Labradford

Labradford, an experimental ambient/post-rock ensemble hailing from Richmond, Virginia, features bassist Robert Donne, guitarist and vocalist Mark Nelson, along with keyboardist Carter Brown. Electronics join non-traditional arrangement and production methods in the trio’s soundtrack-y sonic landscapes, whose effects-heavy textures align closely with the work of Experimental Audio Research, Flying Saucer Attack, and Gastr del Sol, earning widespread acclaim across disparate listener circles. Releases have appeared on the American independent labels Merge and Kranky, the New Zealand rock imprint Flying Nun, and Stereolab’s Duophonic imprint. Although vocal and rhythmic components surface from time to time, the group most often pursues a drone-based approach, combining looping guitar treatments and extended keyboard passages with fragments of barely audible speech and various found sounds on such albums as 1994’s Prazision, 1995’s Stable Reference, the self-titled 1996 release, and 1997’s Mi Media Naranja. In 1999 the band issued E Luxo So while touring alongside Godspeed You Black Emperor! on the latter’s Festival Of Drifting series, whose lineup also included Pole, Matmos, and Papa M. Two years afterward came the ultra-minimal Fixed::Context.