_Dan Burke]

Daniel Burke / Illusion of Safety

Since 1983, on the labels Complacency, Die Stadt, Experimedia, Odd Size, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, Korm, Drone, no part of it, Auf Abwegen, and Waystyx Daniel Burke and his conspirators under the Illusion Of Safety banner have traversed over the course of 48 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 350 live concerts throughout Europe and the states included No Fun 2008, the Wroclaw Industrial Music Festival 2009 & 2024, 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, Olivia Block, and others. Currently Dan is involved in improvisation collaborations including the trio Interim Assassin with Jeb Bishop and Erik Sowa. He has an ambient project Twilight Furniture, releases synthesizer specific music as Soundoferror, as well as composing solo material in singer-songwriter mode. He also works with photography, painting, collage, graphic design, and video production.

IOS continues to play out live with new member collaborations including Blake Edwards (Vertonen) & Janna Lee (Snek Trio), contributes to a regular release schedule, a subscription series with new content monthly, and populate their YouTube with many old videos unseen since live performances in the ’90s along with new video productions every month.

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