The music of the Oblivion Ensemble remains as elusive and surreal as the ever-shifting cast of musicians and performers who participate, knowingly, or unknowingly in their work.
Drawing extreme elements of electronic, acoustic, noise, and industrial musics, the sonic tapestries of Oblivion Ensemble are carefully woven with unique improvisations, excerpts, and layered samples and loops; the result is dark, beautiful and intense, inspiring conflicting emotions and aural halluinations.
Founding members are John Bergstrom and Brannon Hungness (aka Figure). Figure is a virtuoso experimental guitarist and composer, frontman of the progressive-noise-art-rock band Kill Myself On Monday, a former member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble and the 90's grunge band Hammerhead. Bergstrom is a concert-hall composer and computer music gearhead with a classical music pedigree, having studied with Pulitzer-prize winning composers at the Eastman School of Music.
Since 1989 Oblivion Ensemble has been recording albums and orchestrating performances that defy the imagination. The 1994 release of "Nightmare: Sinistrotorse", the first act of a "virtual" opera demonstrated their ability to traverse disparate musical styles in a single work. With each live performance the cast of characters and thematic elements changed, with each showing a unique view of the work was emphasized. Of special note were 2 sold-out performances at the Pyramid Art Center in Rochester NY, where a 90-minute spectacle of 30 performers realized the opera in quadraphonic, electro-acoustic glory.
Their next project "<Sculpture:" is due for release in early 2005.