Taylor Deupree

Electronic musician Taylor Deupree maintains an active presence across multiple roles, serving as a recording artist while also working in graphic design and audio mastering, all while directing the minimalist imprint 12k. Across projects he reveals contrasting approaches, shifting between atmospheric textures and rhythmically intense, drum-machine-focused techno. From the early through late 1990s he performed in the acid techno trio Prototype 909, whose fast-paced beats and sharply distorted, tweaking noises aligned closely with the prevailing rave aesthetic of the period. His involvement with the group strengthened his identification with drum machines, earning him the nickname Taylor 808. Even during Prototype 909’s mid-decade peak, Deupree pursued ambient explorations through SETI alongside Savvas Ysatis and through the solo outlet Human Mesh Dance, which favored gentler electronic palettes. Since the late 1990s nearly everything he has issued appears under his own name, encompassing glitch-inflected minimal techno on the 1998 album Comma and several early-2000s 12-inch singles for Audio.nl, left-field electro-pop on 2005’s Every Still Day with Eisi, and electro-acoustic drone on 2010’s Shoals. Additional releases have paired him with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Christopher Willits, and Richard Chartier. In 2024 he returned to his earlier glitch album Stil. for an acoustic reinterpretation titled Sti.ll.

Residing in Brooklyn, New York, Deupree first gained recognition as one of three members of Prototype 909, completed by Dietrich Schoenemann and Jason “BPMF” Szostek. The group distinguished itself through live sets that relied on rare keyboards and drum machines rather than DAT playback of prerecorded material. Four albums document their output: Acid Technology (1993), Live 1993-1995 (1995), Transistor Rhythm (1995), and Joined at the Head (1997). Although Prototype 909 disbanded in the late 1990s, the members have continued both joint and separate endeavors.

Deupree also formed half of SETI with longtime friend Savvas Ysatis (Omnicron); a relative proposed the name, drawn from the extraterrestrial radio-signal research project. The duo aimed to mirror the experiment’s atmosphere through sparse, experimental samples and textures. Three full-length releases appeared on Instinct: SETI (1993), Pharos (1994), and Ciphers (1996). Contrary to Deupree’s concerns about appropriating the name, researchers at the SETI Institute commended the work and supplied actual space-derived audio and spoken interviews for Pharos. In 1996 the pair established the short-lived label Index, which issued a single four-track 12-inch EP featuring a contribution from Prototype 909’s Dietrich Shoenemann.

Deupree inaugurated the solo project Human Mesh Dance in 1993, using it to present a more restrained ambient voice alongside Prototype 909’s rising profile. The first album, Hyaline, appeared on Instinct that year, followed in 1994 by Mind Flower on the same label. Theseceretnumbertwelve, issued in 1997 on 12k Records, signaled greater independence; the New York-based label has since produced numerous limited-edition CDs, most capped at 500 or 1,000 copies.

A 1997 collaboration with Ysatis yielded Arc vs. Tiny Objects in Space. The following year 12k released Alphabet Flasher by Drum Komputer, the alias Deupree and Schoenemann employ for joint productions, while Deupree’s own Comma appeared in a 500-copy edition. He and Ysatis contributed Tower of Winds to Caipirinha’s Architettura series. SPEC., recorded with Richard Chartier, surfaced in 1999. April 2000 brought the album .N, July saw Active/Freeze with Tetsu Inoue, and August delivered Polr on Germany’s Raster-Noton imprint.

Beyond recording, Deupree shaped visual identity within electronic music, first as head graphic designer at Instinct Records and later through extensive work with Caipirinha Productions, including the documentary Modulations and the film Synthetic Pleasures, for which he handled design and supplied music to both soundtracks. Beginning with 2002’s Stil., he increasingly emphasized textural detail. Parallel collaborative releases involved Kenneth Kirschner, Frank Bretschneider, Christopher Willits, and others.

In 2004 Deupree founded the Happy imprint to address limited international visibility for Japanese pop. During 2005 he delivered remixes for Philip Glass and Ryuichi Sakamoto while completing the full-length sound-reconstruction project Every Still Day with Japanese trio Eisi. The 2006 solo album Northern drew on harsh winters at his upstate New York residence and introduced recognizable acoustic-instrument timbres for the first time; though still rooted in glitch techniques, it initiated a gradual move toward organic, guitar-centered sonorities that he refined over the subsequent decade. A deluxe remixed and remastered edition of Northern appeared in 2008 alongside the dancefloor-oriented glitch-techno EP Habitat, issued under the name Ando on BineMusic.

Shoals (2010) incorporated gamelan samples and introduced the crisp, found-object percussion—stones, seashells, and similar materials—that became a signature element. Faint (2012) centered on electric-guitar loops, while Somi (2017) abandoned digital processing altogether, with loops performed and captured live before being layered. Concurrently he maintained an extensive collaborative schedule, releasing Listening Garden with Christopher Willits in 2007, Transcriptions with Stephan Mathieu in 2009, and Disappearance with Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2013. The 2011 album In a Place of Such Graceful Shapes with fellow 12k artist Marcus Fischer aligned most closely with his solo aesthetic; a second joint effort, Twine, followed in 2015.

Fallen, issued on Spekk in 2018, began as an intended solo-piano recording yet ultimately incorporated synthesizers, guitars, and processing. Fridman Variations (2019) documented a live performance with Stephen Vitiello at New York’s Fridman Gallery together with subsequent studio reworkings. Also in 2019, Live in London with Sakamoto was released. Deupree issued the twenty-minute piece “Canoe” on Longform Editions and the Chartier collaboration Specification.Twelve on 3particles. The piano-centered Mur appeared on Belgium’s Dauw label in 2021. Releases in 2022 comprised Small Winters, Harbor, and the Arovane collaboration Skal_Ghost. The ambient EP Eev surfaced on Canada’s Nettwerk imprint in 2023, with Aer following in 2024. Together with arranger and producer Joseph Branciforte, Deupree completed Sti.ll, an acoustic-ensemble reworking of the earlier album Stil.