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Taylor Deupree (born April 30, 1971), is an American electronic musician, photographer, graphic designer and mastering engineer. He is most known for the founding of the 12k record label, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, and his collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Marcus Fischer, Stephan Mathieu, Savvas Ysatis, Christopher Willits and others. In 2008, Taylor Deupree was the Président d'Honneur of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 5th in Paris (France).
Starting with simple mastering duties when he worked as the Art Director for Instinct Records in the late 1990s, Deupree's work as a mastering engineer became a steady job around 2008 when he relocated out of the city. He works in a purpose-built studio every day mastering music for clients of all genres, but often specializing in electronic, experimental, modern classical and other forms of alternative music.
One of Deupree's early solo projects, Human Mesh Dance, which was begun in 1993 and ended in 1997 while he worked as the Art Director for Instinct Records was an ambient project that was a strong contrast to Prototype 909's more mainstream techno sound. He released three albums as Human Mesh Dance, along with appearances on numerous ambient compilations. Also in 1993, Deupree teamed up with Savvas Ysatis, a Greek electronic artist, to create several different projects, each with different sounds. SETI produced ambient electronica, with sounds and words from the various SETI projects from around the world. Futique was the duo's trip hop project, and its Detroit techno output was released under the Arc moniker. In 1996, the duo formed the short-lived label Index, which released only a single 12" EP, containing four tracks by various artists.
Deupree founded 12k on January 1, 1997, based on the name of the first Arc album, 12k. On the name 12k:
It first came about when Savvas and I named our first Arc CD (on kk records) 12k. We did so because all of the sequencer files for the tracks on the album ended up having file sizes of 12k. It was an intriguing and mysterious title..so we took it for the album. A year later, when i was thinking of label names, I couldn't get 12k out of my head. I was looking for a name that was abstract and technical-sounding, yet at the same time mysterious and would make people wonder what it was about. It was also very important that it had to be easy to say, look good on paper, and be able to be understood and pronounced by virtually anyone in the world, no matter which language they speak. 12k fit all of those requirements. [1]
12k publishes what Deupree refers to as minimalist electronic and acoustic ambient music, which often features a fragile blend of synthetic sounds, tape machines and a range of acoustic instrumentation.
Early productions by 12k were limited to between 500 and 1,000 units, partially because of limited storage space, and also because the small edition size increased the collectability of the albums. Since around 2001, editions became less limited but still started at between 1,000 and 2,000 copies.
Deupree has stated that he will be focusing on releasing solo music under his own name for the foreseeable future. He has done collaborations with several different experimental artists.
In 2022, Deupree acted as mastering engineer for Alanis Morissette's ambient album The Storm Before the Calm .
In 2024, Deupree collaborated with arranger and producer Joseph Branciforte on Sti.ll, an all-acoustic re-imagining of his 2002 album Stil.. Pitchfork called Sti.ll "revelatory" and "a contemporary classical composition of arresting beauty." [2]
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres.
Yellow Magic Orchestra was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.
Uwe H. Schmidt, also known as Atom™, Atom Heart, or Señor Coconut, is a German composer, musician and producer of electronic music. He was active in the development of electrolatino, electrogospel, and aciton music. In the nineties, Schmidt moved to Chile and developed part of his career there, adopting the alias Señor Coconut.
Haruomi Hosono, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres.
The Roland MC-8 MicroComposer by the Roland Corporation was introduced in early 1977 at a list price of US$4,795. It was one of the earliest stand-alone microprocessor-driven CV/Gate music sequencers, following EMS Sequencer 256 in 1971 and New England Digital's ABLE computer (microprocessor) in 1975. Roland called the MC-8 a "computer music composer" and it was considered revolutionary at the time, introducing features such as a keypad to enter note information and 16 kilobytes of random access memory which allowed a maximum sequence length of 5200 notes, a huge step forward from the 8-16 step sequencers at the time. It also allowed the user to allocate multiple pitch CVs to a single Gate channel, creating polyphonic parts within the overall sequence. Due to the high price, only 200 units were sold worldwide, but it represented a huge leap forward in music technology.
Christopher Willits is a San Francisco-based guitarist, electronic music composer and producer, visual artist and scholar. His music is electroacoustic in nature, in that both analogue and digital sounds are meshed into one singular sound.
Stephen Vitiello is an American visual and sound artist. Originally a punk guitarist he is influenced by video artist Nam June Paik who he worked with after meeting in 1991. He has collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Robin Rimbaud and Frances-Marie Uitti; as well as visual artists Julie Mehretu, Tony Oursler and Joan Jonas.
Seti is an ambient electronic band, which is a collaboration of Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree. The duo formed in 1993 in New York City.
Ciphers is an ambient music album by SETI which was released in 1996. It is Ysatis and Deupree's last release under the SETI moniker. This album also features trip-hop and jazz influences, as found in their contemporary Futique releases.
Savvas Ysatis is a Greek electronic musician.
Loscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Morgan launched the project in Vancouver in 1998 while a member of the multimedia collective Multiplex, which curated audiovisual events at an underground cinema called The Blinding Light. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function (loscil) in Csound.
Arovane is the recording name of German electronic music artist Uwe Zahn. He also releases under the moniker Nedjev.
Stephan Mathieu is a German mastering engineer and former musician. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany where he runs Schwebung Mastering, an independent studio for audio mastering and restoration.
Skúli Sverrisson is an Icelandic composer and bass guitarist.
12k is an American independent record label, based in Pound Ridge, New York, United States. It was founded on January 1, 1997, by Taylor Deupree. The label focuses on experimental electronic music, specifically on digital minimalism and contemporary forms; as of 2021, it has released over 100 albums and become one of "the most consistent, and consistently excellent, record companies in the electronic music world." Notable artists appearing in the label's catalogue include Alva Noto and Frank Bretschneider.
Richard Chartier is a sound/installation artist and graphic designer from the United States. He works in reductionist microsound electronic music, a form of extreme minimalism characterised by quiet and sparse sound.
Nicola Corinne Hitchcock is a British singer and songwriter. She is best known for having been one half of the trip hop duo Mandalay. Following the demise of Mandalay, she has worked with various dance music and avant-garde musicians including Chris Brann and Ryuichi Sakamoto but has more recently returned to her solo career.
The Qwartz Electronic Music Awards recognize new and electronic music with awards and grants in music and technologies categories. An annual event takes place in Paris. The Qwartz Awards are presided by the pioneer Pierre Henry. Besides the awards, Qwartz organizes an International New and Electronic Music Market, concerts, parties and conferences. The Qwartz Awards recognize all aspects of contemporary art : music, audiovisual works and graphics, instruments, technological innovations, festivals, medias and new media arts. Pierre Henry, Derrick May, Laurie Anderson, Mathhew Herbert, Björk, Wolfgang Voigt, Otavio Henrique Soares Brandao, Ake Parmerud, Henri Pousseur, Can, Klaus Schulze, Lionel Marchetti in particular have already been awarded with a Qwartz d'Honneur.
Prototype 909 was an American electronic band which was composed of Taylor Deupree, Dietrich Schoenemann and Jason "BPMF" Szostek which was formed in 1993 in New York, NY.
Joseph Branciforte is an American musician, composer, record producer, and Grammy-winning recording engineer. He is the founder of the greyfade record label.
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