There is more than one artist with this name:

1) Instar is the "nom-de-Rock" of a rock/post-rock band started by Karl von Kries. The current lineup is Karl von Kries (guitars, vocals, production), Jordan Martin (bass), and Wyatt Lund (Drums).

Karl cut his rock teeth in the thriving Western Massachusetts music scene which spawned the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. Less "noisy" than these post-punk rockers, and less faux-funk than the reggae/funk bands infesting the Valley at the time, Karl developed a mutated style that merged indie power pop, grunge, elctro-folk, and metal. Von Kries played in Valley bands Frog Nebula, Just Assasins, and Darwin.

After the break-up of Darwin, Karl went back into a self-built studio to finish the debut Instar EP, "Rich Girls." Rife with rich arrangements and powerful, intelligent lyrics, this debut stands head and shoulders above typical DIY releases.

London's NME magazine called the EP "Excellent", and many other positive reviews followed.

The Film Industry took notice as well. Director John Gruber tapped Karl and former bandmate Mike Suby to write and record the score for the independent film "Blunt!", which went on to win "Best Comedy" at the New York Independent Film Festival.

On the heels of that success, Karl recorded the soundtrack for "DRINK", an innovative short film from MTV Animator / Director Pat Smith (Daria, Downtown, Beavis and Butthead). The film explores the bizarre transformations that overcome a teenager who imbibes a mysterious liquid. "Drink" won Best Debut Film, 2001 New York Film Expo., Winner, "Oz" Award, 2003 Chicago Animation Festival, and 2nd Place, 2001 ASIFA-East Animation Festival.

Von Kries next scored Pat Smith's edgy follow-up film "Delivery", which won the AFIFA-East Animation Festival in 2003.

Von Kries recorded a full length LP over 5 years, recording at various locations including his home studio, on trains in Portugal, Vancouver, and more. The 11 track LP expands on Instar's sound with more complex arrangements, a full rock sound blended with Bowie-esque sonic experimentation, and catch pop themes and typically dark lyrical material.

Instar recently released a number of older or b-side tracks as free Creative Commons ( CC ) releases. Songs are available at http://www.instarmusic.com

2 Instar is Nathan James' electronic project, which grew out of the yearlong Alchiba project (which produced the obscure Bilharzia Sessions and Glorious Bank EP) as well as a few miscellaneous tracks. Instar was not named until after the first Instar song, "Alcyone," was created. Existing material has been produced using FL Studio. Although some Alchiba material featured Steve Wolf on vocals, no Instar tracks so far have.

Instar's first album was the poorly mixed glitch-ambient-break "1.1 - Skydance, Vol. 1." One critic mentioned that "[t]here's something vaguely resembling coherency" and later summed up the album as follows: "For me, the emotional impact here is something of a peaceful, yet boring scene." However, he has since claimed to have been misquoted. This album is available on the Internet Archive, where the inline preview plays the music at a ridiculously sped-up rate, perhaps depressing download numbers. Other distribution methods are currently being explored.

Instar has also recorded "The Helvetica Skydance," variously called a mini-album or an "albumella," which remains, like "Vol. 1," an internet-only release.

Instar has been influenced by Global Communication, Pete Namlook, Temple City, Human Mesh Dance and Monolake, among others. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.