Sebastian R. Komor (born 7 May 1976) is a Polish-born, Norwegian-raised electronic musician, best known for his collaborative work in

Icon of Coil Icon of Coil is a Norwegian electronic music band. The band was established as a solo project in 1997 by Andy LaPlegua who was joined by former Sector 9 (now Moonitor and Zombie Girl) bandmate Sebastian Komor to perform live. With the release ...

and Zombie Girl. A prolific artist, Komor has also released electronic music under a variety of solo projects and aliases since the late 1990s.

Biography

Sebastian Komor was born in Zabrze, Poland, in 1976 and moved to Norway in 1981, where he would remain for over twenty years. He first acquired a keyboard in his late teens and released his first music demo in 1992. Throughout the mid-to late-90s, Komor created music in

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

, where an EBM/industrial scene was flourishing under the influence of local bands such as

Apoptygma Berzerk Apoptygma Berzerk (; commonly abbreviated to APB or APOP) is a Norwegian musical group. They have achieved success with a brand of synth-pop, and ballads backed with electronic rhythms, commonly known within the scene and referring to themselve ...

. Komor recorded and toured under various band names during that time, starting with Melt and continuing with Area51, Sector9 (which he also used as a remixer alias), and Moonitor. Fellow Fredrikstad musician

Andy LaPlegua Ole Anders Olsen (born 15 September 1975), known professionally as Andy LaPlegua, is a Norwegian singer and songwriter, originally known for being founder and lead vocalist of futurepop band Icon of Coil. He also gained fame in the aggrotech an ...

played keyboards for early Sector9 and Melt shows, and it was this collaboration that led to the formation of Icon of Coil in 1997, with the roles reversed – LaPlegua as primary creative member and Komor came in as a full member during the production of the first single "Shallow Nation". Icon of Coil released their debut single, ''Shallow Nation'', in 2000, at which point Komor became a full-fledged member of the band. Komor and LaPlegua went on to release three full-length albums as IoC: '' Serenity Is the Devil'' (2000), '' The Soul is in the Software'' (2002), and '' Machines Are Us'' (2004). Icon of Coil garnered a fair amount of popularity within the scene, having their albums distributed worldwide and playing a variety of large festivals. During this same time period, Komor and Richard Bjørklund formed the synthpop/EBM band Monofader and released the album ''Frost'' in 2004. Sebastian also did drum, sampling and synth programming on an EP titled ''Fenris'' for an industrial black metal band called Helheim (note: not the Norwegian black/Viking metal band

Helheim Hel (Old Norse: ) is an afterlife location in Norse mythology and paganism. It is ruled over by a being of the same name, Hel. In late Icelandic sources, varying descriptions of Hel are given and various figures are described as being buried ...

). In 2004, however, Komor relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and activity within Icon of Coil and Monofader has been sparse since, with the geographical distance between Komor and his band mates being cited as a roadblock to completing significant amounts of additional music. Komor has stated that newer Monofader material exists, with a speculative title of ''Everything Changes but the Sea'', but that the project is not a priority right now. In 2005 Komor started Zombie Girl with Renee Cooper. They released an EP in 2006 and a full album in 2007 through Alfa Matrix and Metropolis. Komor was also signed to electronic rock label

FiXT FiXT (pronounced "fixed") is an American independent media company with several divisions including a record label, an online music store, and a film/TV/video game music licensing arm. FiXT was founded and is owned by Klayton, the sole member o ...

in 2008 for his solo hard techno/trance/industrial project Squarehead. Two advance Squarehead singles featuring guest vocals were released in 2008 and 2009 with a full-length album, ''Voltage Controlled Body Music'', released in March 2010. Sebastian's long time work-in-progress Moonitor, which he describes as techno/tribal, has now also been signed to FiXT and released an album titled ''To the Past From the Future in the Present''. It appears that both Squarehead and Moonitor were one-off projects with no additional albums currently planned, as Komor has stated that he is now fully focused on another of his oldest projects, Melt. Komor has released production music geared towards film, television, and video game soundtracks through FiXT's sister company Position Music. Yet another active side project of Seb's is Komor Kommando, his dark techno/EBM/aggrotech club-oriented DJ alias. One EP has thus far been released on Alfa Matrix, with a full-length album imminent. Additional solo work has been released through Rasputin Records under his real name. The aforementioned Melt, now rejuvenated after years of being kept on hold by commitments to Icon of Coil, was initially to see an EP called ''Parasites'' released in early 2009, but is still a work in progress, with Seb stating "I just dont want to hurry a release, this is a very personal album, and I just feel it needs to feel right and complete before its ready to be unleashed". Though the name has carried over from work done as early as 1994, all of the current songs being worked on are brand new. Sebastian does production work as Xenomorph Productions. He produced the album Hearts for Bullets by

Ayria Ayria is a Canadian futurepop/synthpop musical project formed in early 2003 by Toronto's Jennifer Parkin following her departure from the futurepop and EBM band Epsilon Minus. Biography The first Ayria album, ''Debris'', was released on Alf ...

in 2008. Komor mastered the Depeche Mode tribute album ''Alfa Matrix Re:Covered'' in 2009, which included two covers by Komor Kommando. That same year he also mastered fellow Canadian electro-industrial act

iVardensphere iVardensphere is a Canadian band that plays a mixture of tribal-tinged industrial, EBM and power noise music, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. History On June 16, 2009 via Synthetic Sounds the band released their full-length album titled ' ...

's debut album ''Scatterface''. In February 2010 Komor released a collection of over 400 audio samples from his studio, some from his released projects and some unused. A second volume followed in June of that same year. Komor is also a visual artist, and designs the artwork for his own releases.

Discography

with Helheim (The Helheim Society)

* ''Fenris'' (MCD) (1996)

with Icon of Coil

* ''Shallow Nation'' (MCD) (2000) * ''One Nation Under Beat'' (MCD) (2000) * '' Serenity Is the Devil'' (2000) * ''Seren EP'' (2001) * ''Access and Amplify'' (MCD) (2002) * '' The Soul Is in the Software'' (2002) * ''Android'' (MCD) (2003) * '' Machines Are Us'' (2004) * ''Machines Are Us'' (2CD) Limited edition (2004) * ''

Uploaded and Remixed ''Uploaded and Remixed'' is a remix album by Icon of Coil; it was released in 2004. It was released as a 2 CD special edition, with the Shelter EP. The Uploaded and Remixed CD featured tracks from the first 2 albums, Serenity is the Devil', ' The ...

'' (2004) * ''Uploaded and Remixed / Shelter Ep'' (2CD) Limited edition (2004) * '' I-II-III (2006)

with Monofader

* ''Frost'' (2004 Infacted Recordings)

with Zombie Girl

* '' Back From the Dead'' (2006

Alfa Matrix Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases musical styles including aggrotech, industrial music, dark electro, dark elektro, synthpop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, the label consists of label and artists ma ...

Metropolis Records Metropolis Records is a record label founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1993 by the late Dave Heckman. The label's all-electronic format closely tracked with European contemporaries, such as Off Beat, and, since 1995, has been instrumenta ...

) * '' Blood, Brains & Rock 'n' Roll'' (2007 Alfa Matrix/Metropolis Records) * '' The Halloween EP'' (2009)

as Squarehead

* ''Rockin' (featuring Zombie Girl)'' single (2008 FiXT) * ''Stop, Drop & Roll (featuring XINA)'' single (2008 FiXT) * ''Stop, Drop & Roll remix EP'' (2009 FiXT) * ''Voltage Controlled Body Music'' (2010 FiXT)

as Moonitor

* ''To the Past From the Future in the Present'' (2010 FiXT)

as Komor Kommando

* ''Das EP'' (Alfa Matrix 2009) * "John the Revelator (feat. JL De Meyer of

Front 242 Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres. History Formation Fr ...

)" and "Personal Jesus" on ''Alfa Matrix Re:Covered – A Tribute to Depeche Mode'' (Alfa Matrix 2009) * ''Oil-Steel & Rhythm'' (Alfa Matrix 2011) * "''Boomtscheekah – Remix EP''" (

/ acidallstars 2012) feat. remixes by

DJ Pierre Nathaniel Pierre Jones, better known by his stage name DJ Pierre, is an American DJ and performer of house music based in Chicago. He helped to develop the house music subgenre of acid house, as member of Phuture, whose 1987 EP ''Acid Tracks'' ...

, bathsh3ba, A23P, and

Marc Fleury Marc Fleury (born 1968) is the creator of JBoss, an open-source Java application server. Fleury was born in Paris. He holds a degree in mathematics and a doctorate in physics from the École Polytechnique in Paris and a Master in Theoretical Ph ...

under his alias "Ninja"

as Melt

* Emissions of Hypocrisy (2011 Metropolis Records)

as Sebastian R. Komor

* ''Elephant/Buzzr single'' RASP004 (Rasputin Recordings 2007) (both tracks reappear on the debut Squarehead album) * "Electro Body Music" on ''Fuck the Mainstream Volume 1'' compilation (Alfa Matrix 2007) (reappears on the debut Squarehead album) * "Das Oontz" on the '' Endzeit Bunkertracks: Act III Damage Session'', (Alfa Matrix 2008) * ''Production Music Series Vol. 32 – Electronic'' (2008 Position Music) – 4 tracks * ''Production Music Series Vol. 39 – Electronic'' (2008 Position Music) – all 22 tracks * ''From the Vault Vol. 1: Industrial – Crunchy Beats and FX Noisy Synths and Bizarre Ambiance'' (2010 Xenomorph Productions) * ''The Voyage Vol. 1'' (2011 FiXT) * ''The Voyage Vol. 2'' (2013 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 3'' (2013 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 4'' (2013 Subterra Records) * ''Vikings, Thrones & Dragonbones'' (Alfa Matrix, 15 August 2014) * ''The Voyage Vol. 5'' (2015 Subterra Records) * ''Invisible Cities Vol. 1'' (2015 Subterra Records) * ''Machines of Desctruction'' (2015 Subterra Records) * ''Chasing Stars Vol. 1'' (2015 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 6'' (2015 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 7'' (2016 Subterra Records) * ''Chasing Stars Vol. 2'' (2016 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 8'' (2017 Subterra Records) * ''The Voyage Vol. 9'' (2017 Subterra Records) * ''Invisible Cities Vol. 2'' (2017 Subterra Records) * "Bass Machine", "Taurus", and "Lion" on ''Tenacity'' compilation album (2017 FiXT/Subterra/Position) * ''The Voyage Vol. 10'' (2018 Subterra Records)

References

External links

Sebastian Komor on Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Komor, Sebastian Polish emigrants to Norway Canadian songwriters Living people Canadian industrial musicians 1976 births Polish expatriates in Canada Norwegian expatriates in Canada