Revolution Void - "Electronic Breakbeat Jazz"

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Published on Tuesday, 02 October 2012 16:47

In the age of twelve, 1996, Jonah Dempcy founded Revolution Void. Now the Electronica project is one of the big player in the free listening scene delivering a great mixture of electronic tunes, Jazz and "Breakbeat".

Watch our portrait of Revolution Void below!

Revolution Void is the name of this sophisticated and ambitious project. The man behind it is Jonah Dempcy - He is Revolution Void. And Dempcy is much more: On his homepage he calls himself a music producer; jazz pianist and composer; web, software and mobile application developer, a writer, "self-styled philosopher", "psychoanalytic theorist", an autodidact and polymath. Today we will focus only on one of his various talents, which is without controversy: His sense for music.

Jonah Dempcy describes the sound of Revolution Void as "Electronic Breakbeat Jazz". But what is Breakbeat?

Breakbeat is a specific rhythm, which consists of old drum extracts often played as a "Loop", which simply means its played frequently consecutively. That is exactly what Jonah Dempcy is doing: Through exact cutting he links seamlessly various samples in order to play them as a loop - He literally "breaks the beats".

In this way he created seven albums: His first EP "Viva la Revolucion" (1999) contains quick rhythms, is fully Electronica and without big Jazz influences.

The album "Invisible Walls" than is more jazzy: The result is a fascinating combination of electronic music and modern jazz, so called Acidjazz. Amongst others in this album is his far most popular song "Invisible Walls" included, which has more than half million listens on Jamendo.

"Like a Secret Dream" (2000) is a real full length album having no track under 5 minutes. It is difficult to classify like all albums from Dempsy: The easiest way is to call it "Downtempo", what is slightly comparable to Ambient, chill out music. It is characterized by slow tempi and atmospheric beats.

The album "Increase the Dosage" (2004) features for the first time guest performances by prominent musicians: Michael Shrieve, the former drummer of Santana, laid down drum tracks on this album. Additionally he also worked together with Seamus Blake (the Mingus Big Band) and Matthew Garrison (Herbie Hancock). The album was one his most successful releases sold out early and had been published in a second edition, 2006.

"Increase the Dosage combines breakbeat and melodic electronica in a charming way that makes for something not only worth listening to, but also something you’ll keep coming back to for years to come." Alex Young, Milieu Blog

With "Increase the Dosage" he is consolidating his style, which you can't better classy as "Nu Jazz": "Thread Soul" (2006) continues this genre. Songs like "Ventus Solaris" or "Biomythos" are Nu Jazz at his finest. This time Dempcy worked together with Lucas Pickford (Brian Blade, Tiger Okoshi) and Cochemea Gastelum (Fred Wesley, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress).

"The Politics of Desire" (2008) establishes the Nu Jazz even more. This album reminds of bands like the Gotan project, who are also delivering this kind of a Electronica/Jazz symbiosis.

"Let 1,000 Flowers Bloom" (2011) is the so far last album of Revolution Void. It features 28 new songs written and produced by Jonah Dempcy. Guest musicians are Yuriko Miyamoto, Kazumi Yokoyama, David Levin, Jonathan Micklos, Darryl Estes.

It is not surprising that Dempcy dedicates some of his songs to John Coltrane, the great jazz saxophonist and pioneer of free jazz, and Sun Ra, one of the most prolific avant-garde jazz artists of all time. With Dempcy's oeuvre he is following their footsteps being an progressive experimental artists as well. Furthermore he also states Cannonball Adderley, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Brad Mehldau as big inspirations. All this influences coming together, Revolution Void sounds like the American Jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, DJ Shadow, DJ Cam or jazz luminary Herbie Hancock.

All the music of Revolution Void and Jonah Dempcy's other "side" projects called Jonah Dempcy, Silver Server and Ferraux are published by the record label Cheshire, which also belonged to Dempcy himself. At the moment Jonah Dempcy is working on a new release of Revolution Void, which he called new "house tunes".

If you want to get further information about Jonah Dempcy or Revolution Void visit Jamendo, myspace, facebook, twitter or their official websites jonahdempcy.com / revolutionvoid.com .

Listen to our portrait of Revolution Void!