Biography
Deserts of Sound is the outlet for the solo music of Jason Landers: ambient soundscapes, noise textures, warped beats, spatial sounds, and others. Jason Landers is one half of the duo The Third Second and is also a founding member of the band YATE (Phoenix, AZ Metro area). His solo compositions, released under the guise of Deserts of Sound, vary between sequenced pieces and live improvisations. Landers began working on electronic music in 1994 in Lubbock, Texas in the Experimental and Electronic Studios of Texas Tech University and in his house doing found sound collage, tape loops and using various cheap instruments, borrowed audio gear, guitar pickup with household electric devices and whatever else he could get to make crazy sounds. He played in a psych/punk band in late 1997 called Void Comp Test, where he met Renick Bell (the other half of The Third Second). Together they later formed The3rd2nd netlabel in 2002, which now houses releases by Deserts of Sound, in addition to the other groups Jason is a part of, YATE and The Third Second. Several Deserts of Sound pieces were also released in 2000 on the Architecture and Other Musics compilation, released on Spatial Records. Spatial Records' second compilation Fortunate Plasma Gathering also featured tracks by Deserts of Sound. Those pieces were compiled as The Cerebral Grassland EP released on The3rd2nd Internet Label in 2002.
Around 1999 in Lubbock, TX, he began working with John Pekowski, a fellow ex-student and protege of Dr. Steven Paxton, along with Tim Seversen and a rotating group of musicians, which had all been performing live improvised sets at various bars and underground venues. Jason had attended a performance at a local Jazz coffee/martini bar by mere coincidence and happened to catch a performance of this electro-acoustic experimental group and recognized John. Immediately that night after the performance, they began planning to work together and start doing experimental studio recordings of these live improvised sets. This project soon became YATE, which over time involved up to 8+ musicians during some performances and had a rotating line up over time and many guest musicians as part of the "experiment". YATE is currently a duo consisting of the remaining founding member Jason Landers and multi-instrumentalist/composer Robert Kilman.
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Jason moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 2000 and continued doing solo work in his home studio to release as Deserts of Sound. He was also still working with Tim and John as a part of YATE and traveled back to Lubbock for some performances and recordings. During this time, Jason was going through the mass amounts of recorded material (at this time probably 20-30 hrs of recorded improv) and working on editing and remixing YATE material to release. John and Tim were doing the same and all 3 were communicating and sending material back and forth. John and Tim later moved to the Phoenix area and the project continued. As a 3 piece the sound of YATE was not too affected by not having the additional musicians. In the earlier performances and recordings, the amount of people, their skill and instruments helped progress the waves of chaos, improv and wall of sound music they wanted to create and the controlled order came through Pekowski's mixerboard wizardry, plus the addition of some more effects from there to either mold and guide or send into the infinite loop and feedback/delay zone of beautiful noise. The 3 members continued to create this sound and feel by adding and mastering more instruments, devices, and effects each would play. In addition to this, each would have a mixer to set and/or operate and these three would go to one where more levels of effects, balancing, levels etc could be controlled or allowed to go out of control. Playing together so much, they began to move and operate as one or playing off each other as if they knew the thoughts or felt the others.
In the early 2000s, Landers was also still working on The Third Second material with Renick Bell, who had relocated to New York along with his business Medium and his partners in Sugarpush Records. Around this time Renick and Jason formed The3rd2nd netlabel to release all their associated groups, solo projects and other experimental/electronic groups.
Jason later meet Robert Kilman in 2002/2003 through their mentor and professor Dr. Steven Paxton. Paxton knew Jason was involved in a program at Arizona State University West called the IAP (Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance) working with sound and tech guru Richard Lerman and had suggested the program to Robert. Robert moved to the Phoenix area and they meet for the first time over the phone. Not much later, Robert joined Jason, John and Tim as a member of YATE. They all performed together for a time, along with sometime guest musicians, until John moved back to Lubbock to pursue a masters and PhD in composition. And then there were 3...
Through the mid 2000s Jason continued work with YATE, as they progressed into a multi-media performance group, creating visuals and installation environments along with their performances. They also did an 8 part film series called CenterPoint, in which they would conceive, shoot video, edit and then perform a live improvised set with each episode in a month's time. Using this same concept of having a video piece as the catalyst and composition for the improv sets, they did several performances in the Phoenix area over several years. In addition to this, YATE produced several video/art and sound installations and self released performance/studio CDs and DVDs of their video pieces and short films. Though Jason's connection with The3rd2nd label, YATE was able to release several albums to the world through the wires (the internet). Around 2005, Tim left the Phoenix area to move back to Texas and then there were 2. Currently YATE is a duo consisting of Jason Landers and Robert Kilman. Plans are brewing regarding the return of John Pekowski to the YATE fold and Landers is working with Pekowski on a side project called the LPC Device. This project will experiment with circuit bent instrument/device sessions, drum machine, and various other mixtures and samples of sound. The compositions will consist of improvised jam sessions (separately done by Landers and Pekowski), samples of that material, other various electronics, and sound experiments during the recording and editing/mixing phases.
New Deserts of Sound releases and re-issues of older self-released material are planned for The3rd2nd netlabel, Jason's new label (TBA), and various other outlets. Jason will also soon be performing again live as Deserts of Sound and creating new video material for these performances. Jason currently continues to be involved with YATE, The Third Second, and The3rd2nd netlabel.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.