Biota (band)

Biota
Also known as	Biota-Mnemonists, Mnemonists, Mnemonist Orchestra
Origin	Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Genres	Avant-rock, Electronic music, Electroacoustic music
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Recommended Records (RēR) (1986-present), Dys (1979-1985), Bad Alchemy, Anomalous Records, No Man's Land
Members	William Sharp Tom Katsimpalis Randy Yeates Larry Wilson Mark Piersel Gordon Whitlow Randy Miotke David Zekman James Gardner Charles O'Meara Kristianne Gale Steve Scholbe
Past members	Mark Derbyshire Amy Derbyshire Chris Cutler Susanne Lewis Andy Kredt Genevieve Heistek Rolf Goranson Steve Emmons
Website	biotamusic.com

Biota is an American avant-rock musical collective that has produced numerous albums since their beginnings in the late 1970s − including their latest, Funnel to a Thread (released in 2014). Biota is known for its highly detailed and often radical compositional approach, which involves extensive electronic processing of myriad acoustic sound sources, often blending and coalescing folk, jazz, chamber, and rock idioms, among other music forms. In a review of their 1995 album, Object Holder, David Newgarden wrote "Biota is not even remotely like any other group I can think of."

Musical career

Founded in Colorado in the late 1970s, Biota's first recordings were released under the name Mnemonist Orchestra (a.k.a. Mnemonists). Produced and engineered by Mark Derbyshire and William (Bill) Sharp, Mnemonists released five albums between 1980 and 1984 on its self-produced label, Dys. Horde (1981), a seminal album of electronically processed music, garnered critical attention (including from the Recommended Records/RēR label) for its use of unconventional sound manipulation and musique concrète techniques. Shortly after the release of Gyromancy in 1984, the group split into two factions: a visual arts collective, which retained the name Mnemonists, and the musical group, Biota.

Since the mid-1980s, Biota has released numerous albums, mostly on RēR. These include Rackabones (1985, Dys), Bellowing Room (1987), Tinct (1988), the Awry 10" (1988, Bad Alchemy), and Tumble (1989), a commissioned work for RēR. Almost Never (1992, RēR) features three voluminous suites for winds, strings, and processed acoustic/ethnic/antique instrumentation.

On Object Holder (1995, RēR), Biota expanded to include drummer Chris Cutler (Henry Cow, News From Babel), vocalist Susanne Lewis (Hail), electric guitarist Andy Kredt, and pianist Charles O'Meara (a.k.a. C.W. Vrtacek of Forever Einstein), who later joined the group full-time. As with Biota's other releases, artwork for Object Holder was provided by Mnemonists (featuring Larry Wilson, Ken DeVries, Tom Katsimpalis, Bill Ellsworth, Dana Sharp, Heidi Eversley, Dirk Vallons, Randy Yeates, Ann Stretton, E.M. Thomas, Stan Starbuck et al.). Object Holder was the first Biota album to include sung lyrics, written by Katsimpalis and Cutler.

For Invisible Map (2001, RēR), the group was joined by Genevieve Heistek (Set Fire to Flames, HṚṢṬA) on vocals and violin. In his review of Invisible Map, François Couture of AllMusic.com writes "With its wide range covering delicate post-folkish pop songs to ambient soundscapes, Invisible Map may be the collective's most accomplished and accessible release to date. All music styles (folk, jazz, blues, rock, musique concrète, free improv, etc.) coalesce to be filtered through the dreamer's ears — background vocals are slightly treated, soloing instruments are heard from a distance, rhythm tracks are deliberately just a bit out of sync. This way, the simple tunes never really come into focus, giving the whole album an aura of mystery."

The group re-emerged in 2007 with its next release, Half a True Day (RēR). On Cape Flyaway (2012, RēR), traditional folk ballads, sung by group member Kristianne Gale, are interspersed amid original Biota compositions. Funnel to a Thread (RēR) followed in 2014:

"BIOTA: 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 in flux, constantly dissolving and reforming and mutating while, from a distance, there is calm. It’s a music in which movement and stasis share a single endless moment. And although we arrive nowhere, the path beguiles, both familiar and strange and – on this record – strangely comforting. As always, it’s meticulously recorded, with layer on layer of subtle processing and mixing. Like all their earlier releases, Funnel has been some five years in the making. You can hear why. Comes in a lavish package with copious artwork by the Biota/Mnemonists collective."

Biota's current lineup consists of Tom Katsimpalis, Bill Sharp, Larry Wilson, Mark Piersel, Gordon Whitlow, Randy Miotke, Dave Zekman, Randy Yeates, James Gardner, Kristianne Gale, Charles O'Meara, and Steve Scholbe.

Performance

The Biota-Mnemonists ensemble has performed onstage only twice — at the Colorado State University art school in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1981, and at the 1990 New Music America festival in Montreal, Quebec, where the group premiered a suite of original works composed specifically for the occasion, with live (real-time) production and projected animated video footage from Mnemonists artist Heidi Eversley. The entire musical program of the New Music America performance was eventually released as Musique Actuelle 1990 (2004) on Anomalous.

Discography

As Mnemonist Orchestra

• Mnemonist Orchestra (LP, 1979, DYS 01, Dys Records)
• Some Attributes of a Living System (LP, 1980, DYS 02, Dys Records)

As Mnemonists

• Horde (LP, 1981, DYS 03, Dys Records)
• Roto-Limbs (Cassette, 1981, DYS 06, Dys Records)
• Biota (LP, 1982, DYS 07, Dys Records)
• Gyromancy (LP, 1984, DYS 10, Dys Records)
• "Nailed/Tic" (7", 1984, Recommended Records)

As Biota

• Rackabones (2xLP, 1985, DYS 12, Dys Records)
• Bellowing Room (LP, 1987, Recommended Records)
• Tinct (LP, 1988, Recommended Records)
  • Bellowing Room/Tinct (reissued as one CD, 1990, RēR)
• Awry (10", 1988, Bad Alchemy)
• Tumble (CD, 1989, RēR)
• Almost Never (CD, 1992, RēR)
• Object Holder (CD, 1995, RēR)
• Invisible Map (CD, 2001, RēR)
• Half a True Day (CD, 2007, RēR)
• Cape Flyaway (CD, 2012, RēR)
• Funnel to a Thread (CD, 2014, RēR)

As Biota-Mnemonists

• Musique Actuelle 1990 (live) (CD, 2004, Anomalous Records)

Guest appearances

• "Fakeloo" on Bad Alchemy, Nr. 5 (Cassette, Bad Alchemy, 1986)
• "Early Rest Home" on Rē Records Quarterly Vol.1 No.3 (LP, RēR 0103, 1986)
  • also released on Rē Records Quarterly Selections from Vol. 1 (CD, RēR, 1991)
• "Hidden Aboard" on A Classic Guide to No Man's Land (CD, No Man's Land, 1988)
• "Walk Aside" on Rē Records Quarterly Vol.4 No.1 (CD, RēR 0401, 1994)
• Art Bears, The Art Box (2004, remixes, RēR)
• "Watch and Watch" on $100 Guitar Project (CD, Bridge Records, 2013)

Related projects

• Mark Piersel, Distant Lives (Cassette, 1983, Dys)
• Sorry for Laughing, Jesus Wept (Cassette, 1986, ADN) (G.H. Whitlow, feat. Biota members)

External links

• Biota homepage
• Biota discography at Discogs
• Mnemonists discography at Discogs
• Biota at AllMusic
• The Mnemonists at AllMusic