Biography
David Myers adopted the moniker Arcane Device once his experiments with manipulated feedback gained enough attention to require a title. Beginning in 1987 and concluding in 1994, he issued multiple albums and cassette-only works that documented this phase, which he ultimately considered complete.
Growing up amid the Beatles’ dominance, Myers joined a rock band like countless peers of his generation, yet his attention gravitated toward the instrument’s feedback potential and the array of effects units then associated with electronic music in its most literal form. Exposure to Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics and Brian Eno’s ambient recordings prompted him to assemble a custom rig of dials, knobs, and switches salvaged from disparate effects boxes. The resulting textures diverged sharply from conventional notions of feedback, at times resembling synthesizers, rhythm boxes, industrial noise, or ambient drones according to the settings chosen.
In 1987 Myers mailed a tape of his initial trials to Chris Cutler, the onetime Henry Cow member who also operated Recommended Records; Cutler released the material as Engines of Myth the following year. Over the subsequent seven years Myers moved between small independent labels, although Staalplaat later handled compact-disc reissues while Myers’ own Pulsewidth imprint also reissued the catalog. Arcane Device’s palette ranged from near-unbearable noise on 1992’s Diabolis Ex Machina to ambient territory on 1994’s Envoi in Cumin, without following any straight trajectory. The inherently unstable electronics encouraged live performances and spontaneous improvisations beyond the studio.
Myers further worked with other experimental musicians, among them PGR on the 1990 release Fetish—a joint disc rather than a true collaboration—and Asmus Tietchens on 1993’s DBL_FDBK and 1996’s Speiseleitung. After pausing his Arcane Device output in 1994, he resurfaced in 1998 with fresh projects issued under his own name.
Growing up amid the Beatles’ dominance, Myers joined a rock band like countless peers of his generation, yet his attention gravitated toward the instrument’s feedback potential and the array of effects units then associated with electronic music in its most literal form. Exposure to Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics and Brian Eno’s ambient recordings prompted him to assemble a custom rig of dials, knobs, and switches salvaged from disparate effects boxes. The resulting textures diverged sharply from conventional notions of feedback, at times resembling synthesizers, rhythm boxes, industrial noise, or ambient drones according to the settings chosen.
In 1987 Myers mailed a tape of his initial trials to Chris Cutler, the onetime Henry Cow member who also operated Recommended Records; Cutler released the material as Engines of Myth the following year. Over the subsequent seven years Myers moved between small independent labels, although Staalplaat later handled compact-disc reissues while Myers’ own Pulsewidth imprint also reissued the catalog. Arcane Device’s palette ranged from near-unbearable noise on 1992’s Diabolis Ex Machina to ambient territory on 1994’s Envoi in Cumin, without following any straight trajectory. The inherently unstable electronics encouraged live performances and spontaneous improvisations beyond the studio.
Myers further worked with other experimental musicians, among them PGR on the 1990 release Fetish—a joint disc rather than a true collaboration—and Asmus Tietchens on 1993’s DBL_FDBK and 1996’s Speiseleitung. After pausing his Arcane Device output in 1994, he resurfaced in 1998 with fresh projects issued under his own name.
Albums
