Effective period / Period of releases: 1981 - 1984

Members: Hugh Ragin, Mark Piersel, William Sharp, Steve Scholbe, Mark Derbyshire, Larry Wilson, Randy Yeates, Tom Katsimpalis, Amy Derbyshire, Torger Hougen, Sara Thompson, Karen Nakai, John Herdt, Joy Froding, Dana Sharp, Stan Starbuck, Ken DeVries, Heidi Eversley, Mareye Yeates, Kay Tuttle, James Dixon (8), Ann Stretton

Mnemonists is a collective of avant-garde musicians from Colorado (rooted in the ensemble:Mnemonist Orchestra), led by Mark Derbyshire and William Sharp. Their music is a mixture of modern classical, experimental sounds, noise, industrial, avant-garde and free jazz. Their releases were published by their own self-produced label Dys between 1981 and 1986. By 1985 the group had split off into separate groups for visual and audio work. From that time, Mnemonists operated only as a visual arts collective while the musical activity was taken over by a new group called Biota that featured a few of the musicians involved with Mnemonists as well as many new members. The two groups co-exist and share only a few members.