Somni

Leo Shulman crafts the electronic project Somni from his Los Angeles base, where his colorful mix of melodies, rhythms, samples, and distinctive textures first surfaced in complete form on the 2018 album Bloom.

Born in England to a musical household, Shulman moved with his family to the United States at age eight. He trained in jazz at New York’s New School, then shifted to Los Angeles and absorbed the rhythms of hip-hop alongside electronic music. Releasing the Monuments EP in 2013 under the alias ALEOS, he presented listeners with a glitch-hop sound built on dense sampling and experimental edges. Over the following four years he kept sharpening that direction until resurfacing in early 2018 on the Friends of Friends label as Somni. The imprint’s first offering from the project was the single “Overgrown,” a collaboration with West Coast producer Nabeyin. Bloom arrived that August as Somni’s debut full-length.