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Austere (EDM group)

Austere is an anonymous electronic music group known for producing work in a range of styles including classical minimalism, psybient, ambient, dark ambient, drone, glitch-ambient, and downtempo drum and bass. The group began collaborating in 1997, with their first release issued on January 1, 1998. Although they maintain anonymity, they are loosely based in Portland, Oregon, through an affiliation with Sound-O-Mat Recordings.

The two members of Austere have lived in several locations, including New York City, North Chatham in the United Kingdom, Portland, Seattle, Brighton, and San Francisco.

Their recordings in the classical minimalism genre, such as "Convergence", "Eco", "Pulse", and "Vox", draw influence from Steve Reich’s process music, particularly as described in his 1968 essay "Music as a Gradual Process".

Austere has collaborated with artists including Abstract Audio Systems from New York City, In The Now from Brighton, and Stephen Philips of Dark Duck Records.

The group has contributed music to various video and film projects. They provided the soundtrack for "The Thin Horizon", an independent film by Michael Peters of Artifexwerks in Forest Grove, Oregon. A track from the Dark Duck Records Drone Download Project was used in the independent film "Claude's Room". Their music has also been featured in several music videos, including "Abandon" and "Tiny Danser".

Members of Austere have also pursued solo projects under the names The Mystifying Oracle and Freq. Magnet. Freq. Magnet has released three full-length CDs, a DVD, and a track on a Hypnos compilation album.

Discography

The discography of Austere includes thirteen studio albums, four EPs, and ten compilation appearances. Several of these compilation contributions have been released through Hypnos. The group has also released a six-hour compilation box set that includes previously released material as well as three unreleased tracks.

Albums

EPs

Compilations

Soundtracks

DVDs

short form

Releases

  1. Convergence – self-released, 1998; reissued by The Sound-O-Mat, 2004
  2. Monodia – self-released limited edition of 100, 1999
  3. fade – self-released, 2000
  4. Curio – first limited edition of 50 with gold foil, 2000; second unlimited edition, 2006
  5. distance (with In The Now), 2002
  6. Remission – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 2003; "unreleased" in 2004
  7. evergone (with Abstract Audio Systems), 2004
  8. Remittance – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 2004
  9. Eco – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 2005
  10. faded (with Stephen Philips) – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 2005; co-released by Dark Duck Records
  11. faded DVD – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 2006
  12. Pulse – Hypnos "Secret Sounds" imprint, 2007
  13. mirror – Blue Water Records, 2007
  14. The Sound of Silence I: An Unnatural History of Rare and Unusual Tracks – Sound-O-Mat Recordings, 18 Jan 2008
  15. Solyaris – Hypnos, 2008

Compilations

Each is a single track title followed by the compilation it appeared on.

  1. Diapason on The Drone Download Project Year 1 – Dark Duck Records
  2. Whainer (CD-only bonus track) on The Drone Download Project Year 1 – Dark Duck Records
  3. Tea-Totaled on The Drone Download Project Year 2 – Dark Duck Records
  4. The Hills Are Alive on Full Cold Moon: A Tribute to Jhonn Balance – Dark Winter
  5. Big Bang into Particle Acceleration on Space Collaboration – The Ambient Collective
  6. Wend on The Drone Download Project Year 3 – Dark Duck Records
  7. The Cuce on Orgambient: Long Form Ambient Vol. 1 – Blue Water Records
  8. Alchemy (Gold Into Lead demix) on Lena – Alchemy of Fingers and Dark – Hypnos
  9. Puissant on The Drone Download Project Year 4 – Dark Duck Records
  10. Fasciculate on The Drone Download Project Year 5 – Dark Duck Records
  11. Crystil on Messages from a Subatomic World – Hypnos

All Austere releases are distributed by the ambient label Hypnos Records. In 2007, the band signed with both Hypnos Records and Blue Water Records.

Older logo

External links

References