Aqua Bassino is an alias of Jason Nicholas Robertson, [1] an Edinburgh-based electronic producer and DJ. [2] He has released 2 studio albums, 3 EPs and 4 singles of downtempo and house on F Communications.
Jason was a bass player for several jazz-funk bands before moving to the studio to become an electronic musician. [3] He issued his first EP, Swirl, on the famous French label F Communications, in 1995, followed by three more (Deeper, Pools and Wave) before his debut album, Beat's n Bobs, in 2001, which melded downtempo and house beats with elements of jazz, soul and blues. The album featured Scottish saxophonist Martin Kershaw, British jazz singer Niki King and African diva Nahawa Doumbia, who worked extensively with Frederic Galliano. He dedicated the track "Na Na's Waltz" to his grandmother. [2]
The single "Baby C'Mon" followed in early '02 with remixes by deep house don Ron Trent and Belgian techno producer Fabrice Lig.
In his spare time, Robertson produces laid-back house and downtempo for Statra under his Jay Salino alias.
His music is pervaded by a sense of melancholy, which can be traced back to his upbringing in a desolate, grey, post-industrial Edinburgh. [2]
His debut album, Beat's n Bobs, was met with mixed to positive reviews. AllMusic's Joshua Glazer noted the lounge and jazz influence on the album's sound, as well as its similarity to fellow French musician St. Germain's brand of jazz-house, writing "Sticking with the proven formula of electronic musicians trying to be jazz musicians, Jason Robertson's Aqua Bassino project clearly owes a lot of influence to St. Germain and more importantly, the original smoky lounge jazz from which both artists' music is based." He also pointed a somewhat lack of originality: "To say that Aqua Bassino is predictable would not be entirely fair. To say that it is too safe in some places would be more than appropriate." [4] BBC's Andy Puleston was more enthusiastic, calling it "a sumptuous mix of styles" that "fuses deep house with nu jazz, downtempo and African rhythms to create a sound that is both accomplished and travelled". He added "Boasting variation, subtlety and strong collaborations Beat's n Bobs is a triumphant debut that will be equally at home in the DJ's box as it will be in the CD rack next to your sofa." [5]
Daniel Andrew Williamson, better known as LTJ Bukem, is a British drum and bass musician, producer and DJ. He and his record label Good Looking are most associated with the jazzy, atmospheric side of drum and bass music.
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, bluegrass, punk rock and its locally-developed descendants hardcore and emo, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from District of Columbia was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, The Unifics, The Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Van McCoy, The Presidents, The Choice Four, Vernon Burch, guitarist Charles Pitts, and Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul.
Nu jazz is a genre of jazz and electronic music. The music blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, electronic music, and free improvisation.
Downtempo is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may be played in relaxation clubs or as "warm-up or cool-down" music during a DJ set. Examples of downtempo subgenres include trip hop, ambient house, chillwave, psybient and lofi hip hop.
Ludovic Navarre, known by his stage name St Germain, is a French DJ and musical artist. His style has been described as a combination of house music and nu jazz music.
Jaymz Bee is a Canadian musician, writer, emcee and radio personality based in Toronto, Ontario.
French house is a style of house music devised by French musicians in the 1990s. It is a form of Euro disco and a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance music scene. The defining characteristics of the genre are filter and phaser effects both on and alongside samples from late 1970s and early 1980s European disco tracks. Tracks sometimes contained original hooks inspired by these samples, providing thicker harmonic foundations than the genre's forerunners. Most tracks in this style are in 4
4 time and feature steady four-on-the-floor beats in the tempo range of 110–130 beats per minute. Purveyors of French house include Daft Punk, David Guetta, Bob Sinclar, Martin Solveig, Cassius, The Supermen Lovers, Modjo, Justice, Air, and Étienne de Crécy.
Charles Webster is a British electronic music producer and DJ who specialises in producing house music, amongst several other genres, including downtempo and jazz. He has recorded under his own name as well as under a series of aliases including Presence, Furry Phreaks, and Love From San Francisco, and in collaboration with several other artists.
Groovera was an independent, multi-channel, commercial-free, and listener-supported web-based radio station dedicated to "chill-out music". It was founded in 2005 by Timothy James Quigley, widely known as Tommy Ohmz, in his Seattle, Washington, living room initially as FrostByte Groove Lounge. Specifically, Groovera featured mixes of downtempo, future lounge, nu-jazz, vaporwave, ambient pop, trip hop, psybient and neo-soul, as well as other related and contributing genres. Groovera went offline temporarily in May 2012 and announced on Facebook on June 19, 2012, that Groovera had resumed operation and introduced three new channels: Exotic Lounge, Chill Surreal, and Soul Nouveau. Groovera introduced the VIP Lounge in March 2016 as a way to reward Groovera's contributors and supporters. Groovera New Modern Radio came to an official halt on the eve of what would have been the founder and general manager Tommy Ohmz's 50th birthday, July 29, 2020, at 12:08:13 p.m. Tommy Ohmz was in the process of renewing the Groovera Trademark with his California based attorney at the time of his untimely passing. As of February 2021, the Groovera web site is listed as "under construction". Groovera is no longer in operation.
Ivan Neville is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to the other members of The Neville Brothers.
Ginger is the debut studio album by Dutch electronic music producer Speedy J. Released via a joint deal between Plus 8 and Warp in September 1993, the album was the sixth release in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series, which focused on "electronic listening music" by different artists. It peaked at number 68 on the UK Albums Chart and remains Speedy J's most successful album there.
Shazz, is a French record producer and remixer.
Robert Solheim is an electronic music composer from Norway. His styles are techno and deep/tech-house, downtempo and electronica with a strong emphasis on Nordic sound. Influenced by all kinds of electronic music, he has developed his characteristic style from his first ambient and ambient-techno releases in the 1990s, through down tempo and deep/tech-house and techno for clubs and home entertainment.
DI.FM is an Internet radio broadcaster consisting of over 90 channels dedicated to electronic music, such as house, trance, techno, drum and bass, and dubstep. DI.FM broadcasts handpicked selections consisting of classic, new and up-and-coming hits, as well as weekly and monthly mixed shows from professional DJs. It was founded in December 1999 as a hobby project by Ari Shohat in his Binghamton University dorm room and was one of the first Internet radio stations. It has often been listed as one of the top internet radio stations.
Alexandre Destrez is a French pianist, keyboardist, composer and musical arranger. He is particularly well known for his musical collaboration on the Tourist and Boulevard albums of St. Germain.
Lemongrass is a German music project and record label created by DJ and producer Roland Voss in 1996 and known for music that mixes electronic music, EDM, downtempo, drum-n-bass, lounge, jazz, soul, trip-hop, Chillout, world music, meditation music, deep ambient, New Age and other influences. Roland Voss and his brother Daniel formed the Lemongrass music label in 2005, they have some side projects named Jasmon, Five Seasons and Weathertunes.
Lofi hip hop is a form of downtempo music that combines elements of hip hop and chill-out music. It was popularized in the 2010s on YouTube.
The Sun Ra Arkestra is an American jazz group formed in the mid-1950s and led by keyboardist/composer Sun Ra until his death in 1993. The group is considered a pioneer of afrofuturism. Since 1995 the Arkestra has been led by saxophonist Marshall Allen, an Arkestra member since 1958, who is supported by more than a dozen other musicians.