Kangding Ray

About

Berlin-based French musician David Letellier, aka Kangding Ray, makes pristinely crafted electronic music which places an equal emphasis on avant-garde sound design as well as visceral impact. After first appearing with glitchy, experimental full-lengths such as 2006's Stabil, he subsequently released more club-oriented EPs like 2010's Pruitt Igoe, as well as conceptual LPs including 2015's Cory Arcane. Letellier played in bands as a guitarist and drummer prior to taking up production of electronic music. His debut album for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a>, Stabil (2006), was a sharp, glitchy set that incorporated acoustic and sampled-and-looped elements. Its 2008 follow-up, Automne Fold, was markedly more song-oriented -- a potential gateway into the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a> label's less traditionally accessible releases. The 2010 EP Pruitt Igoe, which featured remixes by <a href="spotify:artist:1zrqDVuh55auIRthalFdXp">Alva Noto</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6qEM4txXHvfMbOUOK9L7pl">Ben Frost</a>, found him sculpting his broken, distorted rhythms into something closer to danceable, and the 2011 full-length OR was a masterful blend of club rhythms and chilling post-industrial atmospheres. In 2012, Kangding Ray began releasing material on the Berlin-based <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stroboscopic+Artefacts%22">Stroboscopic Artefacts</a> label (the explosive Monad XI EP and a split 12" with <a href="spotify:artist:6qavLbYvbSKWqwlz00CoBe">Pfirter</a>), as well as a more streamlined techno 12" for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a> called The Pentaki Slopes. Another <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stroboscopic%22">Stroboscopic</a> EP, Tempered Inmid, appeared in 2013. His fourth full-length, a diverse set of tracks called Solens Arc, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a> in 2014. Cory Arcane, a refined set conceptually themed around a technology-obsessed ballet dancer going through an existential crisis, arrived in 2015. A split single with <a href="spotify:artist:5naKaYAyzzuPDsh4H2dwyT">Rrose</a> appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stroboscopic%22">Stroboscopic</a> in 2016, and the label released the dystopian techno album Hyper Opal Mantis in 2017. Kangding Ray launched his <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ara%22">ara</a> imprint with the Predawn Qualia EP in 2019. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi