Born in 1982 and a resident of Los Angeles since 2005, Gengras has defined his practice with the art of synthesis. Starting with a string of short-run cassettes detailing the interior curvature of his well-worn vintage budget level Moogs & moving into the more diverse sonics of modular synthesis explored on recent releases like ISHI (Leaving Records/Stones Throw), the focus has remained, sculpting new sounds from raw voltage & creating engrossing sonic environments. In addition to two prolific solo careers (counting his dance-music alter-ego Personable), Gengras is an avid collaborator and has recorded and performed with The Congos, Akron/Family, Sun Araw & members of the Grateful Dead & Cold Sun. He is also the co-founder (with Sun Araw's C. Stallones) of Duppy Gun Productions, which pairs contemporary left-field producers with Jamaican vocalists to create new vision dancehall-influenced tracks.

Solidarity Hymn consists of Andy Othling and Steven Kemner. Their debut album For a Wandering Beam of Sun was written and recorded in Albuquerque, NM at Andy's studio, and balances the subtle differences between their own ambient guitar and textural styles.

Max Richter trained in composition and piano at Edinburgh University, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence.

On completing his studies, Max co-founded the iconoclastic classical ensemble Piano Circus, where he stayed for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich.

In the late 90s he worked with a number of electronic artists, notably Future Sound of London on their album 'Dead Cities". He subsequently collaborated with FSOL over a period of two years, also contributing to the albums "The Isness" and "The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness". Max also collaborated with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size, on "In the Mode".

In June 2002, Max released his debut solo album, "memoryhouse", recorded with The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. This was followed in March 2004 by FatCat's release of "The Blue Notebooks", with featured readings by Tilda Swinton.

In 2005 Max produced Vashti Bunyan's outstanding comeback album "Lookaftering".

2006 saw the release of "Songs From Before" based on Haruki Murakami texts read by Robert Wyatt. That same year, Max began performing "from The Art of Mirrors", an evolving score to previously unseen Super 8mm films of Derek Jarman.

Max's more recent work continues to stretch the notions of what Classical music is.  ‘24 Postcards In Full Colour’, released in August 2008, is an experimental work made up of 24 composed ringtones.

Max works widely in film music, installation and the theatre, most recently on INFRA, made with Wayne MacGregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet, London. The Ballet was the subject of a BBC 'making of' documentary.

Max was named 2008 European Composer Of The Year for his score to Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir, for which he was also nominated for the Prix France Musique.

Uploaded twice monthly (if possible), Midnight Fires is an ongoing spotlight on excellent Ambient music from artists both large and small.

Old episodes can be found on Mixcloud.

If you wish to submit a track for consideration, please send it via SoundCloud message.

Email contact: auroraprinciple@gmail.com

Village Green Recordings is a British independent label reshaping the landscape of minimalism, classical and electronic music.

NTS is a global radio platform broadcasting music from over 50 cities around the globe, live 24/7.

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