aman amun

New York-based multidiscipline artist Aman Amun — which is the brainchild of Brian McGaw — today shares the first taster of his new album with the infectious, ‘Cityscape’.

McGaw’s artistic output manifests itself in a range of mediums from music to visual art, photography to interactive media.

For his latest — which has been two years in the making, after initially hearing the track’s hooky melody in a dream — McGaw decided to take the brave step and create a stunning VR video to really bring the track and its artistic direction to life.

The VR video was created by AMAN AMUN’s media production company OCCURRENT ARTS using Unity3D and Adobe CC.

The track itself is hodgepodge of differing elements including brittle synth pop, found sounds and electro. When it all comes together towards the latter half, it goes from run-of-the-mill indie pop to something much more enticing and unpredictable as brash drums collide with McGaw’s cushion-soft vocals and swirling, neon melodies.

McGaw has even gone to the trouble of creating a video of how we went about creating the VR video in just a month. - Harder Blogger Faster

Aman Amun is more than just a band—it's a cutting edge computer programming feat. Brian McGaw, the solo mastermind behind this project, is a fourth year "art x" major at UGA, meaning his work is not attached to any medium. "I can experiment in sculpture or drawing," he says," but what I end up using it for most is to practice with interactive art and finding new ways to compose, perform and visualize music."

In fact, all of Aman Amun's performances in Athens thus far have been limited to exit shows on campus, so Thursday's performance marks his club debut. Even McGaw isn't sure what his target audience will be. His songs have organic, acoustic elements but are driven by electronics. "It's more like In Rainbows Radiohead than Kid A," he offers as a comparison.

What sets Aman Amun apart, however, is his unique and highly visual electronic interface. He has written a program that allows him to trigger samples and instruments by interacting with a screen projection. He also has a program running that creates colorful visualizations of the music on a larger projection screen. So, on one screen his music is manipulating the artwork, and on another he is manipulating the images to create music.

"I want to take the hidden part of the performance that's usually done on the laptop and put it in front of the audience," he says. Oh, and he's got a bluetooth-powered wireless pedal that he handmade, too. Pretty sweet.

For the lucky few who saw Aman Amun's earliest incarnations on campus, you'll be in for a treat, as he has written a whole album's worth of new material and completely recoded the back end of his program in order to make the flow more seamless and cohesive. Look out for a special guest performance by an iPhone as well, which McGaw says will be "introduced in an unexpected way." - Flagpole Magazine | 2010

Aman Amun: Brian McGaw, AKA Aman Amun, might be something of a prodigy. Although I haven't seen his work yet, the glow in his eyes when he talks about his musical endeavors is invigorating, and his elaborate plans have impressed me more than any press release that's come across my desk. As a student of interactive new media, he has been able to use his major as an outlet for his experimentations. So it's fitting that his first live performance is part of an interactive exit show at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. McGaw has basically hand-crafted a new interface for triggering and manipulating sounds. What you'll see on Friday is McGaw singing and playing guitar with two screens behind him. One huge screen will feature the usual sorts of visual stimulation moving in conjunction with the music, while the smaller screen actually serves as an interactive instrument that McGaw has programmed to trigger, manipulate and record samples. In order to interact with this screen, he has designed a glove (sounds a little like the pre-Wii NES Power Glove) with LED lights embedded in each finger tip. The glove, combined with Wiimote Whiteboard technology and a program he wrote for his computer, will be used to build each song. The circular nature of his work is fascinating: the music will make visuals and interacting with those visuals will make music. I cannot wait to see how this all comes together. I've had a glimpse of this kind of technology online, but it's thrilling to know a student right here in town is on the cutting edge of electronic music. "If you go see someone like Daft Punk," says McGaw," you have no idea what they're doing - pushing buttons in that huge pyramid of equipment. What I am trying to do is take something that's normally hidden and show it to the audience in a way that's aesthetically pleasing." Many of the tracks will be based around tunes from his record Waxing, which you can download at www.amanamun.com. The showcase itself is called "Touch My Project" and it starts at 7 p.m. with Aman Amun going on stage around 9 p.m. This is a free event! (Lamar Doodd School of Art Room S150, Friday 1) - Flagpole Magazine | 2009

I entered the WUOG radio station premises in the Tate Center for the first time on Thursday with a feeling of great excitement and anticipation. I was just about to see one of the most creative Athens acts, Aman Amun, perform for the “Live in the Lobby” segment of the radio show. My friend Jordan (Athens Music Junkie) greeted me at the window and beckoned to me to come inside. The cozy little lobby with its walls covered in posters and CDs provided the perfect backdrop for Aman Amun’s soothing and melodious sound. Aman Amun’s alter ego, singer/guitar player Brian McGaw from the lovely Crumbling Arches, was just setting up as I got there, and he welcomed me in with a smile before beginning his mini show.

It is nearly impossible to place Aman Amun’s sound into any one genre. Brian uses both electronic and acoustic elements to create a listening experience far different from anything else I’ve heard in Athens. He began his short set with my second favorite song of his, “Opportunity Cost”, a calm yet heavy tune with an almost ethereal feel and an emphasis on the acoustic guitar. From there, he let the music flow out of his guitar, subtly changing without pausing into a newer song that was characterized by some rather impressive vocal work on his part. He continued to debut several new songs in an unbroken medley of soft strumming and computer-generated sounds. My only wish was that they had used a speaker with less static so that the songs could have been more clearly heard by the live audience. I’m not sure whether or not this affected those listening online.

Due to a series of terribly unfortunate circumstances involving prior plans, a friend’s rap craving, and a timing mix-up, I was unable to see the rest of Aman Amun’s show. My friend Sheila, who was happily listening to it at http://www.wuog.com from her room, told me that, just after I left, he performed my absolute favorite Aman Amun song “Scapegoating” complete with an interesting array of experimental sounds. I can’t believe I missed it. Sadness, indeed! However, I am overjoyed to say that he will be performing a more extensive and likely visually delicious show on May 1st in association with the Touch My Project interactive art show in the Llamar Dodd art building in Room S150. Since that’s a Friday and Reading Day for UGA students, everyone should most certainly check it out! - The Echoreyn Of Athens Blog

"Brian McGaw brings us this interesting video. The Munome you see is running mlr and my TR-256 alongside Reason for the drums sounds. Brian is using Johnney Lee's Wii Whiteboard to take the performance from behind the computer screen and place it out in front of the viewer." - The Stretta Procedure

The video for this electronic landscape release "CityScape" is visually pleasing from start to finish. The city throughout this video comes to life in a beautifully animated render complete with particle effects and 2D modeling. The visuals hook you in instantly. - The Drunken Coconut