Lusine official site | Lusine on Facebook | Lusine on Soundcloud

Trent Moorman official site

Jeff McIlwain has been producing his visceral, melodic strain of abstract electronic music as Lusine for over 10 years now. Originally a Texas native, McIlwain met Shad Scott while living in LA and put out his self titled debut on Scott’s imprint, Isophlux. He relocated to Seattle in late 2002 and began steadily releasing his music on Ghostly International. McIlwain has also contributed tracks to various compilations and remix releases on Mute, !K7, Kompakt, Asthmatic Kitty, and Shitkatapult. In 2009, he released the album, “A Certain Distance”, which featured the single, “Two Dots.” He followed that with another full length, titled “The Waiting Room” in late 2013. His latest release, the “Arterial EP” came out in 2014.

McIlwain has performed throughout the US and abroad, including the SXSW, Mutek, DEMF, Sasquatch, and Sonar festivals, and sets at Red Rocks, London’s esteemed Fabric nightclub, Tokyo’s Unit, and Berlin’s Berghain and Watergate nightclubs. Most recently, he just came off of two tours with The Acid and Bluetech in 2015 and has been playing a series of curated shows with the artist Tipper.

He has been involved in the scoring of various film and commercial projects: coscoring(with David Wingo) the 2008 film “Snow Angels” (with Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell), and “The Sitter” (Jonah Hill) and scoring the 2009 film “Linewatch” (with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Omari Hardwick). McIlwain teamed up with David Wingo again in 2013 to score the film “Joe” (Nicolas Cage), and contributed music to the 2015 film “Our Brand is Crisis” (with Billy Bob Thornton, Sandra Bullock). He is putting the final touches on another album and preparing for several shows in 2016.

Logan Takahashi on Facebook | Logan Takahashi on Twitter | Logan Takahashi on Soundcloud

Like many classically trained musicians, Logan Takahashi didn’t take the techniques he learned at Oberlin Conservatory as gospel. He bent them until they broke, then reshaped all those errant rhythms, melodies, and timbres into an entirely new language while developing widescreen dance tracks in the Brooklyn duo Teengirl Fantasy. Over the past seven years, Takahashi and his former college-mate/fellow producer (Nick Weiss) have released acclaimed records on such respected labels as True Panther Sounds and R&S, collaborated with Kelela, Laurel Halo, and Panda Bear, and scored a Blade Runner-inspired Fashion Week collection for Opening Ceremony.

They’ve been very busy, in other words. So busy, in fact, that Takahashi just finished his first solo album. I started a lot of these tracks as a way to zoom in more closely on some of the musical ideas I was exploring with TGF. When you’re working collaboratively you have to let go a little bit to leave certain things open-ended, when you’re working by yourself you take responsibility for every sound.

It’s hard not to notice every last detail with a template as tight as NoGeo; built on the minimal backbone of an Elektron Monomachine and named after the cross-cultural compositions of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the album is alien yet aliveborderless beats with real blood coursing through its veins. No wonder why one track (“Rekr”) explores the idea that computers are made with organic material like metal, crystals, and magnets.

“I’ve always been drawn to music that exists in grey areas,” says Takahashi. “From Japan’s Neo Geo genre in the late ‘80s to Brooklyn’s tabletop electronics scene in the early ‘00s, I’ve always been inspired by the notion of subverting vocabularies and creating new ones.”

With one record down and more new music on the way, you might need a translator to make sense of it all. Or you could just let the tracks speak for themselves. Takahashi certainly has.

Michna on Facebook | Michna on Twitter | Michna on Soundcloud

Growing up in both NY and Miami, Michna (real name: Adrian Yin Michna) is that unique breed of artist that draws from both the urban and the tropical. As a youngster, Adrian started DJing parties with cassettes and playing trombone in a band on the NYC bar circuit including the infamous Lion’s Den and CBGB’s.

After moving to Miami in the mid-90’s, he co-founded the pioneering Secret Frequency Crew, who deftly mixed instrumental hip-hop and electronic into a coherent whole. Their appropriately titled 12” “Miami Eyes,” became an underground hit. SFC’s debut LP “Forest of the Echo Downs” also put Adrian on Ghostly’s radar as it was one of label founder Sam Valenti IV’s top LPs in 2004. Currently based in Brooklyn NY, Adrian Michna has become a staple in the NYC club scene, known for his

chameleon like abilities. Outside of the club, he has been able to pursue interests such as building furniture, bicycles, skeeball and painting.

Adrian found his stride as a solo artist by bringing together his myriad influences into a succinct sonic persona with 2008’s debut LP MAGIC MONDAY and well-received single “Triple Chrome Dipped”. It was the producers tightly woven musical amalgam of hip-hop, booty , electro and detailed process that made Michna’s debut album move. He followed up his debut with the EGGSTRA EP which leaned more towards a heady mix of hip hop beats and breakbeat.

Four years later, we see a great leap forward in terms of both songwriting and production with a more futuristic house meets hip hop nod on the Moving Mountains EP. In 2015 Michna returned with his second full length album, Thousand Thursday.

Photo Credit: Tonje Thilesen