RVNG Intl. | |
---|---|
Founded | 2003 |
Founder | Matt Werth, David Pianka |
Distributor(s) | Secretly Distribution |
Genre | Electronic, experimental |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | Brooklyn, New York City |
Official website | www |
RVNG Intl. is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2003 by Matt Werth, the label is run by Werth and focuses on experimental dance and electronic music, often incorporating avant-garde genres. Release formats include vinyl, CDs, and digital downloads. [1] In 2011, they were named one of the top 50 indie labels in America by Billboard . [2]
In its nascent years, the label released the mix tape series RVNG PRSNTS MX, which was later followed by the Rvng of the Nrds 12" edit series. The ReRVNG archival series and FRKWYS series continue to this day, the latter of which pairs contemporary artists with influential musical pioneers. [3] RVNG Intl. has also released original albums by artists such as Blondes, The Body, Holly Herndon, Julia Holter, Maxmillion Dunbar, and Stellar OM Source. [4] [5] In 2011, the label began releasing vinyl singles under the Beats in Space imprint, which Werth co-owns with Tim Sweeney. [6]
RVNG Intl. was chosen as Resident Advisor's label of the month in January 2014 and Tiny Mix Tapes included RVNG Intl. amongst their favorite labels of 2015.
In 2016 Gideon Coe hosted “Label of Love is RVNG Records” on BBC Radio 6 and The Vinyl Factory featured RVNG as one of the top “20 Record Labels to Follow on Instagram”. The same year Apple Music Experimental Spotlight was on RVNG Intl.
In 2017 RVNG Intl. was listed as one of the best things/happenings of 2017 by The Ransom Note. The label also participated in the Prelude to Sleep series at Moogfest. An LGBTQ benefit compilation entitled “Peaceful Protest” was produced by RVNG Intl. in 2017, while in the same year RVNG pledged all profits from Bandcamp to benefit the ACLU.
The label is also noted for its charitable program Come Mend, [7] in which a portion of record sale profits are donated to causes chosen by the label's artists.
The record label RVNG Intl. was launched in 2003 by Matt Werth. [3] Werth was born in Madison, Wisconsin and spent his formative years in Little Rock, Arkansas. When he was 15, he started the punk 'zine Potluck and took over the record label File Thirteen. First established as what Werth called a "self-reflective journal fanzine" in 1989, File Thirteen was operated by Werth for 8 years. [3]
In 1996, [3] Werth moved to Philadelphia at the age of 18 [1] to play bass for [3] Aspera Ad Astra. While attending Temple University [3] he met Dave Pianka, and together they came up with the idea of RVNG Intl., which was originally an event production company. [3] A mutual friend, Michael Zwizanski, recommended the name, which is an anti-voweled version of "revenge", much in the style of Primal Scream's XTRMNTR , which had come out around the same time. [3]
Werth said that the label's very first mix was intended for event clients, as proof that the label could select and manage good DJs. According to Werth, "Julian Grefe put together the first RVNG mix ―RVNG PRSNTS MX1, which was basically a spray-painted CD in a spray-painted case." [3] Following the initial mix release, MX CDs became an infrequent series of albums from artists such as Tim Sweeney and DJ Twitch. [3] After six years in Philadelphia, Werth moved to Brooklyn in 2002 [3] in order to work at Flyer magazine. [3]
The record label RVNG Intl was launched in 2003 by Werth. [3] The label is based in its original location of Brooklyn, New York, [6] Packaging is frequently detailed and unique. For example, a 7" vinyl from Purple Brain came with a hand-crocheted case by designer Dani Griffiths and 1000 prints of Pink Skull's Endless Bummer were letter-pressed with 1000 different variations on the album title phrase. [3]
By 2010, the label had put out two original releases: These Are Powers’ Candyman EP and Pink Skull’s Endless Bummer LP. [1] In 2011, they put out albums by Mirror Mirror and Bronze and were named one of the top 50 indie labels in America by Billboard . [2] In 2012, the label released Blondes by Blondes, which Sean Adams, the founder of Drowned in Sound, lauded with a 10/10 review, praising the music as "bliss" and his "eureka moment." [5]
Other notable albums in 2012 included Ekstasis by Julia Holter, which was named Pitchfork's Best New Music and described as "music that's both haunting and life-affirming, something to make you dream and think", [8] in addition to the critically acclaimed "Movement" by experimental composer Holly Herndon.
In 2013, the label released Swisher by Blondes, and notable albums from Maximillion Dunbar, Blondes, Gardland, and Holly Herndon. As of 2014, RVNG has also released a number of singles and albums from the likes of Bing & Ruth and others. Preserving past works from pioneering musicians is another focus, as exemplified by the release of a double LP set from artist and producer Craig Leon (Nommos and Visiting), titled Anthology of Interplanerary Folk Music Vol. 1 and K. Leimer's A Period of Review. [9]
In 2003 the label first released the Rvng presents Mx CD & vinyl series, which included works from artists such as Tim Sweeney, Justine D and Purple Brain. [1]
Starting in 2006 the label began releasing a vinyl series of disco edits, titled RVNG of the NRDS. The series ran for four years [3] with album artwork from Kevin O’Neill of the independent design firm Will Work For Good. [1] According to a review, the series was "carefully riding the edges of the nu-disco zeitgeist thanks to two obvious factors...the caliber of the artists involved, and the quality of presentation from Will Work For Good, a design agency that has helped form the visual identity of the label across its many releases". [3]
Ten Rvng of The Nrds albums were released, [3] including works by Todd Terje, Greg Wilson, and Pilooski. Each artist also contributed to re-edits of songs by artists such as Wire and R.D. Burman. [1]
"The guiding concept behind [FRKWYS] is to bring contemporary electronic artists together with their creative fore-bearers of sorts and allow them to collaborate as inspired." |
— Fact Magazine [1] |
In 2009, RVNG initiated the FRKWYS series, skipping Volume 1 by initially releasing Frkwys Vol. 2. The first edition featured two remixes of the experimental band Excepter, remixed by Carter Tutti and JG Thirlwell and was praised as "evidence of what can make New York music great when its proprietors are willing to sacrifice expectation for innovation." [10] The series title references Moses Asch's label Folkways. [3]
In May 2010, the label released FRKWYS Vol. 3, an album-length collaboration between Arp and Anthony Moore. [11] [12] Arp reworked both original and unreleased music written by Moore in the 1960s, which was the result of working together at Atlantic Sound's Brooklyn studio in September 2009. [1] FRKWYS Vol. 9 had Los Angeles-based artists Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras travel to Jamaica to record with the notable reggae vocal group, The Congos. [3]
In 2011, the label began releasing the Beats in Space series of vinyl singles and albums. [6] In 2015, Fact TV presented a documentary on Beats In Space and ranked BIS 25th in their Top 30 album covers of 2015. The BIS Boat Party at Mareh Festival was also a featured pick by Resident Advisor. In 2015 the Beats In Space 15th Anniversary Mix was named compilation of the month by Mixmag.
In 2016 the first issue of Record Magazine featured an interview with Tim Sweeney. Beats In Space also joined Bandcamp with Tim Sweeney being featured on Bandcamp's radio show.
In 2017 a Beats In Space photo book was featured in Record Magazine.
RVNG Intl partnered with Pete Swanson (formerly of Yellow Swans) in 2017 to relaunch his Freedom To Spend label, along with Portland record store owner Jed Bindeman. The label is described as "concerned with autonomous anomalies produced by musicians working within and outside the limits of technology to create intimate art. By virtue of this, the music of Freedom to Spend resonates across a broad sound spectrum, but thrives without rigid regulation." Freedom To Spend has reissued several overlooked and underheard experimental albums from the past few decades. Freedom To Spend was named one of the best electronic labels of 2017 by The Quietus.
The label has been active in organizing art and music shows, partnering with the likes of the White Columns Gallery in New York City, the Barbican Center in London, and MoMa PS1′s Summer Warm Up series. RVNG worked with the Unsound Festival in Kraków, Poland, [6] and presented a label showcase in April 2014 at Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina featuring Blondes, Holly Herndon, and Craig Leon performing "NOMMOS" with the Asheville Symphony. [13] Also in 2014 the 15th Anniversary of Beats In Space was celebrated at Corsica Studios in London. In 2018 RVNG featured artists and collaborated with Le Guess Who music festival. RVNG was also featured at MoMA PS1 Come Together Music Festival and Record Fair.
The following artists are current as of August 2018: [4]
The following is a complete list (as of August 2018) of artists who have released music as part of the Beats in Space Records series.
The following is an incomplete list of artists who have been included in the FRKWYS series:
The following is an incomplete list of artists who have been included in the Freedom to Spend imprint:
Cat. # | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
RVNGNL01 | 2009 | Endless Bummer | Pink Skull | ||
RVNGNL02 | 2010 | Candyman | These Are Powers | EP | |
RVNGNL03 | Hideous Racket | Allez-Allez | single | ||
RVNGNL04 | The River | CFCF | EP | ||
RVNGNL05 | 2011 | Lover / Hater | Blondes | single | |
RVNGNL06 | Clean Plate | Clean Plate | single | ||
RVNGNL07 | Business / Pleasure | Blondes | single | ||
RVNGNL08 | Psychic Welfare | Pink Skull | |||
RVNGNL09 | Interiors | Mirror Mirror | |||
RVNGNL10 | Copper | Bronze | |||
RVNGNL11 | Wine / Water | Blondes | single | ||
RVNGNL12 | 2012 | Blondes | Blondes | 10/10 review by Drowned in Sound . [5] | |
RVNGNL14 | Ekstasis | Julia Holter | |||
RVNGNL15 | Movement | Holly Herndon | |||
RVNGNL16 | Woo | Maximillion Dunbar | single | ||
RVNGNL17 | House of Woo | Maximillion Dunbar | |||
RVNGNL18 | Ekstasis | Julia Holter | expanded edition | ||
RVNGNL19 | 2013 | Elite Excel | Stellar OM Source | single | |
RVNGNL20 | Joy One Mile | Stellar OM Source | |||
RVNGNL21 | Swisher | Blondes | |||
RVNGNL22 | 2014 | Improvisations | Gardland | live album | |
RVNGNL23 | Syndrome Syndrome | Gardland | |||
RVNGNL24 | "Chorus" | Holly Herndon | single | ||
RVNGNL25 | I Shall Die Here | The Body & The Haxan Cloak | |||
RVNGNL26 | Rewire | Blondes | EP | ||
RVNGNL27 | Tomorrow Was the Golden Age | Bing & Ruth | |||
RVNGNL28 | Home | Holly Herndon | single | ||
RVNGNL29 | 2015 | Platform | Holly Herndon | ||
RVNGNL30 | Nite-Glo | Stellar OM Source | EP | ||
RVNGNL31 | City Lake | Bing & Ruth | |||
RVNGNL32 | Persuasions | Blondes | EP | ||
RVNGNL33 | We Are Not the First | Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl | |||
RVNGNL34 | 2016 | Zelalem | Mikael Seifu | EP | |
RVNGNL35 | The Enlightening Beam of Bobby Brown | Various artists | |||
RVNGNL36 | Catalog Compendium vol. 1 | Various artists | |||
RVNGNL37 | Reassemblage | Visible Cloaks | RVNGNL37-1 is Valve / Valve (Revisited) single | ||
RVNGNL38 | 2017 | The Gradual Progression | Greg Fox | ||
RVNGNL39 | Private Energy (Expanded) | Helado Negro | |||
RVNGNL40 | UkabazUmorezU | Sugai Ken | |||
RVNGNL41 | Peaceful Protest | Various Artists | |||
RVNGNL44 | Lex | Visible Cloaks | |||
RVNGNL43 | Shelly's On Zenn-la | Oliver Coates | Album | ||
RVNGNL46 | 2018 | Anticlines | Lucrecia Dalt | Album | |
RVNGNL50 | для FOR | Kate NV | Album | ||
RVNGNL60 | 2020 | Sea to Sea | Sign Libra | ||
RVNGNL81 | 2022 | Salutations | Various Artists | ||
RVNGNL83 | Volume II | Flore Laurentienne | |||
RVNGNL84 | Advanced Myth | Dialect | |||
RVNGNL85 | ¡Ay! | Lucrecia Dalt | |||
RVNGNL95 | Comradely Objects | Horse Lords | |||
RVNGNL103 | bouquet | Kate NV | |||
RVNGNL82 | 2023 | WOW | Kate NV | ||
RVNGNL86 | soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky | Wayne Phoenix | |||
RVNGNL93 | Paradise Crick | M. Sage | |||
RVNGNL96 | Hidden Beauty | Sign Libra | |||
RVNGNL99 | Reflections Vol. 1: Let the Moon Be a Planet | Steve Gunn & David Moore | |||
RVNGNL105 | Tin Iso and the Dawn | Tristan Allen | |||
RVNGNL106 | SEASON: A letter to the future (Original Soundtrack) | Spencer Doran | |||
RVNGNL108 | Live in Leipzig | Horse Lords | |||
RVNGNL112 | 2024 | Quantum Web | Discovery Zone |
Cat# | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mx1B | 2003 | Rvng Prsnts Mx1B: Julian S. Process | Julian S. Process | CD, 12" vinyl |
Mx2 | 2004 | Rvng Prsnts Mx2: Diabolic & Julian S. Process | Julian S. Process, Diabolic | CD, 12" vinyl |
Mx3 | 2003 | Rvng Prsnts Mx3: Tim Sweeney | Tim Sweeney | |
Mx4 | 2005 | Rvng Prsnts Mx4: Crazy Rhythms | Crazy Rhythms | |
Mx5 | 2007 | Rvng Prsnts Mx5: Justine D | Justine D | |
Mx6 | 2008 | Rvng Prsnts Mx6: JD Twitch | JD Twitch | Subtitled 60 Minutes of Fear |
Mx6TEN | Rvng Prsnts Mx6TEN: JD Twitch | JD Twitch | Subtitled 10 Inches of Fear | |
Mx7 | 2009 | Rvng Prsnts Mx7: Purple Brain | Purple Brain | |
Mx7SEVEN | Rvng Prsnts Mx7SEVEN: Purple Brain | Purple Brain |
Cat. # | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
NRDS01 | 2006 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 1 | The Flying Squad | 12" vinyl |
NRDS02 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 2 | Betty Botox | 12" vinyl | |
NRDS03 | 2007 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 3 | Mock & Toof | 12" vinyl |
NRDS04 | 2008 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 4 | Lovefingers | 12" vinyl |
NRDS05 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 5 | Wade Nichols | 12" vinyl | |
NRDS06 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 6 | Jacques Renault | 12" vinyl | |
NRDS07 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 7 | Greg Wilson | 12" vinyl | |
NRDS08 | 2009 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 8 | In Flagranti | 12" vinyl |
NRDS09 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 9 | Jackpot | 12" vinyl | |
NRDS10 | 2010 | Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 10 | Pilooski | 12" vinyl |
Cat. # | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
FRKWYS02 | 2009 | FRKWYS Vol. 2 | Carter Tutti, JG Thirlwell | 12" + MP3 |
FRKWYS03 | 2010 | FRKWYS Vol. 3 | Arp, Anthony Moore | 12" + MP3 |
FRKWYS04 | FRKWYS Vol. 4 | Psychic Ills | 12" + MP3 | |
FRKWYS05 | 2011 | FRKWYS Vol. 5 | Mirror Mirror | 12" + MP3 |
FRKWYS06 | FRKWYS Vol. 6 | Julianna Barwick, Ikue Mori | ||
FRKWYS07 | FRKWYS Vol. 7 | David Borden, James Ferraro, Sam Godin, Laurel Halo, Daniel Lopatin | ||
FRKWYS08 | FRKWYS Vol. 8 | Blues Control, Laraaji | ||
FRKWYS09 | 2012 | FRKWYS Vol. 9 | Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras and The Congos | ICON GIVE THANK |
FRKWYS10 | 2013 | FRKWYS Vol. 10 | David Van Tieghem x Ten | Fits & Starts |
FRKWYS11 | 2014 | FRKWYS Vol. 11 | Steve Gunn & Mike Cooper | Cantos de Lisboa |
FRKWYS12 | 2015 | FRKWYS Vol. 12 | Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma | We Know Each Other Somehow |
FRKWYS13 | 2016 | FRKWYS Vol. 13 | Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani | Sunergy |
FRKWYS14 | 2018 | FRKWYS Vol. 14 | Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends | Nue |
FRKWYS15 | 2019 | FRKWYS Vol. 15 | Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano | serenitatem |
FRKWYS16 | 2020 | FRKWYS Vol. 16 | Ian William Craig & Daniel Lentz | In a Word |
Cat# | Yr | Single title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
BIS001 | 2011 | "Parfait Tirage" | Paradis | 12", mp3 |
BIS002 | 2012 | "Nebula Sphynx" | Secret Circuit | |
BIS003 | "Hemisphere" | Paradis | [14] | |
BIS004 | "Macsat Ring Down" | Lauer | ||
BIS005 | 2013 | "Afterlife" | Secret Circuit | |
BIS006 | Tactile Galactics | Secret Circuit | ||
BIS007 | "Sum of Love" | Jee Day | ||
BIS008 | Desperate Pleasures EP | Tornado Wallace | ||
BIS009 | "The Noughties" | Gonno | ||
BIS010 | "Break the Dawn" | Crystal & S. Koshi | ||
BIS011 | 2014 | Domino EP | Dukes of Chutney | |
BIS012 | So What EP | Hidden Fees | ||
BIS013 | "Holding On" | House of Spirits | ||
BIS014 | "So You Say" | Matt Karmil | ||
BIS015 | "Yin Yang Theatre" | Jaakko Eino Kalevi | ||
BIS016 | "Gin 'n' Tears" | Guiddo feat. Georges Perin | ||
BIS017 | "Hands & Feet" | Lauer | ||
BIS018 | 2015 | "Kangaroo Ground / Ferntree Gully" | Tornado Wallace | |
BIS019 | Palmbomen II | Palmbomen II | ||
BIS020 | 2016 | "Shoot the Freak" | T & P | |
BIS021 | Beats in Space 15th Anniversary Mix | Tim Sweeney | Mix of previous releases | |
BIS022 | BIS: 001–020 | Various artists | Collection of previous releases | |
BIS023 | Primavera EP | Antenna | ||
BIS024 | "Memories of Cindy Pt. 1" | Palmbomen II | ||
BIS025 | "(Eerie) For Your Love" | Mount Liberation Unlimited | ||
BIS026 | "Good to Me" | Shan | ||
BIS027 | 2017 | "Dawning Light" | Jacques Bon | |
BIS028 | "Memories of Cindy Pt. 2" | Palmbomen II | ||
BIS029 | 2018 | "Memories of Cindy Pt. 3" | Palmbomen II | |
BIS031 | Memories of Cindy | Palmbomen II | ||
BIS032 | Who Are You | E Ruscha V | ||
BIS032 | Midnight Markers | Shy Layers | ||
BIS032 | Woo are you | E Ruscha V. And Woo |
Cat# | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
RERVNG01 | 2011 | Synthesist / Re-Synthesist | Harald Grosskopf / Various artists | |
RERVNG02 | 2012 | Music Is Painting in the Air (1974-1977) | Sensations' Fix | |
RERVNG03 | 2014 | A Period of Review (1975-1983) | K. Leimer | |
RERVNG04 | Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music vol. 1: Nommos / Visiting | Craig Leon | ||
RERVNG05 | An Evolutionary Music (1972–1979) | Ariel Kalma | ||
RERVNG07 | 2015 | Artificial Dance | Savant | |
RERVNG06 | 2016 | Breadwoman & Other Tales | Anna Homler and Steve Moshier | |
RERVNG08 | Tumblers from the Vault (1970–1972) | Syrinx | ||
RERVNG10 | 2017 | Trans-Millenia Music | Pauline Anna Strom | |
RERVNG11 | 2018 | Few Traces | Mark Renner |
Cat# | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
CMMND001 | 2016 | For Haku | RAMZi | |
CMMND002 | Water Falls Into a Blank | 7FO | ||
CMMND003 | 2017 | Parcel | Melanie Velarde |
Cat# | Yr | Album title | Artist(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
FTS001 | 2017 | Eye Chant | Michele Mercure | |
FTS002 | Music Works for Industry | Marc Barreca | ||
FTS003 | Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes | Pep Llopis | ||
FTS004 | Eros in Arabia | Richard Horowitz | ||
FTS009 | 2018 | Music and Poetry of the Kesh | Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton |
Food for Animals were an American hip hop group formed in 2001 near Washington, D.C. The group featured Vulture Voltaire, Ricky Rabbit, Dr. Dan, and HY. Their music was generally categorized as underground hip hop with a strong tendency towards noise music. According to Pitchfork, their latest albums feature a sound best appreciated by "those with a high tolerance for serial grime and a taste for the sharper, harder edge of hip-hop".
Mock & Toof are a British electronic music act formed by Duncan Stump and Nick Woolfson. The duo have released two acclaimed albums, Tuning Echoes (2010) and Temporary Happiness (2012). They have also released music on DFA Records, Mule Music, and RVNG Intl. Mock & Toof have provided remixes for the likes of Hot Chip, The Scissor Sisters, Maps, Miss Kittin, Zero 7, Groove Armada & Friendly Fires.
Syrinx was a Canadian electronic music group active from 1970 to 1972. Propelled by the compositions of keyboardist John Mills-Cockell and backed by saxophonist Doug Pringle and percussionist Alan Wells, the group broke musical ground with their innovative use of the Moog synthesizer and their world music inspirations. Their song "Tillicum" received national attention as the theme music for the television series Here Come the Seventies.
Craig Leon is an American-born record producer, composer and arranger currently living in England. Leon was instrumental in launching the careers of many recording artists including the Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads and Blondie.
Julia Shammas Holter is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist, and academic, based in Los Angeles. Her work has received critical acclaim and incorporates elements of Art pop, Chamber pop, baroque pop and Ambient music. Following three independent album productions, Holter released Tragedy as her first official studio album in 2011. Ekstasis followed in 2012. After signing with Domino Records in 2013, she released the albums Loud City Song (2013), Have You in My Wilderness (2015), the live-in-the-studio album In the Same Room (2017) and the double album Aviary (2018).
Blondes is the debut full-length album by American electronic duo Blondes, released on February 7, 2012 by RVNG Intl. Critical reception was generally favorable, most notably that of Sean Adams, founder of Drowned in Sound, who lauded the album in a 10/10 review.
Laurel Anne Chartow, known professionally as Laurel Halo, is an American electronic musician currently based in Los Angeles, California. She released her debut album Quarantine on Hyperdub in 2012 to critical acclaim; it was named album of the year by The Wire.
Holly Herndon is an American artist and composer based in Berlin, Germany. After studying composition at Stanford University and completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, she pursued a music career internationally. Herndon's music often includes human singing voices, is primarily computer-based, and regularly uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes. She has released music on the labels RVNG Intl. and 4AD. Her third full-length album, Proto, was released on May 10, 2019.
Movement is the first studio album by American electronic musician Holly Herndon, released by RVNG Intl. on 12 November 2012. A music video for the album's title track was uploaded to the RVNG Intl. YouTube account on 29 November 2012.
Tim Sweeney is an American radio host, DJ, and producer, known for his long-running show on WNYU-FM, Beats in Space. Sweeney also runs independent label under the Beats in Space moniker.
Ian William Craig is a Canadian musician known for using broken tape machines. He is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Craig was classically trained in vocal performance and uses modified tape reels to distort his recorded voice. Music magazine Rolling Stone compared his style to that of William Basinski, Grouper, and Anohni. His 2016 Centres was the first release on FatCat's relaunched 130701 record label, which specializes in post-classical music and popularized the music of Max Richter and Hauschka. The album received "universal acclaim", according to album review aggregator Metacritic. Rolling Stone described Craig as the most exciting experimental composer of 2016.
Reassemblage is the second studio album of Portland, Oregon duo Visible Cloaks, consisting of musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. The record is named after Trinh T. Minh-ha's 1982 documentary film of the same name, since both works observe its subject matter without showing meaning to it. Reassemblage departs from Doran's past hip-hop releases for a more high-quality style inspired by the works of Japanese synthesizer music acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, all of which were featured on Doran's 2010 mix Fairlights, Mallets & Bamboo.
"The Colours of Life'" is a composition written and recorded in 2011 by Canadian electronic musician Michael Silver, known by his stage name as CFCF. The 40-minute, twelve-movement track was influenced by what Silver described as "some really cornball music," such as the works of singer Phil Collins and the Windham Hill label. The style Silver went for with "The Colours of Life" was "call waiting background music, just the most pleasant thing and kind of trying to push to the edges of tolerable cheese in some places, but also have it be totally sincere and not ironic, like actually purely pleasurable music."
The River is an extended play written and produced from 2009 to 2010 by Canadian electronic musician Michael Silver, known by his stage name as CFCF. It was inspired by Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo. Described by RVNG Intl.'s press release as a series of "lucid sound sequences from a lunatic mind," the experimental downtempo psychedelic new age EP was analyzed by music journalist Jonny Coleman as the story of a character who is stranded in a rural, tribal land. The River is a set of six original tracks by Silver with digital download versions of the record containing four remixes of songs from the EP by acts such as Jacques Renault, Coyote, and Games. The River was released by label RVNG Intl. on October 12, 2010 to generally positive reviews from critics, some reviewers calling its more modern-sounding cuts to be the best of the entire record.
Lex is a mini-album and partial soundtrack by Portland, Oregon duo Visible Cloaks, consisting of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. Continuing the experimental electronic music stylings and East and West relationship ideas of their previous work Reassemblage (2017), the album takes place in a future utopian world with aliens talking in a hybrid of several languages to the point of speaking a "non-language." The speech sounds on the album were made by Doran feeding dialects and accents to the language translation program Infovox Voice Manager.
UkabazUmorezU, translated in English to "slow and steady wins the race," is the fifth studio album by Japanese musician Sugai Ken and his first LP for the New York-based independent label RVNG Intl. Continuing the ambient electroacoustic style of Ken's previous albums, UkabazUmorezU is a set of musical representations of Japanese folk traditions and "artificial" versions of passageways in the Kanagawa Prefecture during the nighttime. It was released on October 20, 2017 to favorable critical reviews.
Syndrome Syndrome is the debut studio album of Australian techno duo Gardland, consisting of Alex Murray and Mark Smith. It was released by the label RVNG Intl. on 29 October 2013. The album was produced by Gardland based on a deal RVNG Intl. leader Matt Werth made with the duo after he listened to a performance they did on the radio. Recorded in Marrickville[a] over three weeks of improvisational sessions, Syndrome Syndrome is very harsh in tone and has an open-ended style that's unconventional to most electronic music genres. In critical reviews, Syndrome Syndrome was praised for its unique arrangement and sound methods while also being panned for its long length.
Visible Cloaks are an American electronic musical duo based in Portland, Oregon, consisting of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. The duo originally emerged in 2010 as Doran's solo project, in which he explored rare groove new age music and ambient music from Japan. Carlile joined the project in 2014. Scott Wilson of Fact describes their music as "shattering the idea of “fourth world music.”
Alexis Georgopoulos, who often records under the name Arp, is an American electronic musician, composer, and music producer based in New York.
Lucrecia Dalt is a Colombian experimental musician who currently resides in Berlin. While her earlier releases were rooted in electronic dance music, her work has evolved over time to become more overtly abstract and experimental.