Chris Meyer’s Alias Zone
Electronic Press Kit
Photos, a PDF with additional insight, and more may be downloaded by clicking this link.
the latest album
Paradise Lost
We live in an amazing world: The wonderful variety of plants, animals, and people is truly inspirational. That’s what gives Chris Meyer of Alias Zone hope, despite the efforts of some to cover swaths of our planet with concrete and asphalt, or to segregate people by their race, religion, or who they love. Paradise Lost comments on these topics, from the pleas of Buddhists in Tibet to the hopefulness of Native Americans making their pilgrimage on The Barefoot Trail to Zuni Heaven.
Chris combines both real and virtual electronic music synthesizers with both acoustic and electronic percussion instruments plus field recordings of nature to create his uniquely sweeping, impressionistic soundscapes. Each song takes you on a richly layered journey, propelled by a strong undercurrent of beguiling percussion.
Excerpts from Paradise Lost:
The Gathering Storm
Compassion
Paradise Lost
The Barefoot Trail
The initial reaction from fellow musicians has been glowing. Download the PDF version of this press kit for more background.
“With Paradise Lost, Chris Meyer’s Alias Zone contributes an important evolution to the language of cinematic, emotional, organic electronic music. Sweeping melodic and rhythmic arcs, dynamic surprises and orchestral motility combine to reward active listening, while painting an earthbound landscape
of broad-brush vistas and wide open skies.”
– Robert Rich
“Cinematic and extra-worldly, each track inspires the listener to close their eyes. To think. To feel. To travel through the mind to a place where compassion is
the lead instrument.“
– Cynthia Malaran (aka DJ CherishTheLuv)
“This is my fave work of yours! Great, amazing, and personal music.
Excellent production as well. A brilliant listen.”
– Jeff Rona
Chris Meyer of Alias Zone
Chris Meyer has led three lives in the music industry: creating electronic music instruments and tools for companies like Sequential, Digidesign, and Roland (including inventing Vector Synthesis); teaching electronic music synthesis through numerous magazine articles, online courses, and his website LearningModular.com; and now performing his own unique vision of emotional, impressionistic electronic music under the name Alias Zone.
Each of Chris’ compositions is based on a story that informs its creation. He starts with a sonic image that captures his imagination: a complex sound, an alluring rhythm, or a field recording that documents a specific time and place. The story they hint at then becomes the touchstone that determines each layer Chris adds to the piece, be they richly textured ambient environments, unique sounds he programs on his modular synthesizers, exotic percussion, and more. His goal is to convey emotions of mystery, longing, and joy, creating a deeply human experience.
In contrast to many electronic music composers who focus primarily on studio work, virtually all Alias Zone tracks are conceived as live performances, and are then later edited into album form.
(Alternate bios are also available in the downloadable version of this press kit.)
Recent & Upcoming Performances
Chris Meyer is an active performer, originally streaming from his studio during Covid and now playing in person – often in quadraphonic sound. Alias Zone performances have been described as “amazing,” “nuanced,” “transcendent,” being in “a whole other class,” and “one of the finest live electronic sets I have ever witnessed.”
This is how Steve Roach reviewed Chris’ performance at the April 2023 edition of his Ambient Lounge:
“Chris Meyer created a masterful journey in his deeply personal style. Taking the rapt audience through a myriad of soundworlds in what felt like the tour of a sound gallery of timbral engagement and a nuanced orchestration that was a delight to the ears and imagination. The infusion of selected acoustic percussion fed into the modular food chain added to the organic mojo within the machines. As the the last sound particle faded to the close, the audience was there hanging onto every sound molecule in the fade to silence.”
Other recent and upcoming performances include:
- The Gatherings (September 2025; headline act)
- Steve Roach’s SoundQuest Fest and Ambient Lounge
- Phoenix Synthesizer Festival (opening for Steve Roach)
- Albuquerque Museum (opening for Michael Stearns)
- Electrowave Festival (headline act first night)
- Wavetrails Festival (headline act first night)
- Slingshot Festival
- Mountain Skies
- Currents New Media Festival
- Synthplex
- SoundMiT
- SynthFest France
Current performance plans are regularly updated on the Alias Zone home page. Chris is seeking contacts and suggestions for other bookings in the second half of 2025 and beyond. Chris’ technical requirements are included in the downloadable version of this press kit.
MEDIA
photos
Below are a selection of web-resolution photos in square, landscape, and horizontal orientations that you may use. Click on a photo to see it full screen; right-click to download it. These images plus additional selections – including high resolution versions, plus the Alias Zone logo – are also available in the downloadable files folder. (If they do not initially appear below, re-load your browser.)
video
Above is a live performance inside a holographic video cube at the inaugural Wavetrails Festival
for the piece “Paradise Lost” – the title track from the latest album
the previous album
Finite Space
The “space race” promised us the infinite possibilities of the planets, stars, and galaxies of outer space. However, much of our use of that space has turned inward: from terrestrial communications satellites. to both cold and hot wars contesting the finite space of our own planet.
Finite Space takes the well-known electronic genres of Space Music and Berlin School as its jumping-off point, and extends them with touches of jazz, classical, and world musics, each serving Chris’ melodic, atmospheric, cinematic approach to aural storytelling.