For nine long years, James Hofer has carried the name Viva Non like a banner through Winnipeg’s wind-swept silence: first as a herald of synthpop’s sweet ache and the painted poise of new romanticism, now as a lone architect of instrumental incantations. His forthcoming EP, Nature, a brief but bristling bouquet of four originals and one spectral remix, arrives as a slow-burning ceremony, speaking through circuits, stammering through steel, and sighing through static.
The second single, the haunting instrumental Encircle (Filmmaker Remix), finds its echo through the lens of Filmmaker: a remix less reimagined than re-enchanted. Here, precision cuts close to the bone: basslines bend like iron under pressure, tones hum like electric wires in winter. There is rhythm, yes, but also a reluctant grace: a layer of near-silent white hiss that coats the piece in frost, keeping it always just out of reach, just past the grasp of easy meaning.
Cool, Kraftwerk-sque control murmurs underneath, while the ghost of early EBM grits its teeth in the margins in eerie, faint chorals. But the voice is Hofer’s: muted, meticulous, and midnight-bound. The tracks from Nature were made for late hours, for long roads, for moments when words are a burden and machines speak plain.
“For the past few years I’ve been DJ’ing quite a bit,” says Hofer. “I got opportunities to play large parties in the 1am slot, and I’ve very much enjoyed introducing EBM, industrial, and wave-infused techno to crowds that are certainly not familiar with these genres. I wanted to create an EP of original tracks that would fit into these kinds of sets. That, simply, is what this release is about.”
Listen to Encircle (Filmmaker Remix) below, out now via Verboden Records. You can listen to the track here.
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