Rone

Erwan Castex, a producer raised in Paris, shapes his work as Rone into soundscapes that feel simultaneously ethereal and inviting, blending filmic scope with foundations drawn from minimal and experimental techno. His 2009 debut album Spanish Breakfast established a glistening, tuneful techno aesthetic that grew increasingly intricate and wide-ranging over time. Later projects such as Creatures, issued in 2014, and Mirapolis, issued in 2017, brought in contributions from Saul Williams, Bryce Dessner of the National, and Etienne Daho while weaving in orchestral passages, trance influences, intimate ballad passages, and additional elements.

Castex entered the world in the Parisian suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt during 1980 and first presented the Rone alias in 2007 through several co-productions alongside Italian techno artist Lucy. Attention from French producer Agoria led to a 2008 signing with the InFiné label, after which the Bora EP marked his initial solo outing. The single “La Dame Blanche” preceded the arrival of Spanish Breakfast on the same imprint in 2009. Castex relocated to Berlin in 2011 and captured his second album Tohu Bohu, released in 2012 and featuring rapper High Priest from Antipop Consortium. Its standout single “Bye Bye Macadam” gained traction in 2013, aided by a widely circulated animated video and a Juan Atkins remix, while the National enlisted Rone that same year to craft atmospheric backdrops for Trouble Will Find Me.

North American dates alongside Com Truise occupied him in 2014. Creatures, his third album, appeared in 2015 and included Etienne Daho together with the National’s Bryce Dessner among its contributors; an innovative virtual-reality video accompanied the Creatures track “Quitter la Ville.” Castex co-authored the opening piece on Jean Michel Jarre’s Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise, which surfaced in 2016. The EP Vood(oo) also emerged that year, followed by the fourth album Mirapolis in 2017, which featured Saul Williams, Baxter Dury, and Noga Erez. The Mirapolis Remixes EP arrived in 2018 and contained an especially expansive version by Laurent Garnier. “Golden Solitude,” a single with Haitian-Canadian singer/songwriter Mélissa Laveaux, and Motion, a project with Les Siècles Orchestra and pianist Vanessa Wagner, both surfaced in 2019. Room with a View, Rone’s fifth full-length, reached listeners in 2020 and, unlike most earlier releases, contained no guest performers; it was nevertheless realized in tandem with a theatrical production commissioned by the Théâtre du Châtelet and created with choreography collective (LA) HORDE along with dancers from the Ballet National de Marseille.