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Back to index Thomas Gruberski - Biography

Thomas Gruberski was born 1974 in Warsaw, Poland. At the age of five, he moved with his parents to Basel, Switzerland; despite this, he speaks Polish language fluently, even though with a slight accent, and keeps a close contact with the Polish electronic music scene.

Thanks to his father's profession (he's an electronic engineer) he already had some contact with electronic devices at a very young age and was fascinated by them.
 
At the age of 14, he got his first computer, Amiga, on which he started to work with a music program called "Soundtracker". Using samples, he composed instrumental pieces in 4 channel MOD files. Even though they meant a lot in Thomas' musical development, they didn't resemble his later works much.

The things have changed in 1990, when Thomas got his first synthesizers. The very next year, at the age of 16, he released a 15-minute long mini-album, named Back to Metropolis. Even though the compositions were somehow simpler than his later works, the opus contained catchy melodies with already sophisticated arrangements and an almost professional sound - quite an amazing accomplishment for a teenager.

Even though Back to Metropolis wasn't available commercially, some of the melodies were reworked later on Omnipresence and Spacetime Adventures.

In 1994, at the age of 20, Thomas released his first official album Cinemascope, a collection of eight compositions, which alternated moody soundscapes with rhythmical sections and strong melodies.

In 1995, Omnipresence followed, an album more compact than Cinemascope, with a greater stress on melody and rhythm. Omnipresence was voted the best Polish electronic album of the year 1995.

In 2000, a new album called Spacetime Adventures was released, combining the more rhythmic elements of Omnipresence with the "cinematic" qualities of Cinemascope.

A very important element of Thomas' work is his live activity: he has given several concert already, e.g. in August 1996 in Poland, due to the annual festival of electronic music "ZEF '96" in Pisz. In 1997 and 1999, Thomas was invited by the Belgian J.M.Jarre fanclub "TransJarre" to rearrange some of Jarre's compositions in his personal style and play at two tribute concerts (photos from one of the performances can be seen in the gallery). Thomas' cover versions are available on the album Protuberance from 2001.
 
In 1999, Thomas graduated from Basel University, where he had studied law. At the moment, he serves the compulsory civil service (instead of serving in the army).