Lotus Plaza is the solo project of Deerhunter's Lockett pundt. His debut LP, entitled The Floodlight Collective, was released on March 23, 2009 by Kranky. Pundt has cited his greatest musical influences as being Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine, and Roxy Music, "on a subliminal level." A second album, Spooky Action at a Distance, was released on April 2, 2012.
American indie rock and avant-garde musician, composer and producer Jim O'Rourke has been a key component in the increasing overlap of the American and European experimental music avant-garde, working in everything from jazz and rock to ambient and electro-acoustic and building many a bridge in between. A Chicago native, his work has found equal luck with experimental jazz and noise fanatics, chill room denizens, and bedroom experimentalists, and has had the resultant effect of cross-pollinating many otherwise isolated compositional communities.
Zbigniew Preisner (b. 1955) is one of Poland's leading film score composers, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Preisner was born on 20th May 1955 in Bielsko-Biała. He studied history and philosophy in Kraków; never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself about music by listening and transcribing parts from records. His compositional style represents a distinctively spare form of tonal neo-Romanticism.
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity. His primary instrument was the guitar, but he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, bass, drums and harmonica. Smith had a distinctive vocal style characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery" and use of multi-tracking to create vocal harmonies.
"Aside from being a place most school children would rather be, Outside the Museum is the solo project of Benjamin Catt. Following his move from Sheffield to the slightly more alluring Paris last year, Benjamin recorded a string of inventive and engaging songs that sit somewhere alongside Mount Eerie and Akron/Family. When not selling books for a living, Benjamin experiments with outdoor recordings, found sounds and drones that form the perfect accompaniment to his quiet melancholy songs.
What
Malcolm Middleton's new guitar-focused project
Stars of the Lid are a band specializing in drone-based ambient music. They list among their influences minimalist and electronic composers such as Arvo Pärt, Zbigniew Preisner, Gavin Bryars, and Henryk Górecki, as well as Talk Talk (both bands have tracks named "Taphead"), post-rock artists Labradford, and ambient innovator Brian Eno. Their music largely consists of beatless soundscapes, composed of droning, effects-treated guitars along with piano, strings, and horns; volume swells and feedback fill the gap of rhythmic instruments, providing dynamic movement within the songs.
Sun Kil Moon is the current project of singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek, best known for his previous band, Red House Painters. Sun Kil Moon sees Kozelek undertake all the writing, composing, singing and guitar playing accompanied by Tim Mooney and Anthony Koutsos (also an ex-member of RHP) on drums, and Geoff Stanfield on bass. The band is named after korean bantamweight boxer Moon Sung-Kil. Their debut album, Ghosts of the Great Highway, was written entirely by Kozelek, and released by Jetset Records in 2003.
Julia Shammas Holter is a classically-trained keytarist from Echo Park. After infiltrating Human Ear Music headquarters dressed as an intern, she wrote and recorded her own release on the label. Her music is witty, surreal and optimistic. She plays without sarcasm in the terrains that divide sentimentality, passion, and control. Her songs are written instinctively, and treated with an off-kilter fastidiousness, working orchestral variety from minimal instrumentation.