Avola is the surname and solo project of Vern Avola, a Portland, Oregon based sonic adventurer. Avola makes electronic music that combines a ferocious wall of sound with a deceptively subtle sense of dynamics. One could call it noise music, except that Avola puts enough into weirdly shifting harmonics as she does into abrasion. One could also call it drone, but Avola’s approach to synth music is too rhythmic, itchy, and restless to fit easily under that label.
She’s shared bills with artists including metal band Big Business, long-running experimental rock outfit Oxbow, and has collaborated with electro-pop eccentric EMA, to give you some idea of the difficulty of pigeonholing the project. She has been performing live music since 2005, and has been performing solo live since 2008.
She’s had the honor of having several releases on labels such as Gravity Records, An Out Recordings, Accident Prone Records and Nadine Records. She has also booked and played several US tours, as well as played several festivals, most notably SxSW and Total Fest.
Former monikers for her solo performances: Dirty Centaur and EMS (Eat My Shit).
Current collaborations: a duo called Elrond, occasionally with a band from Australia called DEAD and in a newly formed duo with Daniel Menche called Bear Spray.

Sonic provocateurs Elrond, featuring Ian Gorman Weiland (Misty Montane, Antecessor, Hot Victory) and Vern Avola (Avola, EMS, Prizehog), deliver a cyborgian onslaught of hammered beats and roaring frequencies that would be the highlight of an off-planet prom for Replicants and T-1000s. Often improvising unique live sets and pushing their analog synthesizers to the brink with a style that mixes elements of noise with Berlin school and techno, Elrond are a fair league away from anything resembling nostalgic revivalism. – Ron Mason Gassaway