Tomas Jirku has quickly established himself on the international electronic music scene. From his humble beginnings of independently released CD-Rs and MP3s, Jirku's unrelenting, unpredictable explorations of techno have since been released on prestigious record labels around the world.
Born in the Czech Republic, he escaped with his family to Toronto Canada while Eastern Europe was still under communist control. Jirku spent his impressionable youth studying fine art and design, playing video games, painting graffiti, and listening to early electronic pop stars like The KLF, Technotronic and 808 State.
Jirku's own music productions were first created using archaic software and his earliest albums saw only limited edition runs with hand-made packaging. He first received international attention with his online "Variants" project, with which he exposed his creative process on the No-Type Internet website, collecting a series of 59 interrelated compositions. These were then paired down and compiled on his international debut CD album released by Alien8 Recordings. The opportunity to promote his newly released album at Montreal's inaugural Mutek Electronic Music Festival in the summer of 2000 was a catalyst for his creative growth. Performing along side by his musical heroes, Jirku presented newer, even more forward thinking material that impressed everyone in the audience and drew interest from the prolific German record label Force Inc. Force Inc promptly picked up Jirku's new material for his "Sequins" album. The album consisted or experiments in what can best be called 'glitch-funk', wherein Jirku worked with samples culled from his favorite funk tracks, coaxing elements from the source audio that were left in the back of the mix. With this fresh-minded approach, Jirku allowed the listener to hear what no one has heard before.
Jirku has since created a impressive catalogue of diverse music ranging from scientifically experimental acid-techno on Netherlands' Audio.NL, to deep and dubby dance-hall on Mitchell Akiyama's Intr_version label. Collaborations with other musicians have proved to be equally successful. Jirku's work with rap vocalists under the guise of 'The Killaz' resulted in one of the most unique hip-hop albums in recent years, and his ongoing 'Jirku/Judge' project with like-minded Canadian musician Robin Judge released on Cologne based label Onitor exhibits a more playful side to minimal techno.
Jirku recently relocated to the beautiful west-coast city of Vancouver Canada where a new techno scene is starting to develop and the city is sure to become the next hot-spot for electronic music in Canada.
Releases
Sequins (CD) Force Inc. Music Works
Sequins (2x12") Force Inc. Music Works
Variants (CD) Alien8 Recordings
GO! (12") Klang Elektronik
Immaterial (CD) Substractif
Entropy (CD) Intr_version Records
Just You And Me (12") Revolver Recordings
Rychnov (12") Traum Schallplatten
We Call Them Acids (12") Audio.nl
Bleak 1999 (CD) No Type
Warrenton / Singularity (MP3) No Type
Zaxxon 3D EP (12") Supesharu Recordings
Together with Robin Judge: Jirku/Judge
JIRKU/JUDGE is the work of Robin Judge and Tomas Jirku; two like minded musicians from Canada.
Tomas hears voices in his head that tell him to make music. The voices are susceptible to boredom, so the variety to Tomas’s musical output is necessary to satisfy them.
Robin hears music in everything; a refrigerator humming a chorus, the wind whistling, birds glitching, bicycles clicking. She spends her time recording these sounds.
Together their insanity combines to make catchy, swinging, glitch-laden music which is sure to make you wiggle.
Releases
Half Full (12") Onitor
Plusism (CD) Onitor
Links
http://www.tomasjirku.com
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Tomas+Jirku
