ethan janais

Ethan Janais (Ethan Janais Matthews) musical path began in the late 1990’s where his interest in synthesizers and ambience collided with heavy metal and progressive music. These early experiences led to the debut release of his high-school formed band, Greyhaven.

In 2000, Ethan created the “Echo Us” project. Inspired by various metaphysical and spiritualist phenomena, Echo Us albums played front-to-back as a interconnected works, were often conceptual in nature, and spanned everything from ambient/electronic, rock, folk & Celtic, to other world musics and classical. Starting in 2004, the inspirations for the material often came in waves, using automatic writing for its lyrics and conceptualization. In 2007, these experiences led Ethan to discover the work of channeler and author Jane Roberts (The Seth Material) which ended up inspiring his musical and lyrical concepts further. Echo Us recorded seven albums in total, featuring multiple vocalists and acoustic backing musicians blending their performances with Ethan’s vocals, electronics, and guitar playing.

In 2024 Ethan embarked on his first eponymous solo outing, Ultralight, stripping down his arrangements and creating more space for complex harmonic structures and ambience. Ultralight is a categorically-challenging album, comprising Ethan’s work in both analog and digital synthesis, with a vocal side of three songs, and a b-side of three instrumentals.