EXISTENCE HABIT
Existence Habit, based out of Astoria, OR, is the experimental project of veteran musicians Gregg Skloff, Roger Hayes and Derek Ecklund. Blending freeform improvisation, electroacoustic instruments and electronics, the trio create sonically stimulating soundscapes.

GREGG SKLOFF
Gregg Skloff has played contrabass since 1990. From 1990 to 1995 he took lessons from George Wellington Sr., and also spent three years in Punahou School’s esteemed Symphony Orchestra. Since his move to the Pacific Northwest in 1997, Gregg has played in various improvisational settings with a multitude of musicians, including Nick Bindeman, Gust Burns, Arrington de Dionyso, Kevin Doria, Brad Gibson, Michael Griffen, Paul Hoskin, Jean-Paul Jenkins, Nathan Levine, Evan Miller, Tatsuya Nakatani, Adrian Orange, Kelvin Pittman, Matana Roberts, Ben L. Robertson, Jacob Wick, Bert Wilson, McCloud Zicmuse, and many others. He has devoted his efforts to several rock bands, including Counterfeit Monsters, Thunder!Thunder!Thunder! (a pre-Explode Into Colors project with Claudia Meza and Lisa Schonberg), and Captain’s Daughter; occasionally, he has accompanied B’eirth in the “Symbolist folk” project Birch Book. Gregg has been the featured bassist in the Portland performances of Moe! Staiano’s “End Of An Error” and Gino Robair’s “I, Norton.” In 2009, ESP-Disk released the album Gigantomachia by The Naked Future (featuring de Dionyso, Skloff, pianist Thollem McDonas and drummer John Niekrasz) to international acclaim. Gregg’s work on his own, meanwhile, conjures a uniquely intense and enigmatic mood, whether in the form of his fractured lo-fi (now-defunct) hermit-pop outfit Cloaca Clock or in the swirling storms and sweeping vistas of his solo instrumental performances.

ROGER HAYES
Roger Hayes was involved with various labels and distribution imprints during the late ’90s and early ’00s, including MU Records and Torture Music Records. He is primarily influenced by Electro-Acoustic, Granular Synthesis, and Musique Concrète approaches to sonic composition, but plays heavily effected prepared guitar improv. He collaborated in audio collage with Borut Savski of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2000, releasing The Cobra Sheds Her Skin, and collaborated on releases with both Marco Farina and Daniele Brusaschetto. Roger assisted various other local Northwest recording projects, playing on tracks released from Mesmer, Reversal, Rickshaw (Portland, OR), and Atrophy.
During this time Roger was also involved in compilation recordings from the Czech imprint Napalm Records. Other projects included a series of live performances with prepared guitar artist Bill Horist, with a recording composed of mixes of musique concrète collages titled Tidal Vortex. Previous recordings were released under the name Cyanosis, but this incurred some dispute with a Midwest Brutal Death-Core project of the same name. Since then Roger has recorded and released under the names Cadaver Parts, Loopbasedzero, and self-titled projects, alongside the current project, Existence Habit. A 2002 LP was titled ‘Movie’.

DEREK ECKLUND
Derek Ecklund is an Oregon based multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound artist and digital multimedia developer. Derek also works professionally as a location sound and field recordist. He has involved himself in electronic and digital music creation, improvisation, and sonic experimentation for over 20 years. His Portland-based experimental music project, Mesmer (1995-2004) was put aside in 2004 as he began studying North Indian classical vocal music in 2005. He has studied Hindustani vocal music forms in India and the United States with Gundecha Brothers, Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Michael Stirling. In 2006, Derek developed a digital instrument called the Planetary Sinewave Organ, an instrument consisting of sine wave frequencies that are tuned to planetary orbit cycles. Using hermetic ideas of the music of the spheres and the sonically intoxicating science of the raga music of India, he creates tonal spaces that get inside the listener, bringing the orbit cycles of the planets into frequencies, and projects them down into the ears.

TOTAL LIFE
Total Life is the solo project of Kevin Doria, founding member of the band Growing.
Doria has participated in a number of collaborations with David Bryant (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Jonathan Parant (Fly Pan Am), as well as filmmaker Karl Lemieux. As Total Life, Doria has released several records with Animal Disguise Records, Brownsounds, Debacle Records, and, most recently, Important Records. He has also performed all over the U.S. and Europe. 2013 has been a busy year that has seen the release of 3 records thus far, with two more slated for release early in 2014.