Born: October 22, 1967 Primary Instrument: Saxophone
From whispers to screams, saxophonist and electronic musician Michael Ferrier is scheming to warp your musical reality.
As the saxophonist for Electropolis (featuring Kelly Rossum, Michael O'Brien, and Steve Roehm) Minneapolis' avantfunkpunkacidchazz pioneers, Ferrier explores strange and unpredictable new worlds of sound. Electropolis brings together four musicians from diverse backgrounds to create a sound that is spontaneous, adventurous, and organic. Ultimately, you get to decide what Electropolis is: Not quite jazz. Not really groove. It's not truly rock or punk, or funk. Ambient or trip-hop? Sometimes. Experimental or Skronk Improv? Again, sometimes.
Michael Ferrier also currently performs with Improvised Explosive Device with ex-downtown NYC scenester Chris Cunningham (James Chance, Anton Fier, Gavin Friday, Marianne Faithfull) jamespatrick, Mark Henrickson, Greg Schutte and Chris Bates. IED uses multi media to 'blow up' musical icons or pop culture inflences and recalibrates them for re-consumption, creating lush musical landscapes and intense visual scenery.
As an artist, Ferrier tries to stick with the simple, eschewing the over-intellectualization of experimental and improvisational music, and searches for ways to infuse expressiveness into the machines he employs.
ELECTROPOLIS: Best New Artists of 2003 Nominee -- Minnesota Music Awards
UTNE READER: “If jazz ran helter-skelter through the house of funky rock, Electropolis would be riding piggyback, grabbing a handful of hair. This album is a danceable, can't-wrap-your-head-aroundable fusion of chaos and order. In this context, fusion means the process of atomic nuclei coming together to release unfathomable energy. This music is simultaneously its own invention and the invention of former jazz geeks, a Minneapolis foursome who have juiced up their horns and bass by plugging them into electronic components. Their 'electrosax' and 'electrumpet' are fitting for the uniquely joined form, a sort of experimental rock that transforms itself, jazzlike, in each performance. It's the bomb, chickadees.” --Dan Wahl, UTNE READER April 2006 Issue
“Cool and utterly absorbing.“ --babysue.com
“[Electropolis isn't] afraid to use whatever it takes to add another dimension to their brand of improvisation. That includes taking full advantage of the unexpected squeals that emerge from electronic equipment, both musical and otherwise (they've coaxed notes out of electric typewriters, power drills and mobile phones).
The result is music that's ominous, sexy and surprisingly accessible . . .“ --Ross Raihala, St. Paul Pioneer Press
“Improvised Explosive Device walks the line between improvising structured rhythms and melodies and pure sound painting. (They) leave traditional musical taxonomy a bit at a loss. . . a luscious soundscape; by the end of their set, I was drifting right along with them. . . .” --Paul Cantrell, Minnesota Public Radio
“[Improvised Explosive Device] is a 'spontaneous visual and aural remix of microhouse grooves, surrealistic dream cinema, and virtuosic skronk funk that has not been seen or heard anywhere before.' Their groundbreaking approach redefines music by combining electronics with acoustics, found sounds, and imagery in a strange brew of conventional rhythms and conceptual sound and video structures.“--Erin Belling WAKE Magazine
