Secret Chiefs 3

Atomic Ape is a Los Angeles-based experimental ensemble led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Schimmel (Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3), formed out of his earlier project Orange Tulip Conspiracy. Their sole album, Swarm (Mimicry Recordings, 2014), took over four years to record and fuses surf-rock, avant-rock, Balkan and jazz idioms into cinematic, odd-metered instrumentals. The record drew on a large cast of collaborators, including Secret Chiefs 3 leader Trey Spruance, violist Eyvind Kang and members of Estradasphere. The band later changed its name to Red Fiction.

High Castle Teleorkestra is a remote avant-fusion "supergroup" assembled during the pandemic by Estradasphere alumni Tim Smolens and guitarist Chris Bogen, with members scattered across the US, Norway, Australia and France. Their 2022 debut, "The Egg That Never Opened" (released on Art As Catharsis), retells Philip K. Dick's "Radio Free Albemuth" through a cacophonous fusion of Eastern European folk, swing jazz, exotica and technical metal. The lineup draws on Estradasphere, Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Farmers Market and Umlaut.

Red Fiction is the renamed continuation of Jason Schimmel's Atomic Ape, releasing Visions of the Void (2020) on John Zorn's Tzadik label. The instrumental group threads metal, klezmer and Eastern European folk through math-rock structures and noir/spaghetti-western color, scored for an unusual ensemble including bouzouki, sitar, saxes and accordion.

Orange Tulip Conspiracy is Estradasphere guitarist Jason Schimmel's own instrumental bandleader project, formed in 2008. Its self-titled debut (Web of Mimicry) moves through prog fusion, 1950s-style jazz, Romani melody and 1960s Italian film-score homage, with Secret Chiefs 3's Trey Spruance and members of Estradasphere guesting.

HAH (formerly Hardcore Anal Hydrogen) is an avant-garde metal project formed in Monaco in 2009 by guitarist Martyn Clement and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sacha Valony. Across four albums the duo (expanded to an eight-piece for 2021's Chimaera Monstrosa) folds flute, sitar, mandolin, Portuguese guitar, and orchestral strings into a genre-hopping metal base, drawing comparisons to Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and Igorrr. Guitarist Martyn Clement is also a touring/studio guitarist for Igorrr, whom he joined in 2021.

Alamaailman Vasarat ("The Hammers of the Underworld") is an avant-garde Finnish instrumental band formed in Helsinki in 1997 as a side project of members of the prog group Hoyry-kone. Guitar-less by design, they build a dark, cinematic sound from distorted cellos, pump organ, brass and saxophones over primal drumming, welding klezmer, Balkan and European folk to jazz and metal into what they dubbed "kebab-kosher-jazz-film-traffic-music." Led by multi-reedist Jarno Sarkula, the band released a run of acclaimed albums from Vasaraasia (2000) through Valta (2012) before going quiet after 2014; Sarkula died in 2020.

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Hesus Attor is a self-described 'surrealistic' Dadaist avant-garde act from Rijeka, Croatia, formed in 2003, blending mathcore, cabaret, opera, prog rock, surf and 'ethno' world-music elements into an unpredictable, theatrical live show. Regarded as one of the strongest live acts in the Balkans, they've released music through their own Izdali Smo Metal label, then Moonlee Records and Geenger Records, including Sonic Gastronomy Volume 1 (2008), Señorai (2011) and Pardon (2013).

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Don Salsa was an experimental avant-prog/avant-metal band formed in 1993 while its members were in high school in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, active until 1997. The band recorded a single album, 'Koolaide Moustache in Jonestown,' released May 21, 1997, recorded over nearly three years in a warehouse on a primitive digital multi-track recorder, with an opening track exceeding 30 minutes. Core members Tim Smolens and Jason Schimmel went on to form Estradasphere, and Schimmel later became a founding member of Atomic Ape and an active member of Secret Chiefs 3.

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Formed in Eureka, California in 1985, Mr. Bungle is the ur-text of genre-whiplash metal: a band that mutated from death/thrash demos into carnival-mirror avant-rock, cycling through heavy metal, avant-garde jazz, ska, disco and funk — often inside a single song — under Mike Patton's shape-shifting vocals. The core trio of Patton, guitarist Trey Spruance and bassist Trevor Dunn cut three Warner Bros. albums (Mr. Bungle 1991, Disco Volante 1995, California 1999) before splintering into half the projects in this atlas. In 2020 they reunited as a thrash unit with Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian to re-record their 1986 demo as The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo on Patton's Ipecac label.

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The Deserts of Traun (stylized TRAUN) is an experimental, multi-genre metal project from Santa Barbara, California, founded and largely composed by drummer Dave Murray, formerly of Estradasphere. Its self-titled 2003 debut features Murray on numerous instruments alongside contributions from Estradasphere guitarist Jason Schimmel and others, blending metal, jazz, progressive rock and soundtrack styles. Murray later carried the project's polyrhythmic-metal sensibility into High Castle Teleorkestra.