Rone (musician)

Early steps

Erwan Castex was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. He grew up in Paris. His first EP "Bora" came out in 2008 on the French label InFiné.^[1] French DJ/Producer Agoria selected the track for his mix compilation "At the Controls",^[2] attracting immediate support from a good part of the electronic music scene, for instance in the UK (Massive Attack's 3D, Sasha and London's Fabric resident DJ Lee Burridge).^[3]

2009–2010: Debut album Spanish Breakfast, a change of status

In 2009, Rone released a new maxi, entitled "La Dame Blanche". The track was later remixed by LCD Soundsystem's bass player Tyler Pope and Austrian electronic music artist Clara Moto. The same year he brought out his first full-length album "Spanish Breakfast", also on Infiné. Electronic Beats ranked him in their top 25 Best Albums of 2009.^[4]

2011–2012: Berlin, new inspiration, new album

In 2011, in search of new inspiration, Rone decided to leave his hometown Paris for Berlin.^[5] This led in spring of 2011 to release of the critically acclaimed EP So So So. A second album entitled « Tohu Bohu » (Biblical Hebrew expression meaning chaos) followed in October 2012, likewise on Infiné.^[6] The album featured the single Let's Go, with vocals by US rapper High Priest from New York's Antipop Consortium^[7] Resident Advisor gave the album 4 out of 5^[8] and Rone won three 2012 Trax Magazine awards : Best French Artist, Best Album and Best Music Video.

Tohu Bohu gave rise to three singles : Parade, Bye Bye Macadam and Let's Go. All three singles were promoted by videos, the most successful, Bye Bye Macadam, having been viewed more than 19 million times on YouTube and been shown on Cartoon Network in Adult Swim's Off the Air episode "Worship".^[9]

2013: Tohu Bohu Tour, collaborations and Tohu Bonus

Early in 2013 the US indie band The National asked Rone to add some electronic sequences to their new album "Trouble Will Find Me" on 4AD. Rone added his distinctive to parts of the album. As The National’s lead singer Matt Berninger said in an interview "Rone's work has brought something fresh to our sound, I’m not saying we re-invented ourselves as a band, but we’ve opened new doors"^[10] The same year, Gabriel & Dresden,^[11] Juan Atkins,^[12] Chris Clark (musician)^[13] and Dominik Eulberg remixed respectively the tracks Bye Bye Macadam, Let's Go, and Parade and the godfather of French electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre^[14] was so interested by Rone's productions that he selected two of his tracks to feature on the compilation "Infiné by JMJ"^[15] The album Tohu Bohu was later re-released with a bonus disc with 6 unreleased tracks, one of them features John Stanier on drums^[16]

2014: Apache EP – North American tour

2014 saw the release of the Apache EP, in April.^[17] Simultaneously Rone toured North America for the first time in his career, finishing off with an appearance at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's The Do LaB Stage.^[18][19] In the same year, Rone made remixes for iconic French pop singer Etienne Daho^[20] and Breton (band)^[21]

Testing new technologies

Right before Björk in 2015, Rone releases the first video clip in virtual reality, making him a pioneer in the field.^[22]

He also collaborates with sound engineers from Radio France on binaural versions of the tracks "Apache", "Quitter la ville" and "Acid Reflux", reproducing an audio 3D effect.^[23]

Studio albums

Extended plays

Remixes

Collaborations