Artist description Under the name eM, Michael Bentley has recorded two albums ("Djinn" and "Greater than zero, less than one") and an e.p. ("The Motor Sessions"), and made contributions to several compilations. Bentley uses varying methods to produce his music, including live signal processing, digital and analog synthesis and software based DSP. Each album focuses on a different sound source; "Djinn" on electromagnetism, "Greater than Zero, less than one" on converted raw binary data, and "The Motor Sessions" on motor noise.

Music Style eletronic/experimental/glitch/ambient

Musical Influences king crimson/tonto's expanding headband/farmers manual

Similar Artists popular... yeah, right!

Artist History M. Bentley has been recording electronic music for many eyars, but has only been using the eM monicker since 1997. Other of Bentley's projects include Rhomb and The Apiary, for The Foundry. eM is involved in a handful of current projects, including releases for Fällt, Archipelago and The Foundry, as well as a web based project for Fällt.

Group Members M. Bentley

Instruments various Macintosh computers, lines and cables, household sound making devices, field recordings, an active imagination

Albums for The Foundry... Djinn; Greater than zero, less than one; The Motor Sessions EP; Mote (contributor). For Thousand/WMO... Knots (contributor).

Press Reviews from The Wire #178 December 1998eM - Greater Than Zero, Less Than One (THE FOUNDRY FOU.05)Recorded in Norway by M Bentley, sleevenotes indicate that all the sounds on Greater Than Zero were discovered amid raw data on Blábók, a Macintosh Powerbook. The compact, Minimalist music is concocted out of chains of interference - miniature, grating brass drones, trickling noise rubble, repeating machine patterns swathed in noise and wheedling timbres. Like the Powerbooks of Farmers Manual, much of the sound here is brittle and tinny, even as it conjures up a dreadnought machine dirge against a disconsolate canon of drones. A deft exploration of a world of abrasive micro-processes. (Matt ffytche)from the Motion website(http://motion.state51.co.uk/)review by dan hill (dan@state51.co.uk)(06 January, 2000)eM - Motor Sessions EP (The Foundry)First electromagnetic radiation. Then binary data. Now the motor. eM's modernistic exploration of the sounds of modernity continues with this shorter dedication to the one of the last century's principal guiding forces. As with eM's fascinating last record, 'Greater Than Zero, Less Than One', which explored the near-random data patterns of his Powerbook as "found sounds", creator M Bentley has produced an extremely deep listening piece, in which the sounds are actually "very electronica". So at face value, the link to "the motor" is certainly not an obvious one, but rather a conceptual leap which again bears fruit. Yet it transpires that Bentley did begin the recording process with field recordings of different motors, from car engines to refrigerators. He states that in the sound layering and shaping process "tracks were very much shaped by the qualities and structure of those original motor sounds, though the field recordings did not always survive the final mixing." It's difficult to pick out particular tracks, as not only is the record unlabelled (as far as I can tell! It's a simple opaque silver inlay), but there are at least four sets of names for the four tracks inside the 'booklet' (some of which are very entertaining). Checking the website, I can deduce some nominally "official" titles, but as with eM's other work, amidst all this modest deflection of focus away from the creator, a very individual musical voice is emerging. There's two distinct sides: a Jeckyll and Hyde perhaps. There's certainly an austere ambience, featuring roughly hewn textures and dark, oppressive riffs (the industrial yet organic sounds found in David Lynch's "Eraserhead" spring to mind), often beatless, yet occasionally ending up in a rhythmic minimalist techno. Yet, whatever this mood might say about motors, or Bentley's perception of them, I wouldn't want to overplay the darkness or inhumanity, as the sound drifts and shifts smoothly across the record, seeming to reveal or represent as much about the human shaping of technology as the end-results themselves. The first track in particular is actually pretty funny, occasionally recalling a pissed dalek playing a bagpipe. This 7inch EP comes in a purpose-built cardboard box including extensive loose-leaf literature on the subject matter. It really is very, very beautiful, and clever, packaging - the kind of hand-made-but-quality, limited edition products which could well retain "value" in a musical future where the product appears to disappear. Combined with a truly useful website to match, Michael Bentley's label The Foundry, is pretty much developing into a perfect role model for the modern small label. Dedicated to Bryn Jones, "who showed us something unusual", Motor Sessions is unusual too. In the best possible way.from Option #79 March/April 1998eM - DjinnOne release on this new electronic label, the Apiary's Descent, is a muted, somewhat melancholy affair, with sounds of nature (running or dripping water, etc.), occasional ethnic flutes, simple percussion and mellow synthesizer melodies. EM's Djinn is an altogether more experimental affair. Using relatively simple equipment, a four-track recorder and no sampling, eM (Michael Bentley) more than makes up for his limited technical resources with an abundance of imagination and touches of humor (e.g., a piece called "Ravelero Driver (On)," which combines a muffled radio broadcast of Ravel's infamous "Bolero" with clicking Geiger counter percussion.) Human heartbeat rhythms are used to good advantage on other pieces, and eM also combines manipulated signal generators, electronic drones and processed voices into a kind of musique concrete. Some pieces are rather slight, but it's nice to know that there are still some electronic experimenters who aren't trying to sound like everybody else. (Bill Tilland)

Location Berkeley, California - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).