email: downer@techno.ca

www: www.ericdowner.com

Growing up in the industrial town of Cambridge, Ontario, Eric Downer had become fascinated by electronic music at an early age and was editing mixes on his dad�s dual cassette hi-fi at age eleven. Access to late night radio and a few well stocked record stores saw that he was buying music as soon as his first pay check was in hand at age fourteen. By seventeen, Downer was playing his varied music collection to jocks, preps, punks and nerds in school gymnasiums and the seedy low rent bars of downtown Cambridge, incorporating video and audio. Later, Downer moved to London, Ontario and found work in a record shop being paid exclusively in vinyl. It was here that his career as a DJ really began to take shape. London at the time was booming with the right mix of people and saw Downer at gigs with peers as well as headlining alongside out-of-towners. Seeing the greater music industry through the performers brought in from other cities ensured that Eric was past the point of no return. Working with such a crowd provided much inspiration and pushed Eric into newer styles of music and sound mixing.

The mid 1990's saw Downer make the move to Toronto and partake in events hosted by Transcendance and Alien Visitation, among others. This opened him up to many venues across the whole of the city from gritty, decrepit slaughterhouses, to derelict warehouses, out to the forests and beaches, onto tall ships and back to the heady nightclubs and more intimate nightspots. Mixing ambient, then getting out the techno and cutting his teeth at various weeklies and events, Downer was broadsided by the sounds of house. It was this period that saw him working through various genres during sets and experimenting with different sounds, textures and atmospheres on the dancefloor, keeping house at the center of his sound. Playing clubs like Industry, and other events gave Eric the freedom to express moods and ideas to sold out crowds Gigging alongside many of the peers he met in London, he was also billed with many other luminaries of the techno, ambient and house spheres while holding down various residencies. This exposure at home saw interest generated in other cities, bringing Eric to Halifax, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta and points in-between.

Currently, Eric is still experiencing the flux of his career, working by day as an audio technician in television and film, he maintains his role in Toronto�s underground, collaborating with Fukhouse during 2003/4 and starting his own night, Sensor. Still inspired by new technologies and sounds, Downer mixes a blend of his past influences with modern tech-house, techno and ambient textures to create a true and sublime dancefloor experience. In the past few years he has been a part of boundary pushing nights, bringing in current underground and respected talent while working in clubs like System Soundbar, and various non traditional spaces. The continuing inspiration and collaboration with like minded people and promoters Alieninflux, Fukhouse, Terra, Footwork, Sensor and Geometry signify the supportive and dynamic atmosphere currently in Toronto and it�s vicinity. With an eye on the world, and an ear for new sounds, Downer now takes the last fifteen years of his life in music and works a fresh transition into the studio, and his future.