Jim Demos was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada where he honed his talents as a multi-instrumentalist performing in noise-rock and avant-garde bands. In 2009 Jim relocated to Montreal and began his journey composing ambient and experimental soundtracks. Over the years he has worked extensively live, performing his compositions at several venues and theatres around Montreal, Toronto, Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam and many more, using his unique mix of electronics and guitar. In studio, and in true D.I.Y form, he takes the roles of composer, performer, producer, recording engineer and mix engineer for all his recordings. Demos is equally at home collaborating with other musicians in the experimental/improvisational tradition that encompasses genres like electronics, post-rock, dark ambient, and drone as noted in his recent collaboration work with the Montreal experimental guitarist/composer Eric Quach aka Thisquietarmy.
In 2012, Demos released his first Ep, They are out for Blood independently under the name Hellenica. Demos was aiming to create a dark western ambient sound. Blood Moon Wolf Head followed with in 2014 with the same goal in mind and the release coincided with The Day of The Dead. According to Demos, the album is meant as an offering to the deceased. It was met with positive reviews on underground blogs such as CJLO 1690 Magazine, the Burning Beard. Forms arrived via experimental label Jeunesse Cosmique in 2016 released on cassette and digital formats. To promote the album Demos toured Europe for the first time with a very positive response from European audiences. 2017 saw the release of Land of no Return via Jeunesse Cosmique and along with it another tour in Europe 2018. The album was recorded digitally then mastered through an old Denon reel to reel tape machine that Demos found in a thrift shop to purposely degrade the recording to accentuate the retro sci-fi sound.
IN 2021, Hellenica had 4 full length album releases: The collaboration work with Thisquietarmy Houses of Worship via Somewherecold Records(USA)/Templo Sagita(Chile) in April, Ambient Works Volume I in May, Ambient Works Volume II in October via Templo Sagital and on November 15 Blood Meridian: An Imaginary Soundtrack to accompany Cormac McCarthy’s barbaric western novel of the same name, was released via Somewherecold Records.
In addition to Hellenica, Jim also performs with the duo Houses of Worship and the band CHRIST.