Artist/Band: Chris Meyer’s Alias Zone
Music Genre: Jazz
Other Genre: electronic, cinematic, ambient
Websites or Social Media Pages
https://aliaszone.bandcamp.com/album/finite-space
https://www.facebook.com/LearningModular/
Chris Meyer’s Alias Zone: Bios
The main version, including the motivation behind the music:
Chris Meyer has led three lives in the music industry: creating electronic music instruments and tools for companies like Sequential, Digidesign, and Roland (including inventing Vector Synthesis while at Sequential); teaching electronic music synthesis through numerous magazine articles, online courses, and his website http://LearningModular.Com ; and now performing his unique vision of emotional, impressionistic electronic music under the name Alias Zone.
Each of Chris’ compositions is based on a story that informs its creation. He starts with a sonic image that captures his imagination: a complex sound, an alluring rhythm, or a field recording that documents a specific time and place. The story they hint at then becomes the touchstone that determines each layer Chris adds to the piece, be they richly textured ambient environments, unique sounds he programs on his modular synthesizers, exotic percussion, and more. His goal is to convey emotions of mystery, longing, and joy, creating a deeply human experience.
In contrast to many electronic music composers who focus primarily on studio work, virtually all Alias Zone tracks to date have been conceived as live performances, and are then later edited and overdubbed into album form.
Alternate Bios:
Short bio:
Chris Meyer has designed electronic music devices for several companies, including inventing Vector Synthesis. He currently teaches fellow musicians how to use modular synthesizers through his site Learning Modular plus by co-authoring the book Patch & Tweak, and performs a unique brand of emotional electronic music under the name Alias Zone.
Medium bio:
In a few of his alternate lives, Chris Meyer has designed electronic music devices for the likes of Sequential and Roland, was technical chairman of the MIDI Manufacturers Association, wrote for several music industry magazines, and most recently taught fellow musicians how to use modular synthesizers through his site Learning Modular plus by co-authoring the book Patch & Tweak. In this current version of reality, he combines synthesizers, samplers, field recordings, and percussion instruments to create sweeping, emotional electronic music under the name Alias Zone.
Long bio:
As a teenager in the 70s, Chris Meyer took lessons on piano, bass, and modular synthesizers. He went on to write code and help design products for Sequential Circuits, Digidesign, Tom Oberheim’s Marion Systems, and Roland R&D where he was chief engineer. He is perhaps best known as the creator of Vector Synthesis. Chris also taught synthesis at UCLA Extension, wrote numerous articles for Music Technology Magazine plus a column for Keyboard Magazine, and was technical chairman of the MIDI Manufacturers Association, where he authored several additions to the spec, including MIDI Time Code. After a two-decade detour in the video and film industry, he recently returned to modular synthesis, creating videos, courses, and articles under the name Learning Modular, and co-authored the popular book Patch & Tweak. Proving that one who teaches can also “do”, most recently, he has been focusing on composing and performing sweeping, emotional electronic music under the name Alias Zone, which combines synthesizers, samplers, field recordings, and percussion instruments.
Recent and Upcoming Performances
Chris Meyer is an active performer, originally streaming from his studio during Covid and now playing in person – often in quadraphonic sound. Alias Zone performances have been described as amazing,’ ‘nuanced,’ ‘transcendent,’ being in a whole other class,’ and ‘one of the finest live electronic sets I have ever witnessed.’
This is how Steve Roach reviewed Chris’ performance at the April 2023 edition of his Ambient Lounge:
“Chris Meyer created a masterful journey in his deeply personal style. Taking the rapt audience through a myriad of soundworlds in what felt like the tour of a sound gallery of timbral engagement and a nuanced orchestration that was a delight to the ears and imagination. The infusion of selected acoustic percussion fed into the modular food chain added to the organic mojo within the machines. As the last sound particle faded to the close, the audience was there hanging onto every sound molecule in the fade to silence.”
Other recent and upcoming performances include:
The Gatherings (September 2025)
Steve Roach’s SoundQuest Fest and Ambient Lounge
Phoenix Synthesizer Festival (opening for Steve Roach)
Albuquerque Museum (opening for Michael Stearns)
Slingshot Festival
Electrowave Festival (headline act Friday night)
Mountain Skies
Currents New Media Festival
Synthplex
SoundMiT
SynthFest France
Current performance plans are regularly updated on the Alias Zone home page. Chris is seeking contacts and suggestions for other bookings in the second half of 2025 and beyond.
Chris Meyer,
What Musical Genre Do You Feel Best Describes Your Music And How Would You Describe Your Sound?
I create a uniquely cinematic form of electronic music, incorporating elements from ambient, Berlin School, world music, and even elements of classical and jazz.
How Did You Get Your Name? Is There A Story?
When sound is converted to a digital format and played back, two versions of the sound now exist: the normal version we are used to hearing, and an “alias” of it that resides higher in frequency than the original sound, with the arrangement of its harmonics (the basic components of a sound) turned upside-down.
We often don’t hear this ghost-like alias. But sometimes, it exists on the subliminal edge of our hearing; other times, it harshly dominates the original sound. The “alias zone” is the border between this alternate reality and the original version.
What Are or Have Been Your Musical Influences?
I was originally influenced by the original, 1970s version of Berlin School electronic music, including Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, as well as the Fourth World music of Jon Hassell – especially in my use of exotic percussion. Nowadays I am influenced by modern versions of that music created by the likes of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, and Michael Stearns.
What Are You Working On Now? Any Future Collaborations We Can Look Forward To?
I have a “dark ambient” album with solos by Robert Rich and Michael Stearns waiting for me to find time to finish it properly. I also have requests to collaborate with others that I hope to get to next year.
What Is Your Ultimate Goal In The Music Industry? What Is Your Plan Of Action?
I create music that I personally want to listen to over and over again. If I succeed, then I want to share it with others. In addition to releasing albums of my music, I perform multiple times a year in the quest to reach new ears with my music. There are no plans for world dominance; I just want to share the storytelling and dream-like states I try to create with my work.
What Is Your Favorite Track To Perform Live and Why?
Currently, it is a new piece called Paradise Lost. It contains several sections and energy level shifts that are fun to move between while performing. (A video of me playing this piece in a holographic video cube at the inaugural Wavetrails Festival can be found here: https://youtu.be/u95ej1Y2LoM?si=IZ8XOVa_DmZOrfx3)
What Has Been The Biggest Challenge In Your Career Thus Far?
Reinventing myself. In the 1980s and ‘90s, I was known for designing electronic musical instruments and related technologies; earlier this year, I received a Lifetime Achievement Award for my work in the early days of MIDI (the Musical Instrument Digital Interface). In the 2000s and 2010s, I was known as an award-winning computer graphics artist with our company Cybermotion (later renamed Crish Design). During this period I was also known as an educator, both in the fields of electronic music and computer graphics, having co-authored 14 books so far. But it wasn’t until 2019 that I started composing and performing my own solo electronic music. It’s been like starting over, which is both invigorating and frustrating at times.
What’s Your Typical Songwriting Process?
My music is all about scene-setting and storytelling – even if it’s not a literal place or storyline such as “I love you.”
I like to start with a sound or idea that catches my ear or imagination. It may be an Aztec poem, a Cold War spy broadcast, an experiment in my studio, a particular rhythmic pattern, or even something as simple as a terra cotta pot being struck. From this starting point, I like to build a story: researching the background of the sounds, and conjuring up my own alternate or “alias” narratives to flesh out the resulting sonic world.
Individual sections are composed, rehearsed, and arranged into a linear story arc and then usually performed straight through – either live or on video as part of a webcast concert – instead of the usual studio practice of adding a layer at a time. These pieces are then edited, mixed, and lightly overdubbed to create the final pieces that appear on my album releases.
How Has Social Media Influenced Your Career As An Artist?
It’s been a great way to reach and communicate with new, current, and future fans – to give them some insight into how I work and let them know where I’ll be playing next. The flip side is doing social media or any form of promotion takes away from what could be spent writing, recording, and releasing new music – it’s a difficult balancing act that I still haven’t mastered.
What Are Some Tracks and Artists Currently On Your Playlist?
Pretty much anything by Steve Roach, Robert Rich, and Michael Stearns. I still listen to classic Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze – albums like Ricochet and Mirage, respectively. Going back and listening to Jorge Reyes and Tuu refreshes the “primal” side I like to explore. But I also listen to some probably unexpected influences, such as Hawkwind (Space Ritual, Warrior on the Edge of Time, Hall of the Mountain Grill) and King Crimson (Starless and Bible Black being my favorite).
What Did You Do Before You Started Making Music?
As I mentioned earlier, I used to create and teach how to use electronic musical instruments! They say those who cannot teach; I admit that it took me a while to get enough confidence and comfort with my own compositions before I was ready to share them as well. I also spent a couple of decades working with my wife, Trish, creating motion graphics for video, film, and trade shows.
Any Advice For Young People (Men or Women) That Want To Succeed In The Music World?
When I was young and announced that I wanted a career in music, friends and family all told me that I didn’t want to do that – I’d just be a starving musician, or sweeping the floors of a recording studio. So instead, I got an engineering degree and intended for music to be just a side hobby – but one year out of college, I was an engineer at a company that made musical instruments! So I guess my advice is if you can’t make a living as a musician right off the bat, try to get a music-adjacent job so you are at least still in touch with the industry – it will make it much easier to transition fully into it later.
What Would You Change In The Music Industry If You Were A Top Music Executive?
The rates for streaming music services! It’s absolutely criminal how little musicians make off of streams compared to physical sales.
How Do You Feel About Originality?
I was also a painter, working in the abstract style, mainly imitating other artists I admired when an instructor asked me, “What makes you think you have anything new to bring to this field?” Their point was to not imitate but originate: look inside at what were my main interests or influences and synthesize those together in a new form with my own unique voice. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since. The challenge is, if you don’t fit into a neat, already-definite genre, it’s really hard to get picked up by a label radio program stream, or music festival that relies on genres and stereotypes to reach a known audience and market their wares. That frustrates the hell out of me…but it won’t make me derivative just to get attention. If I did, that wouldn’t be me anymore.
Is There Anything Else We Should Know About You Or That You Would Like to Add?
I live at 6800′ in the foothills of a national forest in the mountains of New Mexico. Being surrounded by nature and being able to view so many planets, stars, and even the faint glow of the Milky Way from my deck each evening brings me an immense sense of calm that is the starting point for my creations.
Roughly half of my live performances are in quadraphonic sound, and I just completed building a new studio that is dedicated to creating music in spatial audio formats such as Dolby Atmos. I feel that spatial audio is the future of electronic music, and that it’s the genre best suited for it, as there is no pre-conceived notion of where each instrument should be appearing on the “stage” – instead, the world and all you can imagine is literally your stage.