Tomorrowland

Ann Arbor, Michigan natives Nick Brockney and Steve Baker operate together under the name Tomorrowland. They belong to a regional cluster of space rock and electronic acts that also features Füxa, Asha Vida, Auburn Lull, and several additional outfits. Tomorrowland drew from Krautrock, psychedelia, early Brian Eno—most notably Discreet Music—along with Seefeel, My Bloody Valentine, and German post-rock and electronic groups such as To Rococo Rot and Mouse on Mars, among other sources. Before forming the duo, Brockney played in Children’s Ice Cream, a band that issued a single on Randall Nieman’s Mind Expansion imprint; Nieman himself performs with Füxa. After relocating to Ann Arbor, Brockney encountered Steve Baker at a University of Michigan orientation session ahead of their first semester.

The pair began collaborating in March 1996. Their initial outing appeared on the Burnt Hair label through Mind Expansion, followed by the 7-inch-only single “I Wish I Was an Angel So I Could Sleep on the Moon,” issued on Japan’s Motorway imprint. In May 1997 they released Futurist on Burnt Hair. Later that year Darla Records invited them to contribute to its Bliss Out series; the resulting Stereoscopic Soundwaves, issued in November, became the sixth installment in the label’s ambient pop collection. Their debut full-length, Sequence of the Negative Space Changes, came out on Chicago’s Kranky label in September 1998. The following month they returned to the San Francisco-based Darla for People Mover. Kranky subsequently put out Microbe in 2000. The duo remains active in performance and recording. Baker pursues printmaking and sound work, while Brockney focuses on video installations.