Biography
Brooklyn-based trio Forma produce analog electronic music that flows warmly and evenly, drawing from Krautrock, minimalism, new age, and ambient techno. The band first appeared via Spectrum Spools on their self-titled debut in 2011 before shifting to Kranky for the 2016 album Physicalist, the point at which acoustic instruments entered their arrangements.
Mark Dwinell, Sophie Lam, and George Bennett—who handles the electronic percussion—established the group in 2010 and promptly accumulated extensive hours of improvised material. Selected recordings from those sessions surfaced on SoundCloud, generating immediate attention within the underground synthesizer community, prompting Spectrum Spools—an Editions Mego imprint overseen by Emeralds’ John Elliott—to issue the self-titled debut in 2011. The label followed with the slightly darker and more streamlined Off/On in 2012. After that release Lam departed, with John Also Bennett of Seabat stepping in as replacement.
In 2014 Forma pursued a more dancefloor-oriented approach on Cool Haptics, a pair of fifteen-minute lush ambient techno pieces issued by the Bunker New York’s imprint. Two years afterward the trio signed with Kranky and delivered Physicalist, their third album and first to integrate acoustic instrumentation. They sustained the blend of electronic and acoustic elements on 2018’s Semblance.
Mark Dwinell, Sophie Lam, and George Bennett—who handles the electronic percussion—established the group in 2010 and promptly accumulated extensive hours of improvised material. Selected recordings from those sessions surfaced on SoundCloud, generating immediate attention within the underground synthesizer community, prompting Spectrum Spools—an Editions Mego imprint overseen by Emeralds’ John Elliott—to issue the self-titled debut in 2011. The label followed with the slightly darker and more streamlined Off/On in 2012. After that release Lam departed, with John Also Bennett of Seabat stepping in as replacement.
In 2014 Forma pursued a more dancefloor-oriented approach on Cool Haptics, a pair of fifteen-minute lush ambient techno pieces issued by the Bunker New York’s imprint. Two years afterward the trio signed with Kranky and delivered Physicalist, their third album and first to integrate acoustic instrumentation. They sustained the blend of electronic and acoustic elements on 2018’s Semblance.
Singles