VWAM

VWAM (née Vancouver Women’s Ambient Music Collective), was created in Vancouver as a byproduct of activism regarding the city’s renowned housing crisis, which has affected many artists and musicians. The collective also sought to remedy the gender imbalance in electronic music by providing an environment where women feel welcome within a male-dominated domain. Open jams yielded a fresh sound and VWAM soon became a performing and recording artist with four core members.

VWAM engages a community of active explorers in the science of music, sound and evolving human consciousness. The group’s members holistically draw on diverse artistic, musical and technical skills and backgrounds in shaping their sound. (See also a related blog entry.)

The group’s first album, Amphibian Star, is an unbridled dive into creative electronic music. In the vast world of electronica, techno and ambient music, Star has a rare confluence of high energy, a light-hearted disposition, organic melding of synthetic sounds and superb technique.

Buy Amphibian Star on Bandcamp. — Buy *Amphibian Star* on Bandcamp.

VWAM’s second release, Les Fleurs du Mal, was social-distance recorded during the Spring and Summer of Covid19. As Vancouver went into full shutdown, flowers began to stand out boldly in the midst of unfamiliar absences. A dark mood hung over the riot of their brilliance and among them lurked stingers, poisoners and mad stranglers with bewildering perfumes that lured susceptible admirers to their doom. The tracks that make up this album were collaged together remotely from material collected through file-sharing and occasional duo recording sessions and feature feral vocals and hand-made percussion as well as VWAM’s usual synthesizers. Each track evolved over several months and is distinct yet complementary, a world unto itself, like the flowers.