A new ambient techno duo causing a stir of interest for N-Soul Records are VIRUS. They spoke to Karl Allison.

Virus

These days a CD cover that promises tracks called "Lush", "Ice" and "Solace" can give a fair idea of what's coming before the CD itself ever gets played. It's likely to contain that most extraordinary marriage of the dance floor and the armchair -the ambient techno sound. Greg Young and Stefan Nelson are Virus and they've recently released an album in this very genre. And those track titles belong to them.

Virus have presented the Christian scene with an album that's every bit as instrumental and enigmatic as their non-Christian counterparts. But whilst bands like Future Sound of London and Orbital have Christians worrying about what the underlying influences of their meditational mood pieces might be, Virus seem to have contributed their own piece of sound sculpture with little difficulty.

"We've been getting quite a bit of mail," explains Greg, "and so far everyone's been very excited about the fact that it's instrumental. We've not had any criticism so far. I guess it's more legitimate than they expected it to be."

This might suggest a growing maturity amongst CCM critics, but it is probably connected with the solid spiritual basis for the album. For the album is the outworking of a deeper conviction than that of simply trying to keep up with musical trends. Greg explains: "While I was a worship leader at my church a visiting speaker gave a prophecy to the church that God is going to use music in the coming revival and that this would include specifically instrumental music. It struck a chord with me because I've always loved instrumental music and because I was just starting the Virus project at the time. So it was a kind of confirmation for me."

Greg has been making electronic music since he was 12 years old and by the time the Virus project began to emerge he'd progressed from the basement to his bedroom. But the project had something of a false start. "I put together a tape called 'Infectious' and I was going to release it myself. I took it to the Cornerstone Festival in 1993 but I chickened out at the last minute. It just didn't feel like the right time."

Later that year though Greg met Stefan, a highly accomplished programmer, and the Virus dream finally started to become reality. A mind-boggling list of equipment was relocated to Stefan's bedroom and "Analogue" was recorded straight onto DAT on virtually no budget whatsoever. The album was finished in May '94 and the guys released it themselves on CD. This time, the plans for Cornerstone were followed through and Virus ended up playing an impromptu set. Among those impressed was Greg Hobgood of the Prodigal Sons who passed a copy of the album on to Scott Blackwell. Hence the N-Soul release of 'Analogue'.

"Right now we're working on a project for Scott called 'Ambient Theology'. We're of a techno genre but we're trying to bring more of a songwriting nature into the music. Our influences are people beyond the techno stuff. In fact there's not a whole lot going on in the States as far as the ambient thing goes, so a lot of our influences are from Europe."

Greg is convinced that God has got more ideas for Christian music and that the instrumental will play its part. "I think we can get in the way when we get too caught up on the lyrics. I believe that God's Spirit influences people through music and it may have nothing to do with what I say or what anybody else says. It's him using us as a vehicle and I think that instrumental music lets God say what he wants to say. It's not that there's anything wrong with lyrics but with our music people can get touched a little bit without even knowing it and every exposure to God's presence is a very beneficial thing."

Karl Allison has recently been commissioned as a Salvation Army Officer and is running a church in Archway, North London. He's currently reviewing new releases for Premier Radio.