RIVAL CONSOLES (live AV) + SLUMBERGAZE (live)

Rival Consoles

London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, a.k.a. Rival Consoles, creates driving, experimental electronic music that makes synthesisers sound human. His consistent desire to create a more organic, living sound sees him forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the machines.

Over the course of a critically acclaimed fifteen-year career, Rival Consoles’ music has diversified from the challenging output of his early EPs to gradually become more conceptual and metamorphic, such as Articulation (2020) which used drawings and sketches to imagine and develop each track, to Overflow (2021), which explored themes of the human and emotional consequences of life surrounded by advancing technologies and social media.

Now Is marks a new chapter in an ongoing quest for refinement and evolution. More playful and melodic, the album draws from much experimentation in minimalist songwriting and seamlessly blends synthesisers and acoustic instruments. “There are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times,” days West. “There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.”

Slumbergaze

Luxembourgish producer Slumbergaze (Eric Junker) creates gloomy electronica ranging from moody downtempo to high energy industrial productions. An early musical upbringing led him to pick up several instruments and get involved in all kinds of musical projects, from classical orchestras to rock and jazz bands, and to his current focus on producing electronic music. His work is about embracing contrasts: at times, they reject each other to create tension; at others, they merge harmonically – all in a seemingly mundane universe which feels familiar, yet slightly skewed.