professional commitments and Cylindra Sapphire resigned in order to follow a different musical path. 22 July 2009 – Claire Rabbitt left the Bæbes. Sarah Kayte Foster came on to replace her. On 19 December 2016, the Mediæval Bæbes performed a concert at the Tabernacle, Notting Hill in London to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band. Seventeen of the past and present members were reunited on stage for a few songs. 1997 Salva Nos 1998 Worldes Blysse 2000 Undrentide 2002 The Rose 2005 Mirabilis 2008 Illumination 2012 The Huntress 2013 Of Kings and Angels 2006 Live 2010 Temptation 1999 The Best of the Mediæval Bæbes 2003 Mistletoe and Wine 2006 The Virgin Queen - Music from the Original Television Series 2012 Devotion 2017 Victoria 2017 "Victoriana" 2000 Live at The Rehearsal Hall 2006 Mediæval Bæbes 2009 Live at Gloucester Cathedral 2015 In Concert At Berkeley Castle Official website
Ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. A form of slow instrumental music, it uses repetitive, but gentle, soothing sound patterns that can be described as sonic wallpaper to complement or alter one’s space and to generate a sense of calmness; the genre is said to evoke an "unobtrusive" quality. Ambient music focuses on creating a mood or atmosphere through synthesizers and timbral qualities lacking the presence of any net composition, beat, or structured melody, it uses textural layers of sound without prevalent musical tropes, rewarding both passive and active listening. Nature soundscapes are included, the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano and flute, among others, may be emulated through a synthesizer. According to Brian Eno, one of its pioneers, "Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular. Eno popularized ambient music in 1978 with his album Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
It saw a revival towards the late 1980s with the prominence of house and techno music, growing a cult following by the 1990s. Ambient music may have elements of new-age music and drone music, as some works may use sustained or repeated notes. Ambient music did not achieve large commercial success, being criticized as having a "boring" and "over-intellectual" sound, it has attained a certain degree of acclaim throughout the years in the Internet age. Due to its open style, ambient music takes influences from many other genres, ranging from classical, avant-garde music, folk and world music, among several others; as an early 20th-century French composer, Erik Satie used such Dadaist-inspired explorations to create an early form of ambient/background music that he labeled "furniture music". This he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention. In his own words, Satie sought to create "a music...which will be part of the noises of the environment, will take them into consideration.
I think of it as melodious, softening the noises of the knives and forks at dinner, not dominating them, not imposing itself. It would fill up those heavy silences, it would spare them the trouble of paying attention to their own banal remarks. And at the same time it would neutralize the street noises which so indiscreetly enter into the play of conversation. To make such music would be to respond to a need." In the 1960s, many music groups experimented with unusual methods, with some of them creating what would be called ambient music. In 1969, the group Coum Transmissions were performing sonic experiments in British art schools. Many pieces of ambient music were released in England and the United States of America between the late 1960s and the 1990s; some 1960s music with ambient elements include Music for Zen Meditation by Tony Scott, Soothing Sounds for Baby by Raymond Scott, Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys by Tony Scott. Developing in the 1970s, ambient stemmed from the experimental and synthesizer-oriented styles of the period.
Although Jamaican dub musicians such as King Tubby, Japanese electronic music composers such as Isao Tomita, as well as the psychoacoustic soundscapes of Irv Teibel's Environments series, German bands such as Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream, predate him in the creation of ambient music and/or were contemporaneous with him, Brian Eno played a key role in its development and popularization. The concept of background or furniture music had existed some time before, but only in the 70s was ambient music first created, which incorporated New Age ideals with the newly invented modular synthesizer. Eno went on to record 1975's Discreet Music with this in mind, suggesting that it be listened to at "comparatively low levels to the extent that it falls below the threshold of audibility", referring to Satie's quote about his musique d'ameublement; the impact the rise of the synthesizer in modern music had on ambient as a genre cannot be overstated. The only limit is with the composer"; the Yellow Magic Orchestra developed a distinct style of ambient electronic music that would be developed into ambient house music.
The English producer Brian Eno is credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s. He said that "I just gave it a name. Which is what it needed... By naming something you create a difference. You say. Names are important." He used the term to describe music that can be "actively listened to with attention or as ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", which exists on the "cusp between melody and texture". In the liner notes for his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Eno wrote:Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncrasies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty from the music, Ambient Music retain
