John Lyell

Growing up in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, John started playing guitar in 1984 at the age of 17...playing mostly 70's and 80's Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock and some Metal...and later picking up the acoustic guitar as well. As a guitar player for over 42 years...he has recorded and performed in numerous Rock and Hard Rock projects since the 1980's as well as Acoustic projects in the 2000's. 

Starting in the early 1990's John's focus and interests shifted more to synthesizer based Ambient, Atmospheric and SpaceMusic. He then started to acquire synthesizers and put together his own home/project studio in 1994 so that he could compose and produce instrumental synth-based music. 

Inspired by his first introduction to SpaceMusic back in 1994 from the "Hearts of Space" radio program...John immersed himself in Ambient-SpaceMusic and started dabbling in computer graphic arts with his first ever computer...an Apple Macintosh clone (Power Computing)...in June of 1997. 

With heavy interests in Astronomy, the concept of Time Travel, SpaceMusic and related cosmic subject matter, Lyell used these interests as inspiration to create "Cosmic" and "Surreal" digital art from his computer.  He also designed the CD cover art for all of his Ambient releases and co-designed the CD cover art with Brent A. Reiland for the WORMHOLES and SYNTHETIC UNIVERSE CD's.  

John continually created this cosmic art from 1997 until 2015. 

From 2005 - 2015, John also displayed and sold his Space Art and Ambient Music at Science Fiction Conventions and Art Fairs in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. 

John relocated to Rio Rancho, New Mexico in May of 2017...where he currently writes, records, engineers and produces instrumental Ambient, Atmospheric and SpaceMusic from his home studio.

John started performing live Ambient shows in June of 2023...combining traditional hardware synthesizers and sound modules with Eurorack Modular format synths. His first live performance was in Santa Fe, NM on June 18th, 2023 at the Currents Media Art & Technology Festival. He then played his second live show once again in Santa Fe performing a 25-minute Ambient set at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in November 2023. His third live performance was also in Santa Fe, NM on August 23, 2024...performing a 45-minute set at a venue called Paradiso. 

In 2025 John started recording "In-Home" live performances from his home studio in New Mexico and putting them up on his YouTube channel.   

Ambient Discography: 

•  ETERNITY II  (2024) 
•  PLANETARY ARTIFACTS   (2017)  
•  REFLECTION OF TIME   (2014)  
•  ETERNITY   (2012) 
•  DIMENSIONS   (2006) 
•  SYNTHETIC UNIVERSE   (2002)  -  with Brent A. Reiland 
•  WORMHOLES   (1998)  -  with Brent A. Reiland   

All of John's releases have received critical acclaim and radio airplay in the U.S., Europe, and Australia on syndicated Ambient and New Age radio shows such as "Hearts Of Space", "Stars End", "Echoes", "Musical Starstreams", "Ultima Thule", "Galactic Travels" as well as numerous internet radio stations internationally.