Amoeba is an experimental music group that fuses the pop and

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

genres. They formed in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States, in 1992. The core members of the group are ambient musician Robert Rich and guitarist/bassist

Rick Davies Richard Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best known songs ...

. Rich and Davies have worked together since 1979. Davies had just returned to the United States after working with several experimental rock groups in the United Kingdom and Spain. During the next five years, Rich and Davies worked on several collaborative projects. The style of these projects was an aggressive blend of

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

and pure

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

composition. In 1983 Rich and Davies formed a trio with bassist Andrew McGowan called

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. One of their last performances was a live radio broadcast in 1984. Some of their recorded material was released as a self-titled album on

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

in 1985. In 1992 the first version of Amoeba formed. It was a quartet featuring Robert Rich, Andrew McGowan, guitarist David Hahn and drummer Matt Isaacson. They released a five-song EP-CD in 1993 titled ''

Eye Catching ''Eye Catching'' (1993) is the debut album by the American experimental pop music group Amoeba. It is an EP length CD consisting of five songs. This is the only Amoeba album not to feature the two-man lineup of Robert Rich and Rick Davies. The ...

''. This lineup dissolved soon after the release of ''Eye Catching''. In 1994 Rick Davies came to Rich with some of his new musical ideas. They were slow folk inspired pop compositions with strong ambient sensibilities. They decided to incorporate these ideas into a new version of Amoeba. This lineup featured Rich on vocals,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, percussion,

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

and flutes and Davies on guitars and bass. They developed a style consisting of slow, hypnotic and largely acoustic pop compositions and Rich's classic ambient textures and acoustic recordings. Their lyrics range from abstract to darkly emotional. This form of Amoeba has released two albums, ''

Watchful ''Watchful'' (1997) is an album by the American experimental pop music group Amoeba. This is the first Amoeba album to feature the classic lineup of Robert Rich and Rick Davies. The style of this album consists of subtle and largely acoustic pop ...

'' (1997) and ''

Pivot Pivot may refer to: *Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system *More generally, the center point of any rotational system *Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body *Pivot turn, a dance move Companies *Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...

'' (2000). Each of these albums features a number of guest performers including cellist and multi-instrumentalist

Hans Christian Hans Christian may refer to: People * Hans Christian (musician) (born 1960), German-born musician and producer * Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), Danish author and poet * Hans Christian Gram (1853–1938), Danish bacteriologist * Hans Chris ...

. After the release of ''Pivot'' Davies went on to pursue his solo career in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. Rich continues to release ambient solo albums and tour at a prolific rate. Both musicians continue to hold a future Amoeba project as a possibility, though there are difficulties due to the geographic distance between them.

Discography

*1993: ''

'' *1997: ''

'' *2000: ''

External links

* "Amoeba" ''AllMusic.com''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Amoeba (Band) American experimental musical groups