The electronic project VNV (“Victory Not Vengeance”) Nation was conceived in London in 1990 by Ronan Harris, debuting in May of that year with the 12″ “Body Pulse.” “Strength of Youth” followed a few months later, and at the end of the year Harris relocated to Toronto, where VNV Nation opened for Nitzer Ebb on their Canadian tour. After moving back to Europe, Harris released only a handful of compilation tracks in the years to follow before signing with the German label Discordia in 1995 to issue the full-length Advance and Follow. Three years later, VNV Nation resurfaced on another German label, Off-Beat, an alliance that generated the LP Praise the Fallen as well as the EP Solitary. Empires, which was issued with another European distributor, Dependent, and on Metropolis in the U.S., followed in the spring of 2000. Singles such as “Standing” and “Dark Angel” were club mainstays, displaying Harris’ love for pulsating club rhythms and his developing seascapes of dark ambient waves. Mix projects Genesis.1 and Genesis.2 followed that format in 2001, giving a sneak preview to VNV Nation’s Futureperfect. In 2005, VNV Nation introduced a harder, more percussive sound on the album Matter + Form, and followed their new path on 2007’s Judgement. The group’s live performances were the focus of the 2009 set Reformation 01, while that same year the band issued a new studio set, Of Faith, Power and Glory, which, as Harris told a reporter, represented “the three things that people desire and which can make you or destroy you.” A collection of remixes, Crossing the Divide, was announced for release in 2010, but didn’t appear until 2012 as a digital download; in the meantime, a new album, Automatic, was issued in the fall of 2012. In the fall of 2013 VNV Nation released Transnational, which was a chart success in the group’s adopted homeland of Germany. ~ Jason Ankeny
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