1348

Real name: Jeffrey Surak

Alias: Violet

Jeff Surak is a veteran experimenter from Washington. He started in the early 80s participating in the international hometaper network. He released his music under the name -1348- on his own Watergate Tapes imprint along with other artists such as Controlled Bleeding, Kapotte Muziek, Odal, and collaborations with John Hudak, Crawling With Tarts, Zan Hoffman and others. Surak also performed and toured with his live unit New Carrollton creating improvised post industrial soundscapes. During the early 1990s Surak spent most of his time living in Russia, where he formed the noise group Sovmestnoye Predpriyatiye (Joint Venture), which did site specific performances. In the late 90s, Surak returned to recording and live performance with the free music duo V. After releasing numerous recordings and touring the USA, V. disbanded and Surak focused on solo works under the name of Violet, creating organic irrational compositions, using electro-acoustic instruments and tape/compact-disc/vinyl manipulations.