General ECC News

"We're not quite dead yet!"

Hello, and thanks for wondering if ECC is still alive. Considering the two-year gap since the last post here, that's a natural wonder.

When I started The Evolution Control Committee back in 1987 (30 years ago!) I envisioned a very open-ended creative platform. The ECC would be a musical chimera, an aural amalgam, a wide-ranging mashup of genres, styles, technology, and people. And it was a good time to embrace change, since those three decades spanned many important eras and musical movements: cassette culture, home recording, cassettes, sampling, the internet, web, file sharing, Napster, MySpace, streaming audio, MP3s, CDs, DIY, DMCA, DRM, LPFM, memes, mashups... so many technologies, techniques, and tipping points. All have changed the world in their own thorny ways since The ECC began.

And yet with all that change, I sought more. In 2012, after 25 years of music making and performance, I decided to go to art school for the first time. For the next three years I earned my masters degree in fine arts (MFA) specializing in Art And Technology. During that time I made a conscious choice to focus less on music and performance to give myself space to try new directions such as installation works, video, and robotics. It's been artistically refreshing to dive into new creative oceans, and you can see the works that have emerged from them at www.TradeMarkG.com.

But The ECC has slowed to a crawl during these last five years. There's plenty of reasons beyond the above for this including a cross-country relocation, and I've slowed to a crawl too (I'm over 50, eep!). I didn't intend for those new artistic directions to pull momentum from The ECC and still imagine a future where the video and installation skills I've picked up get incorporated into a new phase of the band. After all, "Evolution" is our first name.

Meanwhile I want to say a long overdue thanks to all the fans of The Evolution Control Committee. Your excitement, dedication, and support has made for 30 years of incredible music and performances all over the world. Thank you so much for these exciting times.

- TradeMark (Mark) Gunderson