Cosmicity is the project name for the American,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

-based electronic musician, Mark Nicholas. His music combines singer-songwriter melodies with

synthesizers 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 ...

, drum machines, and deeply personal lyrics. In the 1990s, as a student at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

School of Music and Technology, Nicholas released his first full-length album ''The Vision''. Since that time, Cosmicity has become one of the best-known artists in the so-called

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

underground, most notably as a founding artist on the iconic synthpop

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

A Different Drum A Different Drum was an independent record label and online store based in Smithfield, Utah, founded in 1996. The label specialized in synthpop and related genres. A Different Drum has released hundreds of albums, singles, and compilations and ...

. His accomplishments have included playing large synthpop festivals alongside 1980s acts like Alphaville and

Anything Box Anything Box is an electronic/synthpop musical group originally from Paterson, New Jersey, and now based in Long Beach, California. Formed in 1986, they are best known for their 1989 single "Living in Oblivion". They also garnered some attention ...

, winning songwriting contests (such as the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2006), and even placing music on a few television shows - such as the Matthew Fox series ''

Haunted Haunted or The Haunted may refer to: Books * ''Haunted'' (Armstrong novel), by Kelley Armstrong, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Cabot novel), by Meg Cabot, 2004 * ''Haunted'' (Palahniuk novel), by Chuck Palahniuk, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Angel novel), a 200 ...

''. In addition to original compositions, Cosmicity has released cover songs such as "Bloc Bloc Bloc" by

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...

, and "Automatic" by

The Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, b ...

. Original holiday-themed songs include "Halloween" and "This is Your Crappy Christmas Present". Cosmicity has remixed songs for iconic 1980's synthpop bands such as

Red Flag Red flag may refer to: * Red flag (idiom), a metaphor for something signalling a problem ** Red flag warning, a term used by meteorologists ** Red flag (battle ensign), maritime flag signaling an intention to give battle with no quarter (fight to ...

, and,

Real Life Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the characters they portray. It has become a popular term on the ...

, as well as popular modern acts including

The Bird and the Bee The Bird and the Bee (stylized in all lowercase) is an American indie pop musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of Inara George ("the bird") and Greg Kurstin ("the bee"). Kurstin is a seven-time Grammy Award–winning producer and multi- ...

in 2012. Between 1994 and 2005, Cosmicity released seven full-length CDs ''The Vision'' (1994), ''The Moment'' (1995), ''Isabella'' (1997), ''Renaissance'' (1998), ''The Binary Language of Love'' (1999), ''Pure'' (2001), ''Escape Pod for Two'' (2003), in addition to two EPs, ''Syn'' (1996) and ''Forgive Me My Syns'' (1998), a remix album ''Resynthesized'' (1999), and two greatest hits compilations, ''In Perspective'' (1998) and CD/DVD combo ''Definitive: 1997 - 2004'' (2005). During the years spanning 2006-2009, Mark Nicholas released two albums (''Duchess 33'' - 2007, ''Perversions'' - 2008) under his given name, dropping the Cosmicity project name so he could concentrate on more industrial sounds - and darker lyrics. 2010 saw the release of the 5-song EP ''ASCII Cupcake'' and a return to Mark Nicholas using his Cosmicity project name. 2012 brought the release of the ''Parlour Sofas'' EP. The full-length album, ''Humans May Safely Graze'', was released worldwide in 2014. It was mastered at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

and was distributed in CD, streaming, and digital download formats, including the

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Mastered for iTunes format.

References

External links

Official Cosmicity website
{{Authority control American synth-pop groups American electronic music groups