I make electronic music, or, I should say, I coax sounds and compositions to come out of the software and hardware that is in the Transelectronic Laboratory. I don’t make decisions about how the musics should come out, I simply free them from the instruments they hides in. I don’t decide when something is done. It is simply done is when it is done. I can’t take credit for the music that comes out of the Lab, as I feel I am always a spectator to magic. I am merely a conduit for it to be released. I am a student and the machines are my teacher.

Music is art, and as such it doesn’t need to fit into a particular genre, or be easy to classify. Music is refreshing when it sounds different. Music can be, and should be, at times, challenging to listen to. It should defy the listeners expectations and play with their ideas of how something ’should go’. Music should let you know what it is going to do, but keep you guessing as to when and how it will do it.

Music is one of the tools we can use to get in touch with our inner-selves, along with meditation, yoga, and fasting. They are all ways to achieve altered states of consciousness. The music that comes out of the Transelectronic Laboratory encourages this state of consciousness. The rhythms, the tones, the compositions, it is all carefully curated to crate a meditative state of no-mind. Music is this student’s homage to the spiritual journey we are all on in this lifetime.

valeo was born on earth, in huntington, new york back before the digital age began.

he lives in the world of the machines. he journeyed through the networks of atari and coleco, casio and commodore. he swam through the webs of gibson, herbert, clark and egan. he picked up transmissions from bauhaus, eno, puppy and ministry. ae consumed bandwidth like a zombie. james was able to hold his own, as were the legions from canada, manchester and the hordes from berlin. when he was not absorbing the transmissions he was culling sounds from the circuitry of the korgs and the rolands, the yamahas and alesis’.

more nuclear submarine captain than music composer, he guides the machines to release their innermost sounds. the music that gets coaxed out of the wire filled boxes and glistening chips is both utterly human, yet completely mechanical. he captures these offerings and arranges and sequences them so he can share them with us. his methodologies were developed over a long period of cycles, during which he had his residencies at the teo and io research stations.

his bits and data have been entering ears publicly since the early years of the fossil fuel wars. in a recent conversation he said to us, unprovoked, “there is something very spiritual about the relationship that a human has with it’s technology. it doesn’t matter if it is a stand-up bass (which is a stunningly beautiful analog instrument), a drum machine (a wonderful digital/analog hybrid), or a computer (a totally digital machine), the human really feels connected to it at the very core of his/her being. at first it seems to be an extension of the self. you *think* you are in control of it. when you realize that you aren’t, and that it is the machine that is guiding you it totally changes your perspective on technology. then you realize that someone made that instrument and at that moment you have an epiphany and it changes absolutely everything.”

Released on

Archipel
Moodgadget
Future Days
Type
Neo Ouija
Hobby Industries
io

monikers

rj valeo
isomer transition
transelectronic theory.

Partial Gear & Equipment List

Synths
- Clavia NordLead 2
- Korg Monopoly
- Oberheim Matrix 1000
- Oberheim OB-1
- Yamaha TX81Z

Drum Machines
- Elektron Machinedrum MK-1
- Korg Electribe EB-1
- Oberheim DX

Effects & Processors
- Alesis Midi+Microverb
- Alesis Bitcrusher, Philter & Microgate
- Lexicon Vortex
- Line 6 Delay
- Roland SE-201

Software
- Ableton Live
- Automat
- Bias Peak
- C74 Pluggo
- Five12 Numerology
- Michael Norris Spectral Shapers
- NI Absynth
- Plogue Bidule
- Recycle
- Soundhack

Computers, Audio Interfaces & Controllers
- AMD 64bit DualCore 3.0 ghz Workstation
- Mac Powerbook 1.67ghz G4
- Macmini 1.67ghz DualCore Intel
- U-Audio UAD-1
- Doepfer Drehbank
- EMU 1212M PCI
- M-Audio Trigger Finger
- MOTU 828 MKII
- M-Audio Firewire 410
- Novation Remote SL 37

the artists that tickle my ears in a special way

Akira Rabelais, Angelo Badalamenti, Autechre, Bill Laswell, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Dr. Octagon, Eon, Eric B & Rakim, Erik Satie, Farben, Fennesz, Front 242, The Future Sound of London, Gang Starr, Gramm, Harold Budd, Helmet, Hrvatski, Jack Dangers, Jan Janlinek, Joey Beltram, John Cage, Joy Division, Jungle Brothers, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Kim Cascone, King Tubby, Kit Clayton, Kool Keith, Kraftwerk, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry, Mitchell Akiyama, New Order, The Orb, Orbital, Phoenecia, Plastikman, Pole, Polygon Window, Prefuse 73, Public Enemy, Robin Guthrie, Scorn, Skinny Puppy, SND, Steve Reich, Sun Electric, Tones On Tail, and William Basinski