Nocturnal Emissions

An English project, widely considered a major representative of the indu- strial avant-garde of rock music, it was started in 1979 by two brothers Nigel (b. 1957) and Daniel (b. 1964) AYERS, who alongside Ian ROUND formed The PUMP (1977-1980). From 1980 to 1984 the personnel also included Caroline Kaye WALTERS (1957-2008), aka CAROLINE K., a multi- instrumentalist and vocalist, also responsible for the lyrics. Their early works involved processed sounds from guitars, the violin, and synthesizers, supplemented with expressive vocals, collages prepared on tapes, and raw sounds from metal objects. Thematically, they seemed to be concerned with processes stimulating the pace of life and of the Western culture: uncompromising enslavement of human mentality and control of indi- vidual’s needs, expectations, and rebellion. They uncovered ubiquitous tendencies for manipulation of information, permanent control of an indivi- dual, and subliminal methods of influencing human consciousness by mass media. Following departure of Daniel AYERS and CAROLINE K. in 1984, Nigel AYERS made the project his own solo operation, while remaining open to periodical collaboration with other artists, e.g. Steve TANZA and Ben PONTON. Also the nature of the music underwent certain remo- delling, as he focused on fusing industrial ambient and experimental post- industrial genres, and from 2000 on even certain varieties of techno music and elements of ethnic or tribal trance music. As his interests shifted towards the esoteric, magic, and urban shamanism, the music was meant to interact with the consciousness and the subconscious sensuality in the listener. In line with that, the live appearances resemble multi-media spectacles, where the sound is expressively synchronised with the image, usually based on multi-coloured psychedelic visualisation. Alongside the project itself, since 1979 Nigel AYERS has run a label, first called STERILE RECORDS, renamed EARTHLY DELIGHTS in 1987. Selected discography: Tissue Of Lies (Dark Vinyl Records 1980) CD Fruiting Body (Klanggalerie 1981) CD Viral Shedding (Dark Vinyl Records 1983) CD Befehlsnotstand (Dark Vinyl Records 1983) CD Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss (Touch 1983) CD Chaos (Cause For Concern 1983) LP Shake Those Chains Rattle Those Cages (Sterile Records 1985) LP The World Is My Womb (Soleilmoon Recordings 1987) CD Duty Experiment (Soleilmoon Recordings 1988) CD Stoneface (Staalplaat 1989) CD Invocation Of The Beast Gods (Staalplaat 1989) CD ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Music is a device for social regulation, a process of committing to memory and repeating certain limited habit patterns. Expression has been forced through the conventions of the ruling media consensus to be carried through preset limited frequencies. Content has been negated by repetition of familiar formulas, recorded and played back in inexorable degradation. MODEL CONTROL ORGANISM Information technology is an extension of the human nervous system in which resources have been concentrated into projects that simply reproduce existing social relationships of dominance and subservience. Possibilities for creativity have been neglected. Entertainment is an evil bluff to keep the gears turning, poisoning the soul of mankind. MECHANICAL INDUCTION All political systems exist by effectively limiting the rate and direction of change. Imposed reality is reinforced by the threat of corrective surgery. New institutions of sedation; internment; psychiatric torture and irradiation inherit the old myths of religion. We have learned to live in an atmosphere of unease. INFECTED NE outputs are a demonstration of possibilities and potential aimed at bringing about dynamic physical and psychic change; unpredictable and unlike any precedent. The sonic output is part of a campaign using existing situations to infiltrate open media systems; without accepting their limitations; in such a way that they are useful for consciousness. The aim is direct intervention. The performances are not the thing itself, nor are they by-products like records. They have no value in themselves, they are only of use in disseminating information, all are luxuries after merely being alive and sharing that fact. THE ERASURE The information war is one of the most important of our struggles. We must never accept our knowledge as absolute truth, only as a transient “realistic” lie. Language is essentially mystification. The sources of our themes, actions and the relationships between them are derived from any place or period except from the arts, cultural traditions, their derivatives and their milieu. …There is no permanence. We represent no one. We are nothing special. History starts with our birth. The Future ends when we die. We are getting closer…. The NE is the man or woman sitting next to you. Activating voices hitherto largactilled and electroshocked out of existence, their tape lab circuits overloaded to the point of meltdown. Sensory bombardments, menacing, psychotropic. A feeling in your bowels. Direct attack metabolic alarm ecstasy, spasm, psychoses. A temporary threshold shift with cataclysmic potential generating a special atmosphere, intangible, always unique. A wreckage tearing a hole in the fabric of reality. May you never be the same again.