Vampire Rodents

Vampire Rodents was the name of a sound collage and experimental music ensemble based out of Phoenix, Arizona, although its core members originally came from Canada. The creative nucleus of the project comprised vocalist and composer Daniel Vahnke and keyboardist Victor Wulf. Daniel Vahnke was primarily influenced by 20th-century classical and avant-garde music, whereas Wulf drew from new age, ambient and synth-driven pop music. Their work also dabbled in big band, bebop, musique concrète, industrial, electro, Indian classical and Greek music.

Vampire Rodents debuted with War Music (1991), an album that showcased their knack for dark humor and experimentation with the pop and industrial music format. Premonition (1992), recorded with violinist and cellist Andrea Akastia, revealed the band's artistic ambitious and interest in musique concrète and ambient music. Considered by some to be the group's magnum opus, Lullaby Land (1993) further expanded the sound with the inclusion of additional musicians, house beats, swing rhythms and world music.

In 1993 Akastia and Wulf ceased to make direct contributions to Vampire Rodents and it became Vahnke's solo project, although he continued to utilize music his former bandmates had recorded previous to their departure. Vampire Rodents embraced an electro-industrial sound informed by orchestral music on Clockseed (1995) with the help of producer Chase and the contributions of numerous musicians already established in the 90s industrial rock scene. The final album, Gravity's Rim (1996), returned to the more aggressive and sarcastic nature of past work while emphasizing dense string and horn arrangements.

Vampire Rodents' last recodings were made in 1997 when Vahnke was working on a follow-up to Gravity's Rim. Legal issues with Fifth Colvmn Records unexpectantly halted activity and the project was put on hiatus. After over a decade of inactivity, Daniel Vahnke officially announced his musical retirement and the project's abandonment in 2009.

History

Early years in Toronto (1987–89)

Composers Daniel Vahnke and Victor Wulf met while studying anthropology at the university of Toronto. Victor had been composing film music under pseudonyms since 1977 and was composing experimental pop track with samplers during the 80s. Daniel had been working on player piano pieces based on Chinese character stroke analysis since 1986. They began collaborating in 1987 and composed several independent films scores together. In June 1989, they began a project that incorporated elements of industrial rock and sound collage, which was conceived as a form of self-entertainment and a as a way to play a joke on the music industry.^[1] They named the project Vampire Rodents after an animal skull with two large incisors that Vahnke discovered on an Anthropological dig in Arizona.^[2]

Move to Arizona, War Music and Premonition (1990–1992)

Recording for War Music was completed in January 1990 and the band relocated to Phoenix, Arizona.^[3] The duo had enlisted the aid of Karl Geist on bass guitar and keyboards, Ivan Koci on guitar and Jing Laoshu on percussion. Vahnke chose to compose and record under an alias, and was credited as Anton Rathausen on every Vampire Rodent release. He would use the alias when being interviewed and would ask that the interviewer address Vahnke and Rathausen as separate people.^[4] Like other industrial rock at the time, the music makes heavy use of sampled movie and television dialogue.

Geist left the band after the release of War Music, opting to seek employment with the Bristol-based label Words of Warning.^[5] The band's second album Premonition was completed and released in 1992 with violinist and cellist Andrea Akastia.^[6] It had originally been issued in 1991 as a thirty-minute cassette tape. Vahnke and Wulf realized the artistic merit of their project and began moving away from the mock industrial rock of War Music to draw inspiration from musique concrète and ambient music. The album garnered further praise from critics and the band began to receive wider notice, with the tracks such as "Sitio" receiving airplay on the college radio stations.^[3]

Major label adoption, Lullaby Land and Clockseed (1993–1995)

Premonition caught the attention of industrial music label Re-Constriction Records, who adopted the band into its roster. Lullaby Land was released in 1993 and marked a musical maturity for Vampire Rodents. The music boasted house beats, swing rhythms and world music influences while continuing to explore avant-garde and industrial music. It also marked the first time Vampire Rodents collaborated with guest musicians, utilizing the singing talents of Dan Grotta of Babyland, Jared Hendrickson of Chemlab and Pall Jenkins of Three Mile Pilot. After the album's release, Akastia and Wulf scaled back their involvement with Vampire Rodents to pursue other interests.

Clockseed was released in 1995 and introduced a new sound. Vahnke began moving away from the dissonant industrial sound that characterized his earlier work to focus on composing lush arrangements comprising clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, flutes, oboes and saxophones. The music was also more dependent on dance beats and informed by electro and even hip hop music. Guest involvement had been increased to feature a new vocalist on every song, with Vahnke providing vocals for only four of the twenty-two tracks. Re-Constriction Records founder Chase also provided loops for the music. In 1996, Gravity's Rim was issued by Fifth Colvmn Records.

Aftermath

Vahnke was especially prolific at this point and was interested in touring the band^[7] and launching several musical projects across several genres. This included a new Vampire Rodents album. Intended to be released in 1997, It was as an entirely instrumental double disc album titled Noises in the Wall. A re-imagining of Franz Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2, op. 100, D. 929 that was recorded for the album appeared on a Cleopatra Records compilation^[8] and five tracks that were to comprise the first disc were made available through the band's official myspace page in January 2008. Plans to remaster and re-issue the entire Rodent catalog were also made.

Vahnke was unable to find a record label to issue his work and was unable to finance releasing it himself. In 2002, he had expressed his desire to establish an mpg. site to make his work accessible to the public. Vahnke and officially announced his retirement from music in 2009.^[9] He mentioned in an interview that he had in his possession three hours of completed Vampire Rodents tracks as well as another three hours of other compositions that he has been unable to find an outlet for.^[1]

Other Projects

Besides Vampire Rodents, both Daniel Vahnke and Victor Wulf have been involved in separate musical projects. After Victor left the band in 1993, he began his recording solo work under the name Dilate. Influenced by ambient and new-age music, Dilate released two albums, Cyclos in 1996 and Octagon the following year. Both were issued by Cleopatra records and were well-received by critics.

Vahnke began writing and recording music for his big band-influenced project Ether Bunny in 1993. In 1996, Papa Woody was released on Fifth Colvmn Records. Vahnke has pointed to the album as contained the music he is most proud of and he intended to released another album by Ether bunny in 1997 titled Toy Box. In the years between the release of Gravity's Rim and his retirement from music, Vahnke was also involved in numerous projects with artists he had previously collaborated with. This included, an ambient music album called Abisian, an adult contemporary pop music oriented project called Alchemia^[7] and a collaboration with vocalist Eric Powell of 16Volt called Pillow.^[10]

Discography

Studio albums

• War Music (V.R., 1990)
• Premonition (V.R., 1992)
• Lullaby Land (Re-Constriction, 1993)
• Clockseed (Re-Constriction, 1995)
• Gravity's Rim (Fifth Colvmn, 1996)

References

External links

• Vampire Rodents discography at Discogs
• Vampire Rodents discography at MusicBrainz