Twine

Twine fuses sampled material, synthesized sounds, and treated instrumentation into electronic pieces that resist simple classification. While sharing traits with laptop-oriented acts such as Autechre—including glitches, digital errors, and intensive DSP work—the project emphasizes compositional structure over sound design or mood, producing work with a clear cinematic character.

Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder began their musical partnership in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. Early punk explorations yielded to a common attraction to industrial music that steered both toward electronics. Formed at Kent State University in 1997, the act briefly functioned as a trio before becoming the exclusive vehicle for Malcolm and Mossholder. Each pursued formal study in computers and technology. Mossholder works as a sound designer at a video game studio in Boulder, Colorado, while Malcolm serves as an audio engineer in Cleveland. The pair develops material by sending tapes and files through the mail and over the Internet.

Reference appeared as Twine’s first full-length in 1999. After contributing a track that helped build interest in Hefty’s Immediate Action series, the duo released Recorder in 2002, a brooding and immersive album that showed increased assurance. Circulation, a vinyl-only set, came out on Sweden’s Komplott label the prior year. Twine also prepared two collections of loops and textures for use with Sonic Foundry’s Acid software and sustained an active touring schedule. Ghostly International issued the self-titled third album in 2003. Surfaces followed as a digital-only EP in 2006. Violets, an atmospheric full-length, surfaced in spring 2008.