Ivan Bullock

Ivan was born in the mid 70s and enrolled in Piano and Violin training at a young age in his home town, Canberra. By the teens, he had focused exclusively on Violin, enjoying a point of difference by not just having the only white instrument case in town, but also playing an instrument lovingly crafted by his (now deceased) Father (a part time instrument maker), from a striking African hard wood “Zebrano”. By the age of 18 however, neck injury sustained from prolonged use of the instrument put an end to music creation.

Over the next few years Ivan experimented with the digital arts and set about listening to a broad range of music from progressive and metal, through to industrial, ambient, and of course classical. The late 1990′s saw a large personal adjustment and long-term move to Tokyo, which became a catalyst for creativity and learning. The intensity, stress and isolation of central Tokyo living also birthed Mystral Tide, leading to years of experimentation with break-beats, piano and synthesis.

Sean Cooper of Zeitgeist Records (Brisbane) produced and funded the first official CD release “Whirlpool of Souls”, which led to performance opportunities in Europe and Japan. Over the next few years two more full albums were released, “Geometry of Loss” a 3 CD set recorded in Tokyo and completed in Melbourne, and “Isle of Narrows” a sorrowful and dark classical journey released in 2009.

After returning to Australia and settling in Melbourne, Ivan began investing time and finances into the general support of underground musicians. For over a decade Dawn Industry (formerly Demus), fought against the commercialised and mundane profit-driven music “industry” through a series of Australian events called Enzyme, providing underground artists a release-platform and regular live performance opportunities.