Jason Gervais |
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Jason is the founder of Evolution One. His main responsibilities include its website, maintaining its media channels, and assisting the public by answering any of their questions or enquires. He's also one of the contributing artists to the project.
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Position: Founder, Musician, Media Director, Webmaster Stage Name: n/a E-mail: Click Here Website: n/a |
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"I've been an active musician for over ten years! I studied music production at Algonquin College Ottawa. I've always had an interest in music since I was very young. I used to flip over empty Folgers coffee cans and rip apart miniature Canadian flags to just the stick (I'm so patriotic, eh!) and just slam it out. I even used to play-DJ with old cassette decks and vinyls with one of my brothers. Not to mention (badly) play on one of those cheap-n-easy pianos. Suffice to say, music has always been around me in some form or another. I played a lot of video games when I was kid. I'll never forget the moment getting our first console (the NES®) from Mom. I'm pretty sure we never left sight of that system until the schools Christmas break was over. The importance of this was that it first introduced me to the world of video game music. With each passing system came new memories and more awesome music. I'd credit the Playstation One® era for cementing my interest in video game music forever. And what kid didn't watch movies too? I share the same love for film music as I do for video games! I asked and begged for the soundtrack to Jurassic Park™ (my first film soundtrack ever and the one I credit to getting me into film music) for months and finally got it one Christmas morning. There's just something so amazing for me about unwrapping a CD for the first time, playing it, and reading what it's in the booklet - it'll always remind me of my childhood. That's something this generation forgets about sometimes - those little things. I hope that one day you'll have the chance to unwrap one of our CD's and remember those days like I do. I've always been a fan of soundtracks so my music is very influenced by everything I've heard. In regards to my experience, I helped create and expand upon the first major Silent Hill™-inspired music project called, Broken Notes. Silent Hill™ is a popular video game franchise from Japan originally created by a group called Team Silent. I've contributed to all of Broken Notes' six major album releases spanning across nearly a decade, including the original experimental album. The project proved and continues to be a stunning success with its fan community. I created Evolution One because I wanted music artists such as myself and others to be given the chance to produce anything they want. Broken Notes, while greatly rewarding and challenging, seriously limited our styles to a specific fan base. The majority of fans from Broken Notes will always refer to it as a Silent Hill™-inspired endeavaour and that's perfectly fine. With this, I wanted Evolution One to be completely different. Therefore, it only made sense for it to be it's own project. Let's see where this takes us!" |
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Christophe Frutuoso |
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Christophe is one of the contributing artists to Evolution One.
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"My interest in music came early and I remember my first compositions on an old Bontempi Organ BN8. When I was a teenager I received a Yamaha synthesizer as a gift containing an 8-track sequencer. It was my first step into mixing and orchestration. My compositions were close to those of GP Reverberi, the creator of the famous Italian 80's pop classical group Rondo Veneziano. Despite the slightly kitsch of these compositions, I learned how to orchestrate the main lines and develop the harmonics. In regards to video games, I played mainly on the Megadrive and Saturn. Games like The Story of Thor™ for example, were an inspiration for my music. When Silent Hill™ came out for the PS1®, I remember many stressful nights playing this game. I bought a PS2® especially for Silent Hill 2™ and the PS3® for Silent Hill: Homecoming™. Upon my arrival in Paris, I abandoned my compositions on keyboard for PC software. I really started to compose music inspired by Silent Hill™ circa 2003. One year later, I dared to knock on the door of Broken Notes and that's when the adventure began! Besides that, I have my own website which allows me to publish my works in their entirety. My double album Soiled Shores was a struggle to complete. With Evolution One, I wish to regain my old ideas of uptempo electronic music. It's a new dawn, it's a new day..." |
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Christopher So |
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Christopher is one of the contributing artists to Evolution One. |
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"Music has always been apart of my life. My mother plays the piano plus organ professionally and my father likes to sing baritone along with playing the guitar as a hobby. At the age of 5, I started taking piano lessons. At the age of 10, I started playing the violin in the school orchestra and then started private lessons at 11. At 15, I taught myself how to play rhythm guitar and drums. At around the same time, I discovered the world of electronic music composition through courses at my local high school. While attending college, I became certified in sound recording engineering and have never looked back since. My favorite genre of music is Instrumental as I believe the melodies can convey emotions universally greater than any lyrics. And of course, video games are a great source of this kind of music. I discovered Silent Hill™ unintentionally while perusing my friend's game library back in 1999. Not knowing what to play, he suggested Silent Hill™. The funny thing was I confused the game for another one I saw on TV, Parasite Eve®. With me being so naive, he let me borrow it without telling me what the game was about. I went home and popped the disc in my Playstation®. I remember the night like it was yesterday. The words, "THERE ARE VIOLENT AND DISTURBING IMAGES IN THIS GAME" are still ingrained in my mind like a solid brass plaque. Then came the haunting plucking of the introduction music and a soundscape I have never heard before. Looking back at that moment now, and after playing the soul-rattling Silent Hill 2™, I would say that Akira Yamaoka changed my life forever and the way I approach my music. Currently, I'm composing the soundtrack for Visions of Zosimos, an MMO collectible card game being developed by Forever Interactive. You can check them out here." |
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Sam Drower |
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Sam is one of the contributing artists to Evolution One. |
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"My love affair with music began as a young teenager. I was introduced to rock and metal by both my Dad and some school friends, and was instantly hooked. There was something about the stripped down and aggressive sound of distorted guitars and pounding drums that appealed to me over the sugarcoated pop or diva-led R&B that was popular in the late nineties. As my interest and passion for music grew deeper, listening to music was simply not enough and I longed to be like my favourite rockstars. I got my first guitar aged 16 and instantly began creating noisy experiments with other friends, who were also new to their respective instruments. The results were not exactly pretty, but it cemented my desire to create and play music with other people and was the catalyst for everything that would follow. I went on to study Music Technology at college, and it was during these days when I discovered Silent Hill™, Akira Yamaoka - And as a result of that, the Broken Notes project. I have been in contact with Jason and the Broken Notes team for around 8 or 9 years, which is pretty crazy to think about. During that time, I have played bass and guitar in various bands, written countless pieces of music and studied/listened to as many different styles and genres as possible. These days I listen to anything from Vivaldi to Vangelis, Amon Tobin to Tool and John Williams to Public Enemy. The evolution of not only my musical taste but my own musical style over the last decade is what correlates the name of the Evolution One project to my own beliefs about music as an artform. Music is something that is constantly evolving, not just as a whole entity but also as an individual experience for listeners. I now work as a live audio engineer at various music venues as well as create my own music in my spare time. I don't think there will ever be a time in my life when i'm not creating music in some form or another - At least I hope not!" |
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Paolo Giacci |
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Paolo is one of the contributing artists to Evolution One. |
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"I've been playing guitar since I was a kid and my life changed after I discovered the electric guitar world. So, I decided to take guitar lessons. I found that nothing was more useful than playing in a real band to improve my skills. I spent many years joining a few alternative/rock bands recording albums and, most of all, challenging my abilities as a songwriter. I always had the will to be not just a guitar player, but a real composer. I first started studying music composition at the Civic Musical Academy to learn from the great masters of the past. Learning the concepts and rules of writing music in an "educated way". Afterwards, I decided to get a sound engineering diploma to master audio concepts and environments as the fundemental step to becoming a modern professional composer.
What I always found so fascinating in music were soundtracks. I love the way music can bring you deeper into a story-telling experience, not for what just concerns movies, but also in video games. Being both a huge video game player and soundtrack lover since I was a child, I discovered that there was a video game saga with a really catchy soundtrack to my ears called Silent Hill™. The tension and the horrible emotional state Akira Yamaoka's music/noises were able to invoke was so terribly beautiful that it became a huge source of inspiration for my compositions. That's when I decided to join Evolution One to express my personal style in composing horror-type music, and now I'm finally here! I'm currently a freelance composer who wants to be a part of the video game music world to give back to the players what people like Akira Yamaoka, Jason Graves, Kow Otani and many others gave to me." |
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Cyric Blackmore |
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Cyric is one of the contributing artists to Evolution One. |
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"I'm a "shredder" guitarist and composer whom mainly specializes in Instrumental Rock. I always play on Ibanez® RG Prestige guitars, DiMarzio® pickups and Mesa/Boogie® amps. My best influences are Andy Timmons and Joe Satriani. Akira Yamaoka has always been my main influence for my compositions. I don't do many gigs due to chronic health problems but hope to be able to do it soon. The main thing I try to do when playing guitar is to have an expressive playing by turning up the mids - sometimes they're maxed out on the amp! The mids reveal the imperfections of the playing but it adds a kind of voicing tune. Sometimes it sings and cries depending on the amp. I try to make these with my guitar when I'm playing like as if my body enters into it. I don't like my singing voice, so I just try to do it with the guitar. I don't use much gain or distortion. I only use the gain from the amp, the BB reamp and the Maxon Tube Screamer. I add delay and sometimes reverb onto the mix but that's all. For my home studio productions, I really don't like amp simulations. You can't have the analogic part of the amp and worse on the cabs. You don't have the low-end of the sound and that's what I dislike. For me that's the best part of guitar playing. Music is 99% of my life and I just couldn't live without playing the guitar as I find it helps me. I started to compose at a really young age and I went to an academy when I was 9-11 years old. I have a diploma from that musical academy and learned to also play piano for 7 years there as well. I started to play guitar when I was 16 years old after listening to Akira Yamaoka's works (especially "Theme of Laura" from Silent Hill 2™). My playing has improved with time and I've gotten much better at shredding techniques to where I feel I've reached the next level. I play the guitar every day and I learn new techniques and subtleties all the time. I released my first physical album titled Half-Life courtesy of Park Music in Arlon." |
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