Since 1983, on the labels Complacency, Die Stadt, Experimedia, Odd Size, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, Korm, Drone, no part of it, and Waystyx Burke and his conspirators under the Illusion Of Safety banner have traversed over the course of 40+ full length releases almost every facet of the avant sound plane, from early industrial pop deconstruction to blindingly minimal sound art to densely surreal found-sound collage, each unique approach bending and reconstituting the expectations and possibilities of each realm. Plowing through layered field recordings, deeply rumbling tones, and eerie electroacoustic sounds with seamless transitions between cut-and-paste collages and manufactured drones, it’s easy to get lost in the deep passages. It’s a surreal trip mixing outsourced sounds from all over the world and encompassing everything: abstract analogue synthesizer explorations, chaotic digital noise and voltage fluctuations, generating excitement in the bowels of analog equipment, raucous guitar improvisation, rattle and chilling moan of iron sheets, the creaking floorboards, resonances, fluctuations, scraps of samples is in perpetual motion background- Driven with all this by some miracle , the author creates a monumental music, nervous, anxiety-soaked, but at the same time, disturbing & attention-grabbing, creating a powerful hypnotic effect……. the sounds scatter in all directions, like circles on the water, but at the same time, remain the basis of a continuous, almost ritual, form easily detectable, or, conversely, only slightly palpable. Performing over 300 live concerts throughout Europe and the states included No Fun 2008, the Wroclaw Industrial Music Festival 2009, Sonic Circuits in 2010, with Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2011 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and at the Crisis Data Transfer Pre-Party October 2023. Outside of IOS Burke has collaborated with Jim O’Rourke, Jon Mueller, Randy Greif, Darin Gray, Z’EV, Cheer-Accident, Thomas Dimuzio, Kevin Drumm, Bill Horist, and others.
Now in the 40th year of activity the project is once again on the move with a regular release schedule, a subscription series with new monthly content, https://illusionofsafety.bandcamp.com/subscribe populated their you tube with many old videos unseen since live performances in the ’90s along with new video productions every month. https://www.youtube.com/@illusionofsafety
2023 saw 4 new physical releases Pastoral (CD/DL) release on Korm Plastics, Organ Choir Drone (Cass/CD/DL) on no part of it, Frontal (Cass/DL) on Humanhood Recordings, + the IOS40 boxset. A co-release of no part of it/complacency/personal archives, a 10 C-60 tape set, in black case edition of 40, includes the first IOS releases on tape from 1986-1991 + bonus tracks from the second IOS performance in 1984, + live performances in Colorado 1988 taken from the More Altitude Than Attitude tape on We Never Sleep + digital files with many rare flyers and photos pre-1991 & more. In 2024 FLOAT (CD/DL) mastered by Andrew Weathers was released on Full Spectrum Records in September. Immanent is Radio-X Sessions on Ebus Music as limited Cass/DL, Cancer redux as a 12″ Vinyl edition on Aufabwegen, Historical Distractions, a 12″ vinyl release on Nihilistic incorporating the decomposition sampling based pieces from Historical, Distraction, and Inside Agitator….So far in 2025: Illusions of Safety CD on Helicopter edited by John Wiese from our live actions as a quartet in July with Thomas Dimuzio and Andy Way, and RVE CD/DL on Tribe Tapes….
https://linktr.ee/illusionofsafety
Contact
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