Cloudland Canyon is an

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band originally from New York, USA. Cloudland Canyon was formed in 2002 by Kip Uhlhorn and Simon Wojan (a German citizen). After several years of long distance collaboration (and recording sessions held in the US and Germany, the first Cloudland Canyon release, ''Requiems Der Natur, 2002-2004'' was released by Tee Pee in 2006 and was largely a collection of older works and experiments. Cloudland Canyon quickly set about releasing a number of other releases and touring that same year, most notably a single track collaboration 12"/LP entitled ''Exterminating Angel'' with Chicago musician

Lichens A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus, fungi species in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship.Kranky and released their first proper album ''Silver Tongued Sisyphus''. In 2008, the band released another collaborative 12" with Mythical Beast on Not Not Fun, as well as their second full length, ''Lie in Light'' on Kranky. The latter was chosen as one of top 25 albums of the year 2008 by the ''

Magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

'' magazine. Cloudland Canyon subsequently moved to Holy Mountain, where the band began their own imprint of Holy Mountain (Intercoastal Artists) for 2010's album ''Fin Eaves'', which has become their best-received work to date, landing on numerous year-end lists. They went on tour with the

Flaming Lips Flaming may refer to: * Anything set aflame or on fire * Flaming (Internet), the act of posting deliberately hostile messages on the Internet * Flame maple, the striped figures in maple woodwork prized for their beauty * Fläming, a region in G ...

(who also asked the band to collaborate with them) as well as with

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

and

Bear in Heaven Bear in Heaven was an American indie rock band from New York City, formed by Jon Philpot in 2003. The sound of the band incorporates influences from psychedelic music, electronic music and krautrock. History Philpot has previously released ...

. Members of the

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member S ...

even name checked the band Uhlhorn has also played in several other successful groups and bands during this time, including King Khan & the Shrines,

Panthers Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

(Dim Mak, Vice/

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

), Pharaohs (100% Silk, Stone's Throw, Intercoastal Artists), Eden Express (Holy Mountain), and

Tav Falco's Panther Burns Tav Falco's Panther Burns, sometimes shortened to (The) Panther Burns, is a rock band originally from Memphis, Tennessee, United States, led by Tav Falco. They are best known for having been part of a set of bands emerging in the late 1970s and ...

. He has also played guitar live and on albums by

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalism, minimalist music. He is best known for his "g ...

and

Glenn Branca Glenn may refer to: Name or surname * Glenn (name) * John Glenn, U.S. astronaut Cultivars * Glenn (mango) * a 6-row barley variety Places In the United States: * Glenn, California * Glenn County, California * Glenn, Georgia, a settlement ...

, including Chatham's ''Crimson Grail'', which was staged at Lincoln Center. Cloudland Canyon's ranks have included close friend Jerry Fuchs (also drummer for !!!,

LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band comprises Murphy (vocals, various instruments), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney (dr ...

, Maserati,

Turing Machine A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

) who died in 2009. Most recently, Memphis drummer Ross Johnson (

Alex Chilton William Alexander Chilton (December 28, 1950 – March 17, 2010) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s ...

) has joined the band. Cloudland Canyon continues to release records with musical reference points in

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

repetition and drone,

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

haze and even

cosmic disco In music, the terms Afro/cosmic disco, “Looking over to the blogosphere, the largest hipster tremors came from the rediscovery of the Italian ‘Cosmic Disco’ sound (a mid-tempo stew of balearic disco pioneered by Beppe Loda and Daniele Balde ...

. Recently, Uhlhorn and Cloudland Canyon have begun working with Sonic Boom (

Pete Kember Peter Kember (born 19 November 1965), also known by his stage name Sonic Boom, is an English singer and record producer. He was a founding member, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist of alternative rock band Spacemen 3, lasting from 1982 until ...

) formerly of the band

Spacemen 3 Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia space rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "tr ...

and currently of Spectrum, and Experimental Audio Research. 2012 saw Cloudland Canyon collaborate with longtime friend Robert A.A. Lowe/Lichens on the score for the film ''

Miss Lovely ''Miss Lovely'' is a 2012 Indian drama film directed by Ashim Ahluwalia and set in the criminal depths of Mumbai's C-grade (horror and porn film) industry. Ahluwalia's debut feature follows the story of the Duggal brothers who produce sleazy se ...

'' directed by

Ashim Ahluwalia Ashim Ahluwalia (born 1972 in Mumbai, India) is a film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with the feature-length documentary ''John & Jane'' (2005), which had a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival an ...

which won the "

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

" prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The band also contributed music to visual artist

Doug Aitken Doug Aitken (born 1968) is an American artist. Aitken's body of work ranges from photography, print media, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to narrative films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, installations, and live perf ...

's iPad/iphone app entitled “Altered Earth”. In 2013, Cloudland Canyon began work on a new album in the latter half of the year with Sonic Boom (whose production credits include MGMT, Panda Bear) producing and mixing the album which is set to be released in 2014.

References

{{reflist American experimental rock groups Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)