Elaine Walker is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

electronic musician Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, and author born in 1969. She wrote a physics/philosophy book, “Matter Over Mind: Cosmos, Chaos, and Curiosity” (2016). She specializes in

microtonal music Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal interv ...

, including founding ZIA, an all electronic band, and performing with D.D.T. She has performed with Number Sine.Homepage
, ''ZIASpace.com''. She describes: "I compose microtonal music strictly by ear and leave it to others to analyze, so you won't find ratios or mathematics here."

Life

Raised in southern New Mexico "by two loving mathematicians, Elaine grew to love the desert in all of its glory and wide openness". Her father was Dr. Elbert A. Walker. Walker has a Music

Synthesis Synthesis or synthesize may refer to: Science Chemistry and biochemistry *Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors **Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organi ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

degree from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

(1991) and a master's degree in Music Technology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(2001). In her Masters Thesis she developed a new kind of music compositional theory called "Chaos Melody Theory based on recursive chaos mathematics". She was a musical director for

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

with

4Kids Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation; stylized as 4K!DS ENTERTAINMENT) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production ...

, and later GoGoRiki. Each summer she is Education and Public Outreach Coordinator for the NASA-Haughton-Mars Project. Her Martians video was recorded there in 2003 (commissioned by NASA) to promote the prospect of humans living on Mars.

Work

Solo work

Walker had already released her debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

titled '' Blue Cartoon'' in 1989, before moving to work as ZIA. Walker returned to solo work and self-released two studio albums, 2006's ''

Martians Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celestia ...

'' and 2011's '' Drum 'n' Space''. Walker released her second EP in 2018 titled ''

Four-Momentum In special relativity, four-momentum (also called momentum–energy or momenergy) is the generalization of the classical three-dimensional momentum to four-dimensional spacetime. Momentum is a vector in three dimensions; similarly four-momentum i ...

'', which was followed a year later by her sixth album ''

Trapezoid In geometry, a trapezoid () in North American English, or trapezium () in British English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are ...

''.

Composition

She has composed using various equal temperaments, including the

Bohlen–Pierce scale The Bohlen–Pierce scale (BP scale) is a musical musical tuning, tuning and scale (music), scale, first described in the 1970s, that offers an alternative to the octave-repeating scales typical in Classical music, Western and other musics, spec ...

: ''Stick Men'' (1991), ''Love Song'', and ''Greater Good'' (2011). Other tunings include 10, 16, 17,

19 equal temperament In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO ("Equal Division of the Octave"), 19-ED2 ("Equal Division of 2:1) or 19 Equal temperament, ET, is the musical temperament, tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps ...

and 20. Elaine Walker's solo music includes many space or alien themed titles, including "Red Dreams", "Martian Nation", "Humans and Martian Machines", "The Tenth Planet", and Frontier Creatures.Luckman, Michael (2005). ''Alien Rock: The Rock 'n' Roll Extraterrestrial Connection'', p.268. . She composed the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

to Yuri's Night.

ZIA

In 1991, she formed the band ZIA, named after the

Zia sun symbol The Zia () or Tsʾíiyʾamʾé are an indigenous nation centered at Zia Pueblo (Tsi'ya), a Native American reservation in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The Zia are known for their pottery and use of the sun symbol. They are one of the Keres Pu ...

featured in the

Flag of New Mexico The flag of the U.S. state of New Mexico, also referred to as the New Mexican flag and Zia Banner, is a state flag, consisting of a sacred Gules, red sun symbol of the Zia people (New Mexico), Zia tribe on a field of Or (heraldry), gold (yellow) ...

.Elaine Walker
, ''Discogs.com'' In the early years ZIA has also performed with

Emergency Broadcast Network Emergency Broadcast Network is a multimedia performance group formed in 1991 that took its name from the Emergency Broadcast System. The founders were Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post, and Brian Kane (autho ...

A Flock of Seagulls A Flock of Seagulls are an English new wave band formed in Liverpool in 1979. The group, whose best-known line-up comprised Mike Score, Ali Score, Frank Maudsley and Paul Reynolds, hit the peak of their chart success in the early 1980s. I ...

, and

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He is the lead singer and the only original member remaining of the Marilyn Manson (band), same-titled band he founded in 1989. Th ...

in the Boston area. ZIA were an American

industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrom ...

band based out of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. ZIA released six albums: '' Zia v1.2'' (1992), '' Zia v1.5'' (1994), ''

Big Bang! ''Big Bang!'' is the second album by English alternative rock group Fuzzbox, released in 1989. It includes four singles which reached the UK Singles Chart: "International Rescue" (No. 11), "Pink Sunshine" (No. 14), "Self!" (featuring a guita ...

'' (2000), ''

'' (2006), '' Drum 'n' Space'' (2011) and ''

'' (2019) In 1989 Walker recorded her first song, titled "Waiting for the Winds (Woza Moya)", as ZIA and in 1989 released it on the ''Zulu Hits'' various artists compilation by

Celluloid Records Celluloid Records, a French/American record label, founded by Jean Georgakarakos (sometimes shortened to Jean Karakos) operated from 1976 to 1989 in New York City, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the ...

. She recorded '' Zia v1.2'' in 1992 and brought in a band for '' Zia v1.5'', her second release.

Fifth Colvmn Records Fifth Colvmn Records was a record label based in Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1990 by Zalman Fishman, owner of the nightclub FIFTH COLVMN, located in Washington D.C. The label's first release was Chemlab's debut EP Ten Ton Pressure ...

released the EP ''

Shem Shem (; ''Šēm''; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible ( Genesis 5–11 and 1 Chronicles 1:4). The children of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to unnamed daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christ ...

'' in 1996, and the composition "Space-Time" was released on the label's ''

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

'' compilation. The album showcased her atonal composition technique with

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

Discography

* '' Blue Cartoon'' (1989) * ''Mars'' (2000)

As ZIA

Studio albums * '' Zia v1.2'' (1992, Blue Cartoon) * '' Zia v1.5'' (1994, Blue Cartoon) * ''

'' (2000, Zia/Chaos Control) * ''

'' (2006) * '' Drum 'n' Space'' (2011) * ''

'' (2019) * ''No Terrestrial Road'' (2020) Extended plays * ''

SHEM Shem (; ''Šēm''; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible ( Genesis 5–11 and 1 Chronicles 1:4). The children of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to unnamed daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christ ...

'' (1996, Fifth Colvmn) * ''

'' (2018) Compilation appearances * ''Zulu Hits'' (1989,

Celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day ...

) * ''

'' (1996, Fifth Colvmn) * ''Boston Elektro 101 (1996, Sinless) * ''Mind/Body Compilation Volume 3'' (1996, Atomic Novelties/DIY) * ''Musical Sampler 1998'' (1998, Deus ex Musica) * ''Movement 1998'' (1998, Deus ex Musica) * ''Shades of Grey'' (1998, Grinding Into Emptiness) * ''She: A Female Trip-Hop Experience'' (2001, Sonic Images Electronica) * ''Bloc Party - Tapes'' (2013, !K7)

Sources

External links

Elaine Walker's site
, ''ZIAspace.com''.
ZIA
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

YouTube.com/miselaineeous
, ''YouTube channel with historical and most up-to-da ZIA videos, theory, vertical keyboards, philosophy, life'' * “Matter Over Mind: Cosmos, Chaos, and Curiosity” hardcover *Africa, Chris (2004).
Pro-Space Activist Elaine Walker
, ''Ultraverse''.
Elaine Walker
, ''Discogs.com''.
Zia Biography
, ''AllMusic.com''. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Elaine 21st-century American composers American electronic musicians American industrial musicians Microtonal musicians Space advocates Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women composers