MIR are Daniel Buess on drums, Papiro on strings and Michael Zaugg on Synths. No vocals needed, since all musicians use a large variety of electronic instruments along with more conventional rock equipment. Their shows are forceful and physical. If we were still in the 80s or 90s, we could place MIR somewhere close to the Avantgarde section: Japan-Noise, New York No Wave, British combat easy-listening à la Coil, the Arizona-madness of Sun City Girls or atonal German Sound-Brainfuck. This might all sound terribly heady and complex, but if anything, it is refreshingly simple and in-your-face. Onstage, MIR pick out the single listener and hypnotize him with metallic sound-lassos, until the audience find themselves swirling in blissful ecstasy – or running for the emergency exit. The refreshing thing about MIR is their un-intellectual handling of intellectually loaded music. Their dark soundscapes conjure up cinematic visions in the vein of early Andrey Tarkowski or David Lynch’s «Eraserhead». It is also beautiful to see how the band occasionally enjoy drifting into Punk territory. MIR is probably the most compact, most positive and loudest Experimental Rock Music in a long while.
Founded in 2005, by the time they met they were already well acquainted with experimental forms of bruitage. Daniel Buess is percussionist and founder member of Ensemble Phoenix, a renowned ensemble for contemporary music, and has also been drumming in a latter version of legendary noise pioneers 16-17. Papiro and Michael Zaugg forged their own bad reputation as some of the more radical drone musicians around. In the past they have been on stage or collaborating with the likes of John Duncan, Tim Hodgkinson, Zbigniew Karkowski, Mani Neumeier, Phill Niblock, Pere Ubu, Psychic TV, P-Train (west-african percussions), Martin Rev, E.A.R./Sonic Boom, Damo Suzuki, Kasper Toeplitz, The Young Gods and Zu amongst others.
