patten

Emerging from London under the lowercase alias patten, this elusive producer crafts experimental electronic works built from dense samples and stacked sonic layers. His distorted, abstract sound draws from 1980s post-punk and goth alongside foundational Warp artists including Autechre and Seefeel, while also reflecting 2000s strains such as grime, footwork, and deconstructed club.

Operating without external guidance, patten initiated his output in 2006 via the CD-R Lacuna. There Were Horizons followed on his own Kaleidoscope imprint, offered both as a “pay what you like” digital file and a limited mail-order CD-R housed in a 7-inch sleeve containing a foldout poster; Sketching the Tesseract appeared the subsequent year under identical conditions. Recognition arrived in 2009 when the track “Version [Test Mixxx]” circulated widely across online blogs, prompting Pitchfork to designate it a Best New Track and liken it to Liquid Liquid and LCD Soundsystem. Following the well-received 2011 album GLAQJO XAACSSO on No Pain in Pop, patten joined Warp and issued the EP EOLIAN INSTATE in 2013 and the album ESTOILE NAIANT in 2014, the latter featuring graphic design by longtime visual collaborator Jane Eastlight. Also in 2014 he launched the Re-Edits series of digital EPs, which extended into the following decade.

In 2015 patten appeared alongside guest vocalist A at Warp’s 25th-anniversary concert in Poland and, the next year, released the album Psi that again featured A. He then joined Hisham Bharoocha of Soft Circle for an impromptu EP recorded at London’s Barbican Gallery and pressed rapidly to vinyl. Around the same period patten and Eastlight established the 555-5555 creative agency, undertaking projects across graphic design, apparel, and live events. He additionally supplied remixes for artists including Giorgio Moroder and Björk.

The four-track EP Requiem surfaced in 2017, after which patten turned toward live work, touring Japan that year and mounting an installation the following year at London’s Tenderpixel Gallery. Subsequent presentations took place at the Tate Gallery and Somerset House, accompanied by DJ appearances throughout Europe. The club-focused FLEX arrived in 2019, succeeded by multiple 2020 releases: the largely beatless GLOW in July, the more abrasive GLO))) in September, and the abstract techno of Aegis in October.