Using dance, multimedia, and live instruments, Final Veil delivers experimental electronic music with a prominent Middle Eastern influence.
Cora Camille formed Final Veil out of her great love for middle eastern and experimental fusions of world music with modern club music. Camille began her study of classical Egyptian and Lebanese dance under the instruction of Diana Wolf of Simone's Seventh Veil in St. Louis, MO when she was a teenager. Never letting go of her passion for belly dancing while attending the University of Missouri, Camille opened her own belly dance studio in Columbia, Missouri to teach group classes and private lessons which helped supplement her income as a college student.
The power and beauty of Egyptian music sparked Camille's initial interest in the dance and led her to pursue learning to play Middle Eastern music. This pursuit landed Camille in London, England, where she studied dance and rhythm with internationally-acclaimed percussionist and producer Hossam Ramzy. It was Ramzy that introduced Camille to his long-time mentor and fellow musician friend Wadie Nossier. Nossier, a former instructor from the Cairo Music Institute and a world-renown oud-maker, taught Camille Egyptian music and how to play the oud. At the end of Camille's stay in London, Nossier bestowed the honor of personally crafting her an oud for performances before she left England to return home to the United States.
After returning home to the U.S., Camille came up with the name Final Veil and began looking for musicians to help her fulfill the dream of playing live Egyptian music. After trying various musicians and line-ups for Final Veil (at one point even having a six-piece band), Camille decided to combine her love for Egyptian music with her equal feelings for Electronic music.
After a couple of years of doing live performances with d.j.s in club and festival settings, Camille paired with XJN. XJN (Christian Oncken) is a DJ and producer from St. Louis, MO. He began a lifelong obsession with music starting with piano lessons at the age of 5 and continuing on to violin, french horn, vocal music, bass and guitar. Christian became involved with live electronic performance in 1995 and soon began collecting electronic instruments for his studio, eventually learning to build, then code and design his own electronic instruments and effects. He learned to d.j. at college radio station KMNR in Rolla. After moving to St. Louis in 2000, he helped create the live house band Urban Jazz Naturals which combined live production and sequencing techniques with live musicians on stage. He produced a number of singles for the project, having one of his tracks remixed by JT Donaldson for Gallery Records. XJN then collaborated in the studio with Demakus Lewis for a UJN release on Vista Records.
Kevin Willingham provides the live percussion for Final Veil performances. Willingham is a classically trained percussionist focusing on world percussion; he is an educator, a composer, and a performer. Practicing and performing in a variety of styles from classical percussion such as Timpani, Snare, Marimba, Vibraphone; Afro-Cuban instruments like Congas, Timbales, Bongos; Middle Eastern instruments such as Riq, Tar, Doumbek; even African styles with Djembe and other Frame Drums from around the world like Pandeiro, Kanjira and Mediterranean Tambourine. As a current student of N. Scott Robinson and Todd Roach he focuses on Frame Drumming from around the world, a style he uses heavily in his performances with Final Veil, for which he uses frame drums made by Cooperman; with these connections he traveled to Vermont recently to Perform at the North American Frame Drum Association North Conference.
Final Veil has released their debut self-titled album on Revealed Recordings. The album is now available on iTunes, Amazon.com, www.hollywoodmusiccenter.com, Rhapsody, Napster and many other distributors (see www.finalveil.com for more information).
