LOGOS

Few electronic musicians today transcend genre with as distinct and epic a style as LOGOS. The group weaves together a rich tapestry of sounds, drawing influences from psychedelic trance and house music, but also from world music, progressive rock, and even modern classical music. Influences as diverse as Shpongle, Peter Gabriel, Tool, and J.S. Bach can all be heard in the music of LOGOS, yet the group maintains a highly unique sound that defies simple categorization. Most of all, LOGOS is known for taking their listeners on a musical journey through sonic landscapes of the imagination.

But it all began with silence. The year was 2000 and PanDoor, the group's founder, had left his home in the mountains of southern Appalachia to travel around the world on his own inner journey. It was at a spiritual school in Australia, during a weeklong silent meditation, that the first seeds of the musical vision that would become LOGOS were sewn.

The idea was simple: that organic sounds, such as the human voice and recordings of nature, could be woven together with synthesized sounds to create a synergy that transcended typical electronic music. That idea became a guiding force as PanDoor began taking his music into new directions. He named this new experiment LOGOS after the ancient Greek concept of the Word as the creative, organizing force in the cosmos.

When he returned to his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, PanDoor began writing compositions that blended the worlds of electronic and organic music. In 2002, he released Tome Poems, a collection of ambient pieces that incorporated atmospheric nature sounds, flutes, elaborately layered vocal improvisations and knob-tweaking psychedelic synth sounds.

But even as he was developing his ambient experiments, another influence was growing: the burgeoning psychedelic trance scene that was starting to take root in Asheville. PanDoor felt an immediate affinity with the shifting melodies and hypnotic rhythms of psy trance and his atmospheric work became increasingly uptempo and darker. Tome Poems was followed by the 2003 release Biophelia, a much more beat-driven album that was well-received within the local psy trance community.

Though it still featured some vocal elements and live instruments, Biophelia represented a distinct break from LOGOS' previous efforts. More elaborately produced and ambitious in scale, the album marked a dramatic step in his musical evolution and secured his place as an up-and-coming producer in the local trance scene. The album was particularly popular among artists, many of whom said that listening to it while they worked fueled their creativity. LOGOS began playing live more regularly, performing at several trance festivals as well as various local venues.

However, after this initial success, PanDoor took a long hiatus to hone his skills and to complete a bachelor's degree in piano peformance. It was during this period that he began crafting what would become his greatest work to date, the 2008 album Symbignosis.

A musical odyssey four years in the making, Symbignosis blended analog synthesizers and digital beats with violins, piano, didjeridoo, vocals, live percussion and other organic sounds to weave a rich sonic atmosphere. And more than any of his previous works, Symbignosis presented a strong sense of narrative, taking the listener to such far-flung territories as the birth of the cosmos, the misted realms of a lost world, and the isle of the Psywrens, where the egos of bold adventurers are smashed upon the rocks of cosmic consciousness.

Symbignosis also marked a shift from LOGOS as a solo project to a band, as PanDoor was joined by drummer John Mulholland, multi-instrumentalist Liam Niblack, and violinist Michael D'elia.

PanDoor can be reached at: (828) 242-4701
or email: logos@logosmusic.net
www.logosmusic.net