Eloy Fritsch

Wikipedia:

Eloy Fernando Fritsch (born 1968) is an electronic musician, keyboard player and main composer of Brazilian progressive rock band Apocalypse and as a solo artist he creates cosmic New Age music.

History

Since his childhood he has been studying music and researching on new sounds through synthesizers in order to express his electronic compositions. In 1983 Fritsch formed progressive rock band Apocalypse. They are considered pivotal in the development of progressive rock in south of Brazil.

In 1992, he moved to Porto Alegre and began his solo project composing Electronic music. His first official solo album was Dreams, recorded in 1994 and 1995. During 1997, he released his second solo album, Behind the Walls of Imagination, which showcases his skills with various electronic and acoustic keyboard instruments. In the mid-1990s, Fritsch secured a recording contract with French Label Musea. His third album for them, Space Music, was released in 1998.

The composer reveals his sci-fi style with Cyberspace. In this album Fritsch offers instrumental music of seventies inspired keyboard symphonic/electronic progressive music. Fritsch performs an electronic music that evolves between Vangelis´ ambient and impressionist electronic, and the synthesised progressive rock of masters such as Rick Wakeman. Nevertheless, Fritsch has found his own style within melodic electronic music framework. The compositions are very melodic and emotive, with multi-layered instrumental textures/voicings and solidly coherent arrangements.

Fritsch has earned a PhD in Computer music, and has served as a teacher of Electronic Music at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). During 1999, Fritsch created the Electronic Music Center in the Institute of Arts at UFRGS.

Parallel his work as keyboard player of the group Apocalypse and his academic activity, Fritsch release through Musea and Rock Symphony labels the album Mythology, a large variety of truly original musical works in which he brought to full maturity the use of sinthesizers to compose melodic electronic music. This ambitious work justly uses the whole panel of his electronic sounds to depict fifteen tracks exclusively dedicated to the different gods worshipped in the past. The Brazilian, Mesopotamian, Hindu, Amerindian, Inca, African, Greek, Egyptian, Scandinavian, Roman or Chinese are outlined in Mythology album by an instrumental composition. Thanks to his panoply of keyboards including a Roland System-700 Laboratory Modular Synthesizer, Eloy Fritsch has been able to free his imagination. Eloy Fritsch's love of the sky inspired him to compose the electronic suite Atmosphere (2003). Once again the composer reveals his ecological convictions: he presently defends the virtues of the gas envelope that allow everyone to live on Earth: the Atmosphere. In this album every track is choc full of sumptuous melodies and luxuriant layers of keyboards. Landscapes (2005) was Fritsch's next work to emerge on disc and is a powerful electronic/ instrumental album that maintains a reverent sense of wonder.

In 2007 Eloy Fritsch wrote the book "Electronic Music" that was released in 2008 during the Book Fair in Porto Alegre. The book is accompanied by a DVD containing the electroacoustic compositions Synapse 5.1, Synthetic Horizon, Public Market, Indian Sampler, Mystery and Silicon Child created during his research in Electronic Music Center at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Eloy Fritsch received the Açorianos Music Awards. The awards ceremony happened on April 28, 2008, Tuesday night at the São Pedro Theater, Porto Alegre, Brazil. The Açorianos Music Awards honor the best albums, musicians and contributions to the music in South o Brazil. The ceremony was broadcast on television and event production presented a short film about the music and artistic works of the composer.

In 2009 Eloy Fritsch played keyboards in several concerts with the Apocalypse. He also released the album The Garden of Emotions. Musea company distributed the CD in Europe. The recorded company wrote the following lines about the album: “The ninth album The Garden Of Emotions presents symphonic themes with choirs, analog and digital synthesizers dominating. Fans of classic VANGELIS, Jean-Michel JARRE and Rick WAKEMAN works will enjoy this. Some of the more solemn themes remind Isao TOMITA. "Lumine Solis" is one of the best compositions and a choir-laden track. "Solar Energy" introduces a spacier atmosphere, with phasing pads and Berlin School sequences. This is pure electromic music and a very good one, with all sorts of really fat analog timbres. "Beyond The Mountains" is a very cinematic and return to the classically-inspired structures, with an extra ethnic elements. "Electric Light" is synthetic and even KRAFTWERK-like, with insisting sequences, vocoders and a simple repeating melodic theme. Flutes, marimba sound and percussion welcome the coming of "Savage" before a melodic synthesizers theme appears. "Space Station" is another foray into a purely synthetic world and you could also draw a comparison with Jean-Michel JARRE"s "Chronologie". "The Canyon Of Hope" finishes this album with flowing synthesizers, symphonic textures and a reflective electric piano”.

In the same year Fritsch was also honored on the Journey of Literature event in the Passo Fundo city, Brazil. The composer, received the trophy Vasco Prado.

In 2010 Fritsch worked on two major projects: In the production of The Apocalypse 25th Anniversary Box Set (2 CDs, 1 DVD and the book about the Apocalypse Hystory) and the MCT Project - Music, Science and Technology funded by the Brazilian government. Fritsch has created the Brazilian Virtual Museum of Synthesizer www.ufrgs.br/mvs and a documentary film about electronic music to be distributed to schools and music teachers. He also created an exhibition of Electronic Music at the Museum of the University. The exhibition at the Museum received seven thousand visitors.

Selected discography

With Apocalypse

Solo works

Compilations featuring Eloy Fritsch

Keyboards used by Fritsch

Throughout his albums Fritsch uses several instruments. Some of these are: