John Sellekaers is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and

audio mastering Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...

engineer. Born in 1973 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

he later moved to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Beginning with his project

Xingu Hill Xingu Hill is a musical project of musician John Sellekaers. During the last ten years, John has released about forty records on various labels (such as Hushush, Ant-Zen, Hymen Records, Foton, Delikatessen, Mirex, Re-Load Ambient, and Nova ...

in the 1990s, he has released over 60 records under various aliases such as Night Sky Pulse, Feral Cities, Meeple, and Dead Hollywood Stars on labels such as Ant-Zen, Hymen Records, Nova Zembla and

Disques Hushush Disques Hushush Inc. (also known as Disques Hushush or more simply as Hushush) is an independent record label created by Dimitri della Faille (aka recording artist Szkieve) in Montreal (Quebec), Canada in 1998. Hushush mainly releases experimental ...

. His style ranges from

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

. Around 1988, under the influence of electronic music pioneers such as Cabaret Voltaire and

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...

, he began experimenting with

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. Later, in the early nineties, he started a magazine devoted to

underground culture Underground culture, or simply underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different from the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by others. The word "underground" is used ...

entitled "Noyade mécanique" (for Mechanical drowning). Other contributors for this magazine included Belgian artists such as Olivier Moreau and Seal Phüric. In 1994, the Belgian underground

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

and IDM record label Nova Zembla signed him for three albums. In 1995 his first album "Maps Of The Impossible" came out under the

moniker A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

. Besides his main incarnation,

, Sellekaers has recorded under several aliases. They include

Dead Hollywood Stars Dead Hollywood Stars is a cross-genre electronic music project of the Canadian musician John Sellekaers. Because of its use of guitars and nostalgic atmospheres journalists have compared the project's sound to the work of Italian composer Ennio ...

, Urawa, The Missing Ensemble, Uncotones, Ambre, Moonsanto and Ammo. Moonsanto is an

and political project by Sellekaers, C-drik Fermont, Gabriel Séverin and Marc Mœdea. Active since 2000, Moonsanto can be called an

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

as it consist of members of

, Silk Saw and Ammo. Moonsanto's first full-length release is called ''Fraud Hell Dope''. It is in fact a play on words about

Monsanto Company The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup (herbicide), Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbic ...

's motto, "Food Health Hope". It is a multinational company active in the

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

market. He has collaborated with artists such as

Mick Harris Michael John Harris (born 4 October 1967) is an English musician from Birmingham. He was the drummer for Napalm Death between 1985 and 1991, and is credited for coining the term "grindcore". After Napalm Death, Harris joined Painkiller with Joh ...

(of Scorn),

David Thrussell David Thrussell is an Australian musician and a prolific composer of a wide range of genres. He is a founding member of the dark ambient and IDM outfits Snog and Soma as well as his work under the moniker Black Lung. Black Lung In 1994 Thruss ...

(of Snog and Black Lung), Olivier Moreau (of Imminent), C-drik Fermont, Silk Saw and

Panacea In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek ''Πανάκεια'', Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: * Panacea (the goddess of universal ...

. In 2005, John Sellekaers, Daniel De Los Santos (of Tamarin) and

literary fiction Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...

writer

Brian Evenson Brian Evenson (born August 12, 1966) is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction, some of the latter being published under B. K. Evenson. His fiction is often described as literary minimalism, but also draws i ...

released a record of experimental

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

. During his career, John Sellekaers has extensively played live in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Since 1998, he is also running the Metarc mastering studio, currently located in Montreal. Despite having released music under a number of monikers over the years, he didn't release music under his own name until 2019 with the release of ''Residual Broadcast'', which was followed by releases in 2021 of ''Observer Effect'' on Glacial Movements and ''Foilum'' on the Oreille Gardee label. His more recent works trend towards ambient and atmospheric soundscapes, infused with elements of

field recording Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...

References

External links

John Sellekaers website

Villa Cyclope (John's photo project)

Discogs entry

Moonsanto discography at Discogs.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellekaers, John 1973 births Canadian electronic musicians Living people Musicians from Montreal