Erik Norlander is an accomplished producer, keyboardist, composer and instrument designer from California. Erik's latest venture is Norlander Sound Works, a sound design company in Asheville, North Carolina, producing sample and synthesizer libraries for modern software instruments.
Prior to that, Erik co-designed the Messenger for Moog Music and UNO Synth analog synthesizers for IK Multimedia, carrying on the legacy of his design work on the legendary Alesis Andromeda analog synthesizer in the late 1990s. As the Director of Product Development for Moog Music from 2023 to 2026, Erik delivered the Moog Muse to market and also acted as product manager for the Geddy Lee Minimoog Model D and the Bob Moog Tribute Edition Minimoog Model D, the final Minimoog Model D version produced. He also contributed to the design of the Akai MPK Mini IV and MPK Mini Plus II MIDI controllers. In the 1990s, Erik was the first Synthesizer Product Manager for Alesis Studio Electronics where he presided over the creation of the QS8/7/6/R series of digital synthesizers, DM5 and DM Pro drum modules and several other products.
Erik has led many other synthesizer and sound design projects for several other major companies around the world. He co-designed the software instruments Syntronik, Hammond B-3X, SampleTank 4, and SampleTron 2 for IK Multimedia along with several UJAM Usynth titles including Caramel (the debut!) and Deluxe and Akai's Studio Instrument Collection (released in 2025). Back in 2000-2001, Erik produced 200 ultra-accurate cover songs for the GuitarPort product for Line 6, many of which were licensed to the Guitar Hero video game.
Erik's career as a recording and touring musician is equally vast with over 50 album credits including 9 solo albums, 7 with his Rocket Scientists prog rock project, and 10 albums with vocalist wife Lana Lane. In 2018 and 2020, Erik appeared on the two albums from Dukes of the Orient, a spinoff of the supergroup Asia, along with former Asia frontman, John Payne. The two co-wrote all of the album's songs and produced 2 videos. Prior to that, Erik toured and recorde with Asia Featuring John Payne for 7 years. Erik also toured extensively in the US and Europe in 2016-2018 with Last in Line featuring original Dio members Vivian Campbell, and Vinny Appice. Before Last in Line, Erik toured with Big Noize, a supergroup featuring hard rock all stars, Joe Lynn Turner, Simon Wright and Carlos Cavazo. Erik also wrote the music and produced the album Roswell Six - Beyond the Horizon in 2009 for science fiction author, Kevin J. Anderson, in support of the first of his Terra Incognita fantasy novels.
Erik also actively works with The Bob Moog Foundation to advance the legacy of the maverick synthesizer pioneer. Erik performed a 2009 concert along with Keith Emerson to open "The Legacy of Moog" exhibit at The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, and the epic "Moogus Operandi" concert in Asheville, North Carolina in 2010.
Erik's studio and live technique integrate classic analog synthesizers and keyboards with leading-edge modern technology giving his stage and studio productions a signature that wholly his own. Although he is quick to deny that he is a "collector," Erik curates an encyclopedic array of vintage keyboard instruments centered around his 1967 modular Moog synthesizer that has been nicknamed "The Wall of Doom" by his fans.
Erik has been featured in the December 2016, February 2013, October 2009 and September 2006 issues of Keyboard magazine in the USA as well as four appearances in the Japanese Keyboard magazine along with multiple appearances in Burrn!, Strange Days, Progression and Electronic Musician magazines, among others. He has been interviewed on numerous radio shows and continues to receive energized reviews in countless publications around the world.
Erik Norlander was born in Hollywood, California, and grew up studying both jazz and classical music on several instruments from a young age through his years at university where he also graduated with a degree in English Literature. He abandoned a masters degree program on the road to becoming an English professor when he realized the call of his music was too strong to resist. He remains an avid reader and occasionally writes for both art and technology magazines. Erik currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Lana, and dog, Fletcher.