Hailing from Okinawa, now-Tokyo-based producer IORI once cut his teeth as an assistant for David Mancuso’s revered party, The Loft, in New York City, where he learnt a meticulous sonic mentality from his audiophile mentor. This permeates his carefully-handled arrangements, which have helped make his name and define a series of spacey, atmospheric originals and remixes for proponent imprints like Phonica and Prologue to name but a few. Since his striking 2009 debut, Galaxy, which took its cue from Basic Channel andManuel Gottsching, the Japanese producer has developed an immensely expressive dubbed-out sound in his own right. The first culmination of that is 2012’s excellent Nexus album for Bitta, a label owned by Far Eastern rising star DJ Nobu, seeing his ambient productions sit nicely with his hypnotic dance tunes.

Two year stay in Berlin in early 2010s helped IORI gain a foothold in the international stage. He has since traveled across Europe, validating his characteristic meditative techno set, which is just the tip of his huge musical iceberg that ranges from low-slung house to leftfield oddballs. Despite his return to Japan in 2015, his presence remains strongly felt through frequent European tours. 2016 saw IORI release the Cold Radiance album, where his sci-fi ambient side grew fully- fledged. For an artist that has produced immersive and spacious pieces, it was a logical continuation of his extensive career as a producer. Eschewing the club-orientated perspective, it certainly proved IORI’s expressional depth and does justice to his artistic intention, his acute ears for spellbinding details standing out in sharp relief, which raised expectations of his promising future. (by Yusaku Shigeyasu)

 

 

Twisting her listeners through deep techno and acid sounds to warm house tracks, as dub techno chords, pumping basslines and delicate vocals drift together, Ocean's music is simple but moody, favoring human feelings over machine-like clicks and pops.

 

Currently holding residencies at Hong Kong's top two underground clubs, oma and Social Room, and also serving as Social Room's Music Director, Ocean Lam has been the go-to choice to support touring artists like Sven Vath, Jimpster, Efdemin, Axel Boman, Luke Hess, Nick Hoppner, Namito and Oliver Duetschmann. She has had headlining slots at Hong Kong's seminal arts and music festival, Clockenflap, for five years running, Sonar HK and has played at Wonderfruit in Thailand, Quest festival and Episode in Vietnam, and has regular gigs at various top clubs in the region: Faust (Seoul), Beam (Bangkok), The Council (Singapore), Time (Manila), Elevator (Shanghai), Savage (Hanoi) and The Observatory (Ho Chi Minh City). Ocean has also had a growing number of gigs outside of SE Asia, including notable clubs such as Berlin's Goldengate, Renate, Ipse and Barcelona's Moog, and in other cities including Amsterdam, and Belgium. Ocean has also made the transition to producing her own music, with five releases on HK label Typhoon 8 Records and one on Boulevard Records London.