Sam Prekop

A fixture in Chicago's underground music circles for years, Sam Prekop first established his reputation through the post-rock textures he helped shape as a member of the Sea and Cake, later extending that foundation into a series of exploratory solo projects. His initial foray arrived with the self-titled 1999 release, after which his approach moved away from the airy, post-rock leanings tied to his primary band and toward modular-synthesis experiments documented on Old Punch Card in 2010. Entering the 2020s, Prekop focused exclusively on rhythm-oriented instrumental electronic music, first uniting with Sea and Cake associate John McEntire for the purely instrumental duo album Sons Of in 2022 before issuing his own electronic efforts such as Comma in 2020 and The Sparrow in 2022.

Earlier acclaim had come while fronting Shrimp Boat, after which he assumed leadership of the Sea and Cake, a group whose inventive blend of rock and non-rock elements remained both daring and accessible. Given his prominence within the local scene, the 1999 solo debut on Thrill Jockey naturally drew an accomplished roster of Chicago collaborators, among them Chad Taylor of the Chicago Underground Duo, Josh Abrams of Town and Country, Jim O'Rourke, and Sea and Cake guitarist Archer Prewitt. That record presented a more understated and earthy counterpart to the Sea and Cake's sound, folding African rhythmic influences into soul, jazz, and pop frameworks. With the Sea and Cake continuing as an active unit, Prekop's next solo outing, Who's Your New Professor, did not appear until 2005.

A decisive pivot occurred with the third album, Old Punch Card, issued by Thrill Jockey in 2010 and built almost entirely around electronic sources. Five years afterward came The Republic, another set of synthetic instrumentals constructed from modular synthesizers, drum machines, and related equipment; half its tracks originated as cues for a video installation by David Hartt. Prekop sustained this direction in 2020 with Comma, whose luminous, forward-looking palette emphasized rhythmic electronic motion.

The 22-minute instrumental piece "Saturday Sunday" surfaced in June 2022, followed one month later by Sons Of, the first full-length collaboration with longtime Sea and Cake bandmate John McEntire. That collection contained four extended electronic instrumentals shaped around modular-synthesizer textures, one of which began as a live improvisation before studio refinement. Later in the same year Prekop returned with the solo album The Sparrow, employing his customary modular rig alongside polyphonic keyboard synthesizers to create lean compositions partly drawn from the soundtracks of lesser-known 1970s films.