Jan Robbe (born 14 June 1980 in Ghent, Belgium), otherwise known by his music project aliases Atomhead, Erratic, UndaCova and Diagnostic, is an electronic music artist. He founded the experimental netlabel Entity in 2003 with friend Nico de Gols (aka Kaebin Yield). Jan Robbe is known for expressing various musical styles under different pseudonyms. Atomhead and UndaCova, his two most prominent projects, focus on fractured industrial music beats and densely textured DSP sound design techniques, whereas Erratic is a vehicle for pursuing more minimal long-form ambient music directions.[" MYSTERY SEA 31 erratic the invisible landscape ", Scarlet.be, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] The most recent (2018) Diagnostic project explores experimental sound design, glitch and Noise music structures, combining digital and modular synthesis. Robbe has released music on distinguished labels such as Dyslexic Response and Hangars Liquides, and collaborated with artists who operate in similar aesthetic domains, including La Peste, Neurocore, Subskan and Xanopticon.
Besides his activities as music producer, Robbe is also known for creating Generative art (mostly Fractal art) graphic design as FRAMEofMIND
Projects
UndaCova
In 1999 Jan Robbe adopted the name "UndaCova" to release IDM experiments using
FL Studio, which remains one of his favourite programs.
[" Personals ", Entity.be. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] These include
S-T-U-C-K (2001) on the Arghprkl netlabel, and a series of meditative brainwave synchronizers released on Theta. An
illbient split with Affective Disorder entitled
Study of a Ladybug on a Rope was later released on Autoplate. Robbe's influences at this time included the
post-rock and
trip hop genres, as well as old video game music, which inspired the
Metamood Katalyst 12" released on Pleemobil. Say Vegin of
Freestyle Magazine drew comparisons in the album's sound to 8-bit, calling it a collection of "hard-tek cut-ups, textured polygons and hypnotizing synths".
[Vegin, Say. " Freestyle review: UndaCova ". Freestyle Magazine, 2002. Retrieved on 29 December 2008.] By the end of 2002, Robbe had founded the xE Phalanx project, a joint collaboration with artists from around the world. UndaCova would go on to participate in two xE Phalanx albums; 5E Phalanx's
Pragmatic Impulse and 7E Phalanx's
Pulse, both released on the Entity netlabel.
A dramatic shift in sound occurred in 2003 with the self-released power noise EP Human Nature. This period was marked by dark soundscaping and assaulting beat constructions,[" UndaCova ", isolaterecords.com] culminating in 2006 with the release of Intrusion on Isolate Records. The music of Intrusion is noted for its hyper-intensity, sonic density and high production values.[Downton, Chris. " UndaCova: Intrusion ". Grooves Magazine, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] It contains remixes by Polish people cybercore artist Neurocore and Belgian musician Imminent. Luca Maini of Igloo Magazine summarized the album's sound as "Somatic Responses mangled and speeded up to create a teeth-grinding industrial monster, ultra processed and with thousands of razor sharp beats packed together. .... This is the perfect music if you like Richard Devine but you think he should stick to the smashing stuff he performs live, or maybe you think Venetian Snares is a genius but he's gone too melodic."[Maini, Luca. " Undacova :: Intrusion (Dyslexic Response / Isolate, CD)". Igloo Magazine, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] UndaCova has remixed tracks by Danny Kreutzfeldt, White Nois Stasis and Diagram of Suburban Chaos, and is also featured on the Mirex Carbon compilation, Thinner's Recore remix album, Somia's Miad, and the Polymorphik Piece series released on PuZZling Rec. The project went undercover in 2007.
Atomhead
Atomhead was founded in 2004 as a means to evolve the sounds already explored with the UndaCova moniker. Often compared with the
cyberdelic flashcore experiments of
Hangars Liquides,
[Weinel, Jon. " Flashcore: Earth, Atomizer, Let's Go!". Spannered.org, 2007. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Atomhead released
Spiral Field Velocity 2.0 in 2005 on La Peste's
Hangars Liquides label, the main stable behind flashcore and experimental
speedcore. Atomhead has also been likened to 60's-era
Iannis Xenakis and power electronics.
[ Words and Tears Mix, Decibel Breach Podcast. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Atomhead appeared on numerous compilations throughout 2007 and 2008, including
Vortex on Entity,
Delayed Reaction on Peace Off, and
We Are The Music Breakerz on Reconfiguration Records. Atomhead has remixed tracks by Sedarka, Ronny Ragtroll, Xanopticon, and Prometheus Burning, among others.
Erratic
2003 saw the inception of Erratic, a side-project for abstract, "highly immersive soundscapes"
[Maqqi, Euqenio. " Erratic", Chain D.L.K., 2007. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] and
psychoacoustics/electro-acoustic sound art. The aim of Erratic is to "unify sound with thoughts and imaginary visual landscapes".
[" About Erratic", Entity.be, Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] For most of Erratic's output, Robbe eschews computer-generated beats and rhythms in favour of "exotic instruments" and contact microphone-derived sounds, which are subsequently manipulated using various
audio editors. The results often sound organic in nature, with comparisons drawn to
mediterranean and oceanic settings, as well as the
drone music and
microsound genres.
[Fischer, Tobias. " CD Feature/ Erratic: "The Invisible Landscape" ", Tokafi, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] In 2004 Erratic and ambient artist Hackeronte joined to form Pandemia. On the day of the transit of Venus in 2004, they released the self-described "spacetexture journey"
Venus Urania on Entity, in an attempt to capture a fitting sonic environment for the event. The same year, Erratic released
Presence on
Mirakel Musik; a 50-minute composition of "richly textured" field recordings intended to accompany the listener to sleep.
[" Erratic – Presence ", mirakelmusik.se. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.][Johnson, Larry. " Mirakelmusik ", Earlabs.org, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Erratic has also collaborated with music artists Andrey Kiritchenko and fellow Belgian
Lina, visual artists Jesper Bentzen and the
Farbrausch demogroup, and has released
Activation Fields on Entity (2004),
The Invisible Landscape on Mystery Sea (2006), and contributed to compilations on Con-v, AntmanuvMicro and
Soulseek Records.
Duncan Avoid
Duncan Avoid was a collaboration between Entity-founders Jan Robbe and Nico de Gols. The project's goal was to defy
musical genre as well as technical limitations.
[" Artists – Puzzling ", Timeless Network, 2006. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Their first album
Cybernetics was released in 2003 on
Enough Records; a
concept album concerned with
transhumanism and emerging technologies. The album is unique among other releases on the Enough imprint for its extensive use of
microtonality and unresolved
atmospherics,
[McGuire, Erik. "Duncan Avoid – Cybernetics. Hypothemic Magazine, 2003-03-08. Retrieved on 29 December 2008.] described by one journalist as "a spacious, complex, and arguably psychoactive menagerie of integrated electronic soundscapes. .... a purely abstruse composition of sonic nomogenetics, synthetic coils and unfurling digital helices, producing from the ether intangible imagery of high technology newly conjoined with anthropomorphic sentience".
was followed by appearances on Kirdec's
Stadskantoor Zero and d.compose's
Analysis EP, for which Duncan Avoid imparted a
Cybernetics-esque remix of d.compose's "Thresn 54-231001". Duncan Avoid was also performing throughout Europe at this time, including two shows at the Cabaret Voltaire with
Shitmat and Chevron, the 2003
Fuckparade in Berlin, and the 2004 Polymorphik Festival in Liège, Belgium.
[" Aural Addiction vs Chaosphere, Cabaret Voltaire ", webflyers.co.uk, 2004. Retrieved on 24 October 2008.][" Polymorphik Festival ", Timeless Network, 2004. Retrieved on 24 October 2008.]
In 2004 the duo released their Masterpiece Metaphysics on Hive Records. Many have found the album's fusing and traversing of disparate styles difficult to categorize,[Sodergren, Stephen. " Review:: Duncan Avoid – Metaphysics", ReGen magazine, 2004. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.][Eklund, Anders. " Duncan Avoid "Metaphysics" ", Moving Hands Music Magazine, 2004. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] with one reviewer calling it "so innovative it sounds almost entirely novel, almost totally devoid of obvious influences, to the point of being a new form without a ready frame of reference."["", Aural Pressure, 2005. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Similar sentiments were expressed by others, with descriptions ranging from "punchy breakcore freneticism coiled tightly around endlessly twisted ambience and hectic experimental sound sculpture",[" Duncan Avoid – Metaphysics Review ", Storming the Base, 2004. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] to "a gaseous contrail of solar noise and ice particles where ambient breaths of watery melodies get heat-flashed into steam, and software-driven drum programming is savaged by extended processor cycles."[Propek, Mat. " Duncan Avoid :: Metaphysics (Hive, CD) ", Igloo Magazine, 2005. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.] Prolific polystylism C-drik and Ukraine noise artist Kotra provided remixes of "Auditory Arms" and "Parallel Grounds", respectively. Duncan Avoid also lent tracks to Enough Records' Retork compilation and the limited edition FUCK compilation released on Hive. The project has since been put on an indefinite hiatus.
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