ORDER 'Odyssey' on 12"/DL: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP052
ORDER 'Odyssey / Sonne' on CD: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP069
GET TICKETS:
http://www.erasedtapes.com/artists/events/5/Rival+Consoles

This month will see Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles debut his new live set, restricting himself to a small selection of analogue equipment such as the Moog Voyager, Prophet and tape delay, as he supports Luke Abbott on his UK tour.

In celebration, Rival Consoles offers his fans a free download of the title track 'Odyssey' – a reflection of his quest to create atmosphere and space from minimal arrangements. His new EP also features label friend Peter Broderick and is available now on Erased Tapes.

LINKS: facebook.com/rivalconsoles · twitter.com/rivalconsoles · www.erasedtapes.com

Odyssey

Rival Consoles – Odyssey

Buy Projections Double LP vinyl / Stream / Download: https://ffm.to/projections

Respected producer, DJ and sound designer Alex Banks presents his third studio album ‘Projections’, returning to Max Cooper’s Mesh imprint. The work follows up critically acclaimed releases on Modeselektor’s Monkeytown, Ninja Tune, where he remixed Bonobo, and his sublime sophomore album ‘Beneath the Surface’ from 2019.

Produced in his studio in Brighton, UK, the album is an immersive nine-track masterstroke covering the gamut of electronica, techno, breakbeat, bass and IDM, fit for clubs and home-listening alike. The project was born in the early stages of 2021. With little outside stimulation to draw inspiration from, Banks
invested in new gear including a Moog Matriarch, DFAM and a host of Eurorack Modules - and set about immersing himself in the possibilities of his new semi-modular synths. In terms of sonic reference points, he found himself in new territory, too. “Usually going to a club night, or concert, or even the
simple things in life that you take for granted all feed into a melting pot of things that inspire me to create. But without these, I instead found myself drawing on memories of experiences, and imagining new ones for the future to come. I began to feel like these were projections, almost like memories of experiences I had been projecting via the music I was creating,” he shares, adding that memories of clubbing trips to Berlin, London and Brighton fuelled his vision for the album.

Furthermore, the seclusion we collectively experienced allowed Banks to philosophise on the nature of human connection, which fed into the album concept: “I started to think about how during our period of relative isolation, we are all projecting into the digital ether, searching for a connection in an increasingly virtual world where shared human contact and experiences have
become scarce.”

Projections

Into The Realm

Ryan Lee West reinforces his unique style of minimal electronic arrangements with a new 6-track EP – 'Sonne' out on Erased Tapes.

ORDER 'Sonne' on 12"/DL: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP059
ORDER 'Odyssey / Sonne' on CD: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP069
ORDER via iTunes:
http://snip.ftpromo.net/sonne
GET TICKETS:
http://www.erasedtapes.com/artists/events/5/Rival+Consoles

Continuing on from his Odyssey EP released in 2013, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles creates atmosphere and space whilst exploring waves of sound and rhythm, and the power of colour. With Sonne Ryan creates music to structure itself around a pulse, rather than the pulse being the defining point. 

The title track begins with “a very subtle set of melodies that repeat almost without confidence, and then gradually give way to a huge collage of colour and power”, as Ryan describes it. Not relying on a conventional beat, it’s a prime example of how an analogue synthesiser can create the power and momentum of a rhythm section. From the distorted waves in 3 Chords, growing and shrinking, to the rhythmic waves of constant speeding up and then slowing down in Recovery, it’s the Moog Voyager, Prophet and tape delay that make up the core sound of the EP. Whilst tracks like Helios, Haunt and Think Tank see West play live drums and acoustic guitar.

“I’m often looking at art in exhibitions and I always think to myself ‘why the hell don’t I have this much colour in my work?’ The answer in part I think is down to synthesis. It is very difficult to create colour without it sounding plastic. Colour in music is both the note combinations and the actual timbre of the sounds. There are lots of instances of very colourful ambient sounds, which I took great care to create for each song, using various methods – from passing analogue synths through chains of effects to chopping up random sequences of recordings and forming tiny collages." – Ryan Lee West 

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:  

Resembling the colour and vibrancy in his music, the cover art was created by South London artist Supermundane, who was also responsible for the artwork of the Odyssey EP.

TRACK LISTING:  	

A1. Sonne  A2. 3 Chords  A3. Helios  B1. Haunt  B2. Think Tank  B3. Recovery 

PRESS FOR ODYSSEY EP:

'Glorious...unabashedly epic...’ – Dummy
'Atmospheric synths swell victoriously' – XLR8R
‘Rival Consoles, is the likes of Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds' glitchy, electronic cousin’  8/10 – The 405


ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Some might be surprised that London based electronic producer Ryan Lee West, the man behind Rival Consoles, shares a home with contemporary classical composers such as Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds and Peter Broderick. And yet they have a lot more in common than expected. Fascinated by sound from an early age, Ryan chose to dedicate his time to studying, experimenting with and producing sound graduating from De Montfort University in Leicester. One consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound. Ryan often drafts early ideas on piano, violin and guitar, although the end result is much more electronic-laden. As an accomplished sound designer he has repeatedly performed at the Tate, and recently created a bespoke audio-visual performance for Boiler Room at the V&A. Ryan is currently composing music for a soon to be announced BBC production.

LIVE:	
	
After supporting Luke Abbott on his recent UK tour and I Break Horses on their North American tour in spring, Ryan will debut his new live set with a special release show in London, followed by a string of West Coast U.S. dates culminating in Decibel Festival in late September – more details to be announced soon. 

OFFICIAL WEBSITES: www.facebook.com/rivalconsoles · www.erasedtapes.com

Sonne

Recovery

Buy 12"/DL

Rival Consoles - Recovery

(2025)No, I regret nothing![Piaf-Tribute]😏 (New improvised work, inspired from Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Édith Piaf in progress, not finished!) [Update 5!]
*🎹 Software instruments: Synapse Audio "DUNE 3", Arturia "Analog Lab V", Roland JD-800, Roland JV-1080. Korg M1, Korg Wavestation, Korg Triton and U-He Hive 2.
{Recycled and remixed sounds, bits & pieces from my earlier work, plus many new sounds from Synapse Audio "DUNE 3" and Arturia "Analog Lab V". 
Edited sample from: Édith Piaf - "Non, je ne regrette rien" 1960, (Symphonique, orch. Martin Batchelar). 
Edited sample in the beginning from: Genesis "In the Cage" from "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" - , 1974, (2025 Remaster). 
Edited sample at the end from: Genesis "Deep In The Motherlode" (live)-2000 Archive No2 1976-1992, from "Genesis...And Then There Were Three...", (1978). 
*Hardware instrument: "Arturia Keystep 37". 
*Inspired by: Kosmische musik/Cosmic music, Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese, Jerome Froese, Christopher Franke, Johannes Schmoelling, Peter Baumann, Klaus Schulze, Thorsten Quaeschning, Gary Numan, OMD, Kraftwerk, Tony Levin, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno, Moby, Vangelis, Bladerunner, Jean-Michel Jarre, Rupert Hine, New Age, Kate Bush, Terry Riley, Ralph Lundsten, Ludwig Göransson, Pink Floyd, Enigma, Genesis, Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Hans Zimmer, Robert Fripp, Simple Minds, The Human League, Larry Fast/Synergy and Édith Piaf.

No, I regret nothing![Piaf-Tribute]😏(2025)

A live stochastic experiment 
with four of Cherry Audio's 
Mercury-8 Jupiter synthesisers. 

Sinope

LNT: http://po.st/olafurLNT  
iTunes: http://geni.us/LNTolafurarnalds
Bandcamp: http://po.st/olafurBC 

Standing at the intersection where techno meets classical music, Ólafur Arnalds directs the new Late Night Tales.

“When I was asked to do the next installation of the Late Night Tales series I thought "This will be fun and easy, only a couple of days work. No problem!". Six months later, I was still pulling my hair out in some kind of quest to make the perfect mix. As someone who has never really done mixes before, I learned a lot of things along the way and the whole experience was very inspiring. I decided to approach the mix in a similar way as I would one of my scores. This is the soundtrack of my life. I included songs from many of my friends and collaborators and tried to deliver a mix that represents who I am as an artist and where my influences are coming from - both personally and musically.”
- Ólafur Arnalds, March 2016

Follow Late Night Tales:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latenighttales1 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LateNightTales
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/latenighttales
Instagram: http://instagram.com/latenighttales

Follow Late Night Tales:

Web: http://latenighttales.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/latenighttales1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LateNightTales
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/latenighttales
YouTube: http://youtube.com/latenighttalestv
Instagram: http://instagram.com/latenighttalesofficial
Spotify: http://goo.gl/Q98T7d
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/curator/late-night-tales/1233898093
Bandcamp: https://latenighttales.bandcamp.com/

Late Night Tales: Olafur Arnal

Kiasmos - Orgoned (Late Night Tales: Ólafur Arnalds)

I'm excited to announce the first track from the 'Emergence Remixed' album which will be released in full at the end of March.

This remix comes from one of my absolute favourite electronic producers of the last few years, and someone who is constantly surprising me with each new release - Rival Consoles. 

I've been playing his work in my sets a lot recently too, he's got a great humanised approach to making electronic music, primarily with his hands-on analogue machines and live percussion, which give his tracks a whole load more life than most other producers. 

I have to mention Rival Consoles synth work too, which for me, is the best out there by a mile. He's got a knack for the most beautiful timbral quality and soft full sound. Complemented with his ability for hooks and chords and always developing arrangements, makes for some of the best electronic music out there in my opinion.

So all that said, you can see why I said I was excited to have him involved in the remix package! He's made a brewing club track for this package, all about those beautiful synths and micropitch deviations for me, the quality oozes out with him needing to overcomplicate the mix (like I do!). It's really hard to get each element to such quality to carry a track like that....so hats off from me, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Loads more amazing remixes coming soon from more of my favourite producers - it's a juicy package! We'll put some out to the mailing list first, which you can join below at the end of this description.

The artwork is by Andy Lomas, from his Aggregation series, where he created a simulation of sticky particles which bounce around and are more likely to stick to larger structures, causing biological-esc growth-like structures to emerge. I have one of his huge prints from this series on my wall, the detail at high res is amazing. 

The series was chose for the Emergence album packages as it demonstrates the same principles of mathematical rules yielding unexpected and beautiful outcomes as is shown in the visual story to which the album tracks were scored. Lots of those videos are on this youtube channel, and the whole thing will be released in surround-sound bluray format later this year.

From 'Emergence Remixed', out March 31
Pre-order 'Emergence Remixed' http://MaxCooper.lnk.to/Remixed
Buy 'Emergence' http://MaxCooper.lnk.to/Emergence
Subscribe to hear the next remixes first, free mixes, gig tickets etc (the "JOIN" button is top right): http://www.maxcooper.net

12"/Download/LP Stream

Distant Light (Rival Consoles Remix) [Mesh002]

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles has announced his fourth full length album 'Persona' will be released on 13th April via Erased Tapes.

The title 'Persona' was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name, specifically a shot in the opening credits of a child reaching out to touch a woman’s face on a screen, which is shifting between one face and another. This powerful image struck Ryan and it inspired the album’s main theme — an exploration of the persona, the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us, the spaces in between; between states, people, light and dark, the inner persona and the outer persona. 

"My music is generally is generally inward looking. I like finding something about the self within music, that doesn't have to be specific but maybe asks something or reveals something. This record is a continuation on the self through electronic sounds. Like Legowelt once said ‘a synthesiser is like a translator for unknown emotions’, which I think sums up what I am trying to do. I think all these emotions we have make up our persona. So in a way by finding new ones you alter or expand your persona. And that is what I want my music to try to do. I deliberately aimed to be more sonically diverse with this record. I wanted to experiment more. I wanted to create new sounds and new emotions.”

Recorded at his studio in south-east London, ‘Persona’ benefits from Ryan’s exploration of a dynamic production process that combines analogue-heavy synthesisers, acoustic and electric instruments with a shoegaze-level obsession with effect pedals. A greater depth of emotion and confidence can be heard across the album. From the deconstructed movements on ‘Unfolding’ that starts the album with a snap of delayed snares, the apocalyptic drones of the title track and thundering drums in ‘Phantom Grip’ to more  restrained ambient feels of ‘Dreamer’s Wake’, ‘Rest’ and ‘Untravel’. The latter transverses six beatless minutes of undulating melodies representing “a limbo space, a feeling of ennui, of not really ever being known to others and others not ever really being known to you”.

'Be Kind' reveals a musical connection with fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm, with its minimal approach and improvisational nature. On the more complex sounding ‘I Think So’ Ryan aims to replicate a colour collage with sound. Like a musical kaleidoscope, a flashing and convoluted mass. Written after he saw Slowdive perform live last year, ‘Hidden’ builds from whispers to landscapes of controlled noise. In an interview with XLR8R magazine, Ryan explains: “once you start trying to make a sound loud, then you turn your back on thousands and thousands of sonic possibilities. One of the best things to do is to start a track with a really quiet, weak sound.” Taking this idea to its ultimate conclusion, ‘Fragment’ closes the album as an innocent sounding ambient piece, almost nursery rhyme like, yielding time for reflection on how the persona has changed.

'Persona' follows the success of a series of releases — the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Sonne’ EPs, long player ‘Howl’, and 2016’s mini album ‘Night Melody’ — that saw Ryan mature into what Pitchfork has called a “forward-thinking electronic musician with his own ideas about sound”. Atypical of instrumental-electronic music, Ryan has achieved a signature sound that’s unmistakably identifiable as Rival Consoles. Going beyond typical electronic music production, Ryan defines it as “songwriting with an electronic palette of sounds”.

The increasingly dynamic live audio-visual show, born from bespoke performances at the Tate and for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP, has propelled him to play around the world. Ryan launches ‘Persona’ at London’s XOYO on 12th April with further dates to be announced.

Persona

Unfolding

Buy 2LP/CD/DL

Rival Consoles - Unfolding

The next preview of my new album is out today. It is repetition, that seemingly boring thing which gives us all the magic of music, with its repeats inside repeats.

The track was written for a video chapter of the new AV show story "Yearning for the Infinite". The visualisation shows our cities as duplicated animated structures stretching off into the infinite distance (which I'll post very soon), and tells the story of our endless societal growth, with the music telling the same story by what means it can. Perhaps you'll find it a maddening listen, I hope not. For me there's always been something special about musical simplicity, like there's nowhere to hide, and if there's only two chords, they better be good ones. Also the track is for escaping the 5 second socials attention span thing, it needs a few minutes to work, ideally eyes closed headphones on, if you can spare me the time I promise it will be worth it!

Listen to Repitition here: https://ffm.to/pdn5ban

Artwork by Renick Bell

Repetition

BRAIDS are one of my favourite bands, so when I had the chance to work with them I jumped on it. The vocals were the starting point, which I layered and used to generate a general feeling also in fitting with the lyrics, which then defined how I built the rest of the tracks around them. The first one from the EP is "Pleasures", for which I wanted to make something positive and warming, with nice straightforward drums and nothing too harsh in terms of builds and drops, just a delicate flow to give a pleasurable listening experience, hopefully!

Max Cooper Feat. BRAIDS - Pleasures

Rival Consoles has shared a second single, 'Vibrations on a String', taken from his forthcoming new album 'Articulation', released on 31 July. 

"Vibrations on a String was one of the earliest pieces I made for the record. The title is a direct reference to the behaviour of the main synth: I was trying to mimic playing a guitar string both softly and aggressively. I think a part of me is often trying to mimic the physical world with synths. There is something mindful about observing things and making sense of them, and once you try to recreate something in a different medium it feels like there are new opportunities to explore." — Ryan Lee West

'Articulation', which follows 2018’s 'Persona', was conceived with a very visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process Ryan drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer. The album title references a piece by the avant-garde contemporary composer Györgi Ligeti, though not for its music, but for the non-traditional graphic score that accompanied it.

Since the release of 2018's 'Persona', Ryan contributed an exclusive track 'Them Is Us' to Adult Swim’s coveted Singles series and shared the beautifully textured solo piano piece 'Winter’s Lament' on this year’s Piano Day. He has also been in high demand as a composer, scoring Charlie Brooker’s much talked about Black Mirror episode Striking Vipers, composing original music for Secret Cinema presents Stranger Things as well as renowned choreographer Alexander’s Whitley’s groundbreaking new work 'Overflow', which was set to premiere at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre this spring.

Articulation

Vibrations on a String

Stream & order LP · DL

Rival Consoles - Vibrations on a String

Founded by sonic architect and explorer Robert Raths aka ghostworker in 2007, Erased Tapes is a truly independent record label that has disrupted the industry and rejuvenated the musical landscape. The London-based label has consistently nurtured genre-defying artists from all around the world without losing its avant-garde ethos.

2015 saw BBC 6 Music radio presenter Mary Anne Hobbs stage an Erased Tapes evening featuring Nils Frahm and A Winged Victory For The Sullen at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the prestigious BBC Prom. It was the fastest selling ticket of the entire season. Shortly after Erased Tapes was awarded Best Small Label 2015 at the AIM Awards.

On February 5th 2017 Erased Tapes opened the doors to its new East London home, marking the 10th anniversary by introducing fans and the public to the new Erased Tapes Sound Gallery.

“Ten years of one of the most important record labels of the last few years“ — Gilles Peterson

"Over the last decade, Robert Raths’ label Erased Tapes has developed a sonic profile perfectly in step with the growing taste for quiet, meditative works on the cusp of ambient and chamber music" — The Independent

“The heart-string-tugging London label that floats gently between 20th century composition and ambient music” — Rolling Stone