Chiasm, a solo project from Emileigh Rohn, appeared in Detroit in 1997. Rohn was in graduate school at the time and used the recording of her demo as a artistic release--a pressure valve. In 1999 Chiasm was signed to COP International Records.

"After several compilation releases, COP released my debut full-length album Disorder in 2001. It's track Isolated was later featured in the Activision PC game, 'Vampire:The Masquerade-Bloodlines' as well as CBS's 'Navy:NCIS' TV show," says Rohn. "A remix album, Divided We Fall was released in 2003, and the next full-length album, Relapse, in 2005. My first virtual iTunes exclusive EP, Prefrontal was released in 2006, and I'm currently writing new material."

Rohn's studio and live set ups are very divergent--something not true of many underground electronic acts (if for no other reason than money).

"I use a lot more gear at home in the studio than I bring for live. Everything stays except a keyboard, a backing track, a mic, a mixer, and effects processors, really," says Rohn. "I'd love to eventually have completely separate rigs for recording and performing, but it's just not the case at this point. For live shows I also use projectors to help focus on the visual aspects and bring a guitar or bass depending on the mood."

She says her most important piece of live gear is her Korg Prophecy. In addition to being a bad movie with Christopher Walken, the Prophecy is one of the early virtual analog synths. The sounds available on it are still prized and back in the day everyone from David Bowie to Orbital used it.

"I always bring the virtual analog Korg Prophecy because it's so lightweight and the noises so profound," says Rohn. "Sometimes with altered effects and knob-twisting it really is a noisemaker rather than a traditional keyboard. I'd say the most important live element is my voice, though."

In addition to her voice Rohn credits the EMU ESI-4000 sampler as the "starting point" for her music. This rack mounted sampler has 64 voice polyphony, 16 MB of RAM (expandable ot 128) and over 200 MB of sample data.

"I start any album with separate banks of acoustic noises and textures I've created over time," says Rohn "I tend to find unintentional rhythms in them that eventually become the basis of a song, and it all grows from there."

More with Rohn on gear she wants and other synths soon.