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AstroGroove is an improvising collective that explores electro acoustic music from organic break beat to drum n' bass. Haunting textures, drum breakdowns, blistering solos, sound paintings, rhythmic explorations and breakneck jungle beats. Three multi-instrumentalists who never lose sight of the GROOVE.
‘The boundaries of technology are pushed to the extreme and the listener is shown lush galaxies through a telescope called Astrogroove.’ Exclaim!
‘like whirling naked through space..’ Robert Everett Green – Globe & Mail
‘Supersonic space beats. Astrogroove take off by mixing jazz with modern grooves’ eye weekly.
‘The music, which has reference points to modern musical scientists like Bill Laswell and Amon Tobin, also hearkens back to the days when musicians first started to fuse man and machine.’ Ottawa Express
Their pedigree checks out, but the music checks out too. Some of the best electronica to come out of Toronto is a long while.’ Spill Magazine
‘Live jazz-inflected jungle with an improvisational bent’ Toronto Star
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Richard Underhill’s wonderful warm alto sound, great writing and arranging skills and in-from-the-outside soloing make him one of Canada’s most distinctive jazz performers. His latest album Kesnington Suite has garnered significant critical acclaim and has been nominated for a 2008 Juno Award and his 2nd album Moment in Time was also nominated for a Juno Award in 2007.
Richard was awarded the Roy Thomson Hall Award of Recognition in 2008 for his contribution to the community arts scene in Toronto. He won a 2003 Juno Award for his jazz debut Tales from the Blue Lounge and was nominated for the Prix du Jazz at the 2003 Montreal Jazz Festival. Co-founder of the Shuffle Demons, has over the past twelve years performed at over 100 Jazz, Folk, and Rock festivals in Canada, Europe and Cuba. His preference has always been the blending of different styles of music through improvisation, and he has recently begun exploring digital sound manipulation. His sampling sources include distorted animal sounds, sound effects, movie soundtracks, and groovesource albums.
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Versatile and visionary,Bryant Didier has created his career fabulous sense of groove. Skilled at music arrangement, composition, multi-instrumental performance and production, recording studio engineering, computer programming, song and creative writing.
As a live performer, he has worked with some of the most talented and best known Canadian and International musicians including :Jane Siberry , Billy Newton Davis, Tom Cochrane, Jaymz Bee, Bruce Cockburn, Carole Pope, Liberty Silver, Micah Barnes, Holly Cole, Michael Danckert, Molly Johnson, Kaleefa, Mary Margaret O'Hara, The Extras, Jackie Richardson, Tom Barlow, Levitasion , Kiran, P'etra among many others. Ranging from punk and new wave sounds with Drastic Measures to performing live in Stratford with Harlem Duet, Bryant’s adaptability is remarkable.
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Great Bob Scott is respected nationwide as one of the hardest grooving and most animated drummers in Canada. His talents have been showcased in stints with N.O. M. A. and his current involvement with the Excalceolators. He is perhaps best know for his creative and explosive drumming work with the Look People and the Royal Jelly Orchestra, and as the charismatic music lover in the 'Songbird' commercials.
BOB has worked with musical acts such as, Holly Cole, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bob Wiseman, John Oswald, Pizzicato Five, Nash the Slash, The Shuffle Demons, The Rheostatics, John Bottomley, Michael Buble, Damo Suzuki (CAN), Peter Appleyard, Bern Nix (Ornette Coleman), John Southworth, Colin Linden, the German Smurfs and many others. He has also worked with a number of well-known comedians including Jim Carrey, Harland Williams, Judy Tenuta, and Sean Cullen.
