Jonas Munk

Danish musician Jonas Munk has navigated several paths connecting ambient electronic music and psychedelia over the course of his multi-decade career. He first received recognition for his solo work as Manual, which initially combined brittle beats with warm, dreamy melodies before going down a more free-floating ambient/downtempo vein with his subsequent releases. He formed the short-lived electronic post-rock group Limp, whose members later regrouped as the prolific stoner/space rock band Causa Sui. Munk also teamed up with Auburn Lull's Jason Kolb to form the cosmic ambient/drone duo Billow Observatory. Since the early 2010s, Munk has been releasing Krautrock-inspired solo records under his own name, such as 2015's Absorb/Fabric/Cascade, in addition to multiple collaborations with kindred spirit Ulrich Schnauss, including 2021's Eight Fragments of an Illusion. Born in Odense, Denmark, Munk began playing music with his childhood friends, gradually cycling through hard rock and more abstract music into his teens. Using guitars and some synths and electronic gear, but no computers or samplers, he began making solo electronic music under the name Manual. A self-titled EP appeared on Hobby Industries in 2000, and debut full-length Until Tomorrow arrived on Morr Music, which was fast becoming one of the most well-regarded indie electronic labels, in 2001. 2002's Ascend continued blending glitchy beats and textures with spacious guitars and synths. In the meantime, Munk collaborated with several longtime friends (Jakob Skøtt, Jess Kahr, Rasmus Rasmussen) in a band called Limp, who melded instrumental dream pop/post-rock with IDM. Their only releases were two tracks on Morr Music's Slowdive tribute album Blue Skied an' Clear and the mini-album Orion, both released in 2002. As Manual, Munk released collaborations with Icebreaker International and two of his bandmates, Skøtt (aka Syntaks) and Kahr. Manual releases on labels like Darla, Static Caravan, and Make Mine Music typically featured bright, sunset-adorned cover art, and less of an emphasis on beats than his earlier work, with albums like 2006's Bajamar floating firmly into ambient territory. Munk collaborated with Skøtt and Rasmussen on the album September, released as part of Benbecula's Minerals Series in 2007. Munk and his former bandmates from Limp switched directions with their subsequent group, Causa Sui, who explored improvisatory instrumental rock inspired by Popol Vuh, the Allman Brothers Band, Can, and others. Debuting with a self-titled 2005 effort, Causa Sui released several albums on Elektrohasch Schallplatten (including the three-volume Summer Sessions) before forming their own El Paraiso Records in 2011, and continuing their prolific release schedule. Munk and fellow downtempo/shoegaze-influenced musician Ulrich Schnauss released their first collaboration, Epic, in 2010; it was subsequently referred to as Emotion Meets Expression, Weightless Memories, or simply self-titled. Munk also began a collaboration with Jason Kolb of Michigan space rock band Auburn Lull, called Billow Observatory. Their drone-heavy self-titled debut appeared on Felte in 2012, with two more kosmische-inspired follow-ups later appearing on Munk's Azure Vista Records. Munk participated in other collaborative projects such as Chicago Odense Ensemble (with Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker) and Sun River (with Skøtt and Martin Rude). Munk released his first solo album under his own name, Pan, in 2012, moving in more of a Krautrock/space rock direction than his Manual recordings. His first soundtrack album, Searching for Bill, was released by Darla in 2013. A minimalist solo album titled Absorb/Fabric/Cascade appeared in 2015. Passage, a second collaboration with Schnauss, was released in 2017, and Always Already Here, with Nicklas Sørensen of Danish group Papir, surfaced in 2019. Ellis Munk Ensemble, a jammy collaboration with Brian Ellis, released San Diego Sessions in 2020, and Munk's ambient solo album Minimum Resistance appeared the same year. Eight Fragments of an Illusion, a third album with Schnauss, was issued in 2021.
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