Taylor Deupree
Encyclopedia
Taylor Deupree is an American
electronic music
ian, photographer
and graphic designer
. 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 Savvas Ysatis
and Christopher Willits
. In 2008, Taylor Deupree was the Président d'Honneur of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 5th in Paris (France).
group that performed live without the aid of DAT
machines. The group released four albums between 1993 and 1997.
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
.
, 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.
12k publishes what Deupree refers to as microscopic-sound music, which features super-synthetic sounds, and minimal compositions. 12k also has two sub-labels: Line, which was started as a collaboration with Richard Chartier in September 2000, focuses on ultra-minimal digital ambience, and Happy, begun in September 2003, aims to give Japan
ese pop
artists more exposure outside of Japan.
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.
Interviews
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
ian, photographer
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
. He is most known for the founding of the 12k record label
12k
12k is an independent record label, based in Pound Ridge, New York, USA. 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 January 2007, it has released over 40 CDs and become one...
, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, and his collaborations with Savvas Ysatis
Savvas Ysatis
-Early life:Ysatis was born in Athens, Greece, and developed an interest in the synthesizer through exposure to electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre in the late 1970s. At age 15, he left Greece to move to New York City, where he acquired some musical equipment and...
and Christopher Willits
Christopher Willits
Christopher Willits is a musician and multimedia artist located in San Francisco. Willits is "a prominent experimental musician from the San Francisco Bay area" and "a pioneer and a teacher, exploring new methodologies for signal processing.". He has been instrumental in redefining the guitar in...
. In 2008, Taylor Deupree was the Président d'Honneur of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 5th in Paris (France).
Prototype 909 (1993-1996)
A collaboration between Deupree, Dietrich Schoenemann, and Jason Szostek, Prototype 909 was a technoTechno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
group that performed live without the aid of DAT
Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
machines. The group released four albums between 1993 and 1997.
Human Mesh Dance (1993–1997)
Deupree's solo project, Human Mesh Dance, which was begun in 1993 and ended in 1997 was an ambientAmbient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
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
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
.
Work with Savvas Ysatis
Also in 1993, Deupree teamed up with Savvas YsatisSavvas Ysatis
-Early life:Ysatis was born in Athens, Greece, and developed an interest in the synthesizer through exposure to electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre in the late 1970s. At age 15, he left Greece to move to New York City, where he acquired some musical equipment and...
, a Greek electronic artist, to create several different projects, each with different sounds. Seti
SETI (band)
Seti is an ambient electronic band, which is a collaboration of Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree . The duo formed in 1993 in New York.The term S.E.T.I. stands for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence...
produced ambient electronica, with sounds and words from the various SETI
SETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
projects from around the world. Futique was the duo's trip-hop project, and its Detroit techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
output was released under the Arc moniker.
In 1996, the duo formed the short-lived label Index, which released only a single 12" EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, containing four tracks by various artists.
12k
Deupree founded 12k on January 1, 1997, based on the name of the first Arc album, 12k. On the name 12k:12k publishes what Deupree refers to as microscopic-sound music, which features super-synthetic sounds, and minimal compositions. 12k also has two sub-labels: Line, which was started as a collaboration with Richard Chartier in September 2000, focuses on ultra-minimal digital ambience, and Happy, begun in September 2003, aims to give Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
artists more exposure outside of Japan.
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.
Recent
Deupree has stated that he will be focusing on releasing microscopic sounds under his own name for the foreseeable future. He has done collaborations with several different experimental artists.Bands
- Arc (with Savvas Ysatis)
- Drum Komputer (with Schoenemann)
- EOX
- Escape Tank
- Futique (with Savvas Ysatis)
- Human Mesh Dance
- Prototype 909 (with Schoenemann, Szostek)
- Seti (with Savvas Ysatis)
- Skai (with Savvas Ysatis)
- Tiny Objects in Space
- Unit Park (with Schoenemann)
Collaborations
- Frank BretschneiderFrank BretschneiderFrank Bretschneider is a German electronic musician. He works primarily with sine waves and white noise as his source material. He also releases material under the name Komet....
- Richard ChartierRichard ChartierRichard Chartier is a sound/installation artist and graphic designer. Chartier is works in reductionist microsound electronic music, a form of extreme minimalism in which the music is sometimes very quiet, sometimes very sparse, often both.-About:Since 1998, Chartier has created recordings for...
- Eisi
- Tetsu InoueTetsu InoueTetsu Inoue is a producer of electronic music. His style could be described as ambient with a heavy minimalist influence. He has lived in Japan, San Francisco, and New York, and has collaborated with musicians such as Pete Namlook, Bill Laswell, Andrew Deutsch, Jonah Sharp, and Taylor Deupree.His...
- Stephan MathieuStephan MathieuStephan Mathieu is a German musician and sound artist whose work is based on digital and analog processing techniques. He lives and works in Saarbrücken, Germany.-About:...
- Kenneth Kirschner
- Christopher WillitsChristopher WillitsChristopher Willits is a musician and multimedia artist located in San Francisco. Willits is "a prominent experimental musician from the San Francisco Bay area" and "a pioneer and a teacher, exploring new methodologies for signal processing.". He has been instrumental in redefining the guitar in...
- Sawako
Discography
- Freak Of Nature (1996, Tension)
- Bang Bang Machine (1997, Electric Music Foundation)
- Acid Technology (as Prototype 909) (1993, Sonic)
- Hyaline (as Human Mesh Dance) (1994, Instinct)
- SETI (as SETI) (1994, Instinct)
- Mindflower (as Human Mesh Dance) (1995, Instinct)
- Live '93-'95 (as Prototype 909) (1995, Instinct)
- PharosPharos (album)Pharos is an album by the experimental ambient group Seti, which was released in 1995.-Disc 1: "Arecibo":# ".beacon01" – 18:53# ".beacon02" – 6:17# ".beacon03" – 6:20# ".beacon04" – 4:34# ".beacon05" – 6:07# ".beacon06" – 6:54...
(as SETI) (1995, Instinct) - Transistor Rhythm (as Prototype 909) (1995, Sonic)
- CiphersCiphers (album)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.-Track listing:...
(as SETI) (1996, Instinct) - thesecretnumbertwelve (as Human Mesh Dance) (1997, 12k)
- Joined at the Head (as Prototype 909) (1997, Caipirinha)
- Arc vs. Tiny Objects in Space (1997, 12k)
- Alphabet Flasher (as Drum Komputer) (1998, 12k)
- Tower Of Winds (1998, Caipirinha)
- Comma (1998, 12k)
- SPEC. (1999, 12k)
- .N (2000, Ritornell)
- Active / Freeze (with Tetsu Inoue) (2000, 12k)
- Focux EP (2000, Audio.nl)
- Polr (2000, Raster-Noton)
- invalidObject Series (continue) (2000, FälltFälltFällt is an independent publishing house specialising in experimental music, fine art, design and criticism.Established in the mid 1990s by W. Conrad Röntgen and Christopher Murphy as a publishing vehicle for experimental interdisciplinary works, Fällt is now jointly run by W. Conrad Röntgen and...
) - Occur (2001, 12k)
- Tokei EP (2001, Audio.nl)
- Balance (with Frank Bretschneider) (2002, Mille Plateaux)
- Print EP (2002, Audio.nl)
- Stil. (2002, 12k)
- Invisible Architecture #8 (with Christopher Willits) (2003, Audiosphere)
- Post_Piano (with Kenneth Kirschner) (2003, Sub Rosa)
- January (2004, Spekk)
- Mujo (with Christopher Willits) (2004, Plop)
- Every Still Day (with Eisi) (2005, Midi Creative / Noble)
- Live In Japan, 2004 (with Christopher Willits) (2005, 12k)
- Post_Piano 2 (with Kenneth Kirschner) (2005, 12k)
- Northern (2006, 12k)
- Specification. Fifteen (with Richard Chartier) (2006, Line)
- 1am (2006, 12k)
- Landing (2007, Room40)
- Transcriptions (with Stephan Mathieu) (2009, Spekk)
- Shoals (2010, 12k)
External links
Interviews