Rone (musician)

Rone (born Erwan Castex, June 20, 1980) is a French electronic music producer and artist.

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 » (French 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 2 million times on YouTube.^[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] After touring widely throughout France (Les Nuits Sonores, Les Vieilles Charrues) and abroad (Canada's Osheaga Festival, Belgium's Pukkelpop,...), Rone ended a busy year on October 31 by topping the bill at the prestigious Olympia concert hall in Paris.

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]

In September and October, Rone toured USA and Canada for a second time, sharing the stage with Com Truise.

2015: Creatures

Early February 2015 Rone released his third studio album entitled "Creatures". The 12 track album features collaborations with avant-garde Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, The National (band)'s guitarist Bryce Dessner, Canadian dream-pop/post-folk singer Charlotte Oleena (a.k.a. Sea Oleena), French-Lebanese multi-instrumentalist and singer Bachar Mar-Khalifé, François & the Atlas Mountains' leader François Marry and cellist Gaspar Claus. A French edition of the album also features French rock/pop icon singer Etienne Daho.

Rone's most successful video to date "Bye Bye Macadam", taken from the 2012 Tohu Bohu album reaches over 11 million views on YouTube.

On October 30, 2015, Rone played a sold-out Olympia hall in Paris, the special show featured chord trio Vacarme as well as Etienne Daho and François Marry of François & the Atlas Mountains.

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]

Discography

Studio Albums

Extended Plays

Remixes

Collaborations

References

External links

• Rone homepage
• Rone discography on Discogs