VNV Nation Tickets London

About VNV Nation

VNV Nation is an Irish alternative electronic project led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter, and producer. VNV Nation's sound combines lyrics with sounds that ranges from melodic industrial dance anthems, to haunting ballads and post-classical soundtrack pieces. Their 2015 album Resonance: Music For Orchestra Vol. 1 achieved #4 Classical & #3 Classical Crossover Billboard chart positions in the US. The "VNV" in the name stands for "Victory Not Vengeance," in keeping with the group's motto, "One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret."

Ronan Harris was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, where he was exposed to electronic music via radio programmes from which he developed an interest in bands such as Kraftwerk, DAF, and The Human League. In 1983, he joined a band named Die Fabrik, whose punk-inspired noise and synth style was not well received in Dublin. By 1987, Harris moved to London where, in 1989, he began to compose music under the name Nation - a 1984-inspired, electronic orchestral music project. Harris relocated to Toronto, Canada in 1990, but his music output stagnated until 1994 when he revived Nation, modified by his newfound motto: "Victory Not Vengeance" to become VNV Nation.

The group's first release, Advance and Follow, came out in 1995. Advance And Follow featured industrial electronic beats heavily influenced by middle-era EBM acts such as Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, along a mixture of danceable synthesizer melodies, and elements of orchestral music. Although it was the band's first full-length release, Harris regards Advance and Follow more as a set of demos than a proper album. In 2001, it was re-released as Advance and Follow 2.0, with updated production, re-recorded vocals, and five bonus tracks, which include two Front 242 covers.

Their next release, Praise the Fallen in 1998, continued largely in this vein, and they began to enjoy a larger degree of commercial success.

During that time, Harris also wrote for the online magazine Side-Line, of which he was the webmaster until 1999.

Empires, released in 1999, was their breakthrough album, gaining them widespread commercial success and topping the German DAC charts for seven weeks.Empires expanded on the band's bombastic, melodic synthesizer lines and incorporated tighter song structures. Furthermore, the harsher 'sheet metal instrumentals' of Praise the Fallen were largely gone, and the music as a whole was far more complex with multiple-layered arpeggios and pads. The album was composed using a mix of analog and digital synthesizers, and an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler. Notable analog synthesizers used on the album included the ARP 2600, which was used for most of the sounds on the tracks "Firstlight," "Arclight," and "Standing," the SCI Pro One, and an Oberheim OB-1. Digital synthesizers used were the Roland JP-8000, Access Virus , Korg Trinity, the EMU Proteus 2000 and the Roland JV-1080.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "VNV Nation", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.