the atomic orchestra

"Lightly inspired by the 1972 animated classic "Fantastic Planet", Erik Culp (with three dimensional sound design by Elma Bello and augmented by members of Chore) doses and kidnaps the listener, taking them on an eerie keyboard voyage through the backwoods of space. An instructional eight-track cassette is played for the victim; it contains gaseous music from melted tapes that could have been encoded with the sounds of 1969-era Pink Floyd, 1978 Gary Numan and the ageless Godspeed You Black Emperor!, wrapped around the sounds of surreal nature television shows. There are so many unexpected twists that at one point the listener might find themselves tripping hard to an ambient Arctic Bill Laswell-type dub-inspired number before falling into a very cool jam ride. When you finally crash, you might find yourself weeping inside some kind of lonely Spanish western. Bravo! - Exclaim! Magazine

Erik Culp, AKA the Atomic Cosmonaut, drifts off into strange musical worlds. The Atomic Cosmonaut isn't up on his technology. "I don't even own a computer, let alone the audio software to create music," says Erik Culp, the multi-instrumentalist mastermind who records under the moniker The Atomic Cosmonaut. It's a surprising statement from Culp, whose music mines the same forward-looking, eclectic-orchestral territory as bands like I Am Spoonbender and Godspeed You Black Emperor! Culp's latest recording, the recently-released A Strange Planet, is a dark journey through 14 tracks of ambient guitar washes, eerie soundscapes and the occasional space-rock freak-out. "I write my tunes the old-fashioned way," says Culp‚ about his creative process. "I just start with a riff, of idea, and build on it. I don't have a pre-conceived idea of what I want to be or do; it just happens." Culp has been involved in a variety of musical genres, including metal, jazz and folk. The disparate influences bleed into his music, suffusing it with a depth missing from many experimental ventures, but Culp doesn't make a conscious effort to be diverse. "I don't deliberately try to incorporate styles into my music," he says, "but I suppose that subconsciously I apply knowledge gained through music that I enjoy... I just have a soft spot for flowing music, rather than verse chorus kind of stuff."
A Strange Planet is loosely inspired by the 1972 animated sci-fi film Fantastic Planet, which details the class struggle between two alien races. Two of the disc's standout tracks, `The Oms (parts I and II),' make direct references to characters from the movie. "I think albums should be heavy on the conceptual side," says Culp, whose style has often been compared to soundtrack music. "Fantastic Planet is an amazingly flowing film, and I tried to capture a similar mood on my album. The film takes you to a beautiful time and place. "I have been [approached] tons of times about scoring, and usually I refuse. You are basically just a whore to the whims of a flaky producer who wants you to change from Calypso to Metal in a heart beat… and that is required, but I'm not willing to compromise my emotion for that." Culp's attitude toward scoring is reflected in his studio work; he is clearly focused on making music his own way, without pandering to the whims of the music industry. "I could care less about mainstream appeal," he says. "I mean less than less. Good audiences will find you if they like you, and they will be more sincere than any N'sync fan." The Atomic Cosmonaut's fiercely independent approach is one that's becoming more widespread
among Canadian acts in particular, with aforementioned Godspeed perhaps the most well-known example. Culp, who has worked extensively with Chris Bell (guitarist and singer for Chore) and other Canadian musicians, says being Canadian has perks, but that exposure is a constant
problem. "I love Canada," he says, "but certain rules of marketing still apply. "I think that if more people had a chance to hear my
music, they would like it."
Interested parties can check out the Atomic Cosmonaut online, or around Ontario in its three-man live incarnation, Mind of a Squid.
- the Queen's Journal

Most independent musicians dread being told not to quit their day job, but not guitarist Erik Culp, a.k.a., The Atomic Cosmonaut. A sound mixer at Riverdale's Tattersall Casablanca Sound, Culp has put trade to task in producing his latest album 'A Strange Planet'. "It was recorded at home, but I used mixing equipment at Casablanca that only major rock groups would have access to," said Culp, 29, who also lives in Riverdale. "It took me a year to put the tracks together after work hours, but I ended up with a professional sound, and saved thousands of dollars in costs along the way." This past Tuesday, Toronto audiences heard material from the all-instrumental 'A Strange Planet', when Culp
performed with his band Mind of a Squid at the Horseshoe Tavern during CFNY-FM's NuMusic Night. The show follows recent performances at the Rivoli for Canadian Music Week, the el Mocambo (now The Tequila Lounge) and returning engagements at the Raven in Hamilton. While skills honed in film and television series (currently 'Blue Murder', 'Beast Master', 'The Associates', 'Queer As Folk') have provided technical polish for the CD, Culp's attention to mood and cinematic narrative in his music
has propelled the album into the Top 10 charts of a number of campus radio stations across Canada, along with mainstream airplay on CBC-FM's Brave New Waves and CFNY. Recording as The Atomic Cosmonaut, 'A Strange Planet' has been considered in certain circles of the independent music scene as an expansion on the atmospheric rock genre, a style of thematic, musical storytelling that, Culp said, can be "traced back to Pink Floyd's 1969 to '71 period." "My work in film has subconsciously led me in this direction," he said. "Even in live performance, I treat music like a story line: a series of acts with a continuing ambiance running through the songs and interludes." Culp said the album was loosely inspired by the 1973 film 'Fantastic Planet', one of the first animated science fiction features - The Mirror

The Atmospheric soundtrack has become a hot commodity over the past few years. Many bands are successfully continuing what Pink Floyd and Ry Cooder began. The Atomic Cosmonaut (aka Erik Culp) can be added to that present list. Culp uses slow and spacy sounds to create a milieu that feels lonesome and desolate. Assisted by Chore's Chris Bell on Drums, Culp's eclecticism surpasses today's atmospheric soundtracks. The lead track is a moderately repetitive guitar strumming over light drums that gradually picks up the pace, only to end with some quiet vibes and "Radar" sounds as if it were heavily influenced by something from Labradford's Mi Media Naranja. The standout track on the album is "The Song of the Dinosaur Shrimp." Eight minutes in length, the song begins with barely anything at all and gradually builds up to metal jam more suited to the aforementioned Chore. - Exclaim! Magazine

Similar Artists: Ry Cooder, Tortoise, Pink Floyd, Isotope 217
Review: Spaced out atmospheric jams feel like a soundtrack to a film shot in the desert. Bright, affected hollow-body guitars are slowly picked as gentle, brushed ride cymbals pull you away from the Western vibrato.
- Listen

The Atomic Cosmonaut, once the solo focused brainchild of Erik Culp, has now grown into a full–fledged orchestra. While the music bridged time and space in a progressive soundtrack to a new kind of sci–fi, this recently founded Atomic Orchestra now similarly bridges cities and membership, time warping to mix old and new playing and players.
While the name may be unfamiliar, conjuring up nuclear classical ensembles to the uninitiated, The Atomic Orchestra have their roots firmly planted in local soil although their travels take them to the outer stratospheres.
“Back in Dunnville, our common status as geeky, left leaning, long–haired, wannabe musicians brought us together,and Mind of A Squid actually started out as a casual jam trio containing Erik, myself, and my brother Chris,” recalls bassist/
keyboardist Mike Bell travelling back in time.
While back in those days the brothers Bell would assist Culp
in bringing his progressive soundtracks to life on Pharmacopoeia
and his most recent release, A Strange Planet, Culp would gravitate to Toronto to foster his burgeoning work in video and to form the full–time band, Mind Of A Squid. Mike and Chris would form Chore with Dave Dunham and Mitch Bowden and use Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon as their launching pad.
Fast forward a decade later and the members of Chore are now onto different projects, while the last incarnation of MOAS seemed to have run its course.
“I have several memories that I will cherish forever, and some that I wish I could forget,” recalls Bell on his life in Chore two plus years after their farewell performance. “We did harbour dreams of indie rock stardom, and in our own uber–underground way, we got to live a bit of that dream out.”
Mike Bell had other things to keep him busy, while Chris Bell
had originally formed his new band, Alive in Living (featuring members of MOAS in its original incarnation). Dunham would help form Don Vail with Bowden as well as the cartoon and cartoonesque Sons Of Butcher animated program and live band
“I really wanted to make the switch from struggling artist to stable homebody, and of course falling head over heels in love and having a day job that I was actually excited about were both conducive to that epiphany,” reflects Bell on his recent marriage and his day job at Sonic Unyon. “Once Chore was off my schedule,I really started to concentrate on my piano playing.
“On their last Western Canadian tour, the tension within MOAS peaked and Erik actually called me from the road to see if I’d be interested in jamming with him and Blas upon their return as a bassist and occasional keyboardist. I jumped at the chance.
We gave it a go and we became the AC3, the Atomic Cosmonaut Trio. Several months later, Erik asked Scott to rejoin the fold.”
So with Culp still as Atomic Cosmonaut handling guitar,
Moog, and synthesizer, Blas Melissari becomes The Atomic Rooster on drums, Scot Bucsis, The Atomic Dandy on Baritone and bass and Mike Bell completes the group as The
Atomic Goose on bass, Rhodes and Synthesizer. The Atomic Orchestra rekindles old relationships and revisits the explorations on The Strange Planet CD.
From their recordings, sounds are subjected to a storyline and the soundtrack thereby becomes more refined and inventive beyond the drones of some of their contemporaries. The grandiose and the scintillating intermingle in a mélange of sound that again melds both western and sci–fi motifs merging old and new. With a treasure map that has its starting point perhaps at the earliest psyche and prog, this Atomic Orchestra ventures to the great unknown but without losing sight of their origins.
“The majority of our arranged material started in Erik’s head
and came out through his gigantic pedal board,” explains Bell.
“His looping and layering of the guitar and synth generate the
waves of the dark lounge/spaghetti western/space sonic pool that we paddle through. We refine and finalize the route taken from end to end as a group effort, but with Erik as the captain. We expand and embellish on what’s already there in our own spontaneous ways.
“A couple different folks came up to us after our first show at the Pepper Jack as AC3 and told us that we took them to a place not unlike Pink Floyd’s (Live at) Pompeii and that’s a pretty hefty compliment to us! Since that show, we’ve put together a set that is a bit more varied in mood and tempo. We’ve got a couple real quick bangers, a few more drawn out pieces and we will also be paying a small tribute to Syd Barrett somewhere in the middle.
We don’t really have a psychedelic light show or anything, it’s just four handsome bastards and their gear.” - Ric Taylor
- VIEW magazine