Bvdub is an American
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
producer originally from the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
Since 2007 he has released more than 40 albums and EPs
under this name and other pseudonyms including his birth name, Brock Van Wey. Residing in
Shaoxing
Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...
,
China, he produces
ambient and
ambient techno
Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, the Black Dog, ...
music that has received critical acclaim from the likes of online magazines ''
Resident Advisor'',
''
Headphone Commute''
and ''
Gridface''.
His first release as Brock Van Wey, ''White Clouds Drift On And On'', was included in RA's Top 20 Albums of 2009.
Overview
Van Wey was born in 1974
and grew up in
Livermore near
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.
He was classically trained as a child and from the age of five he was taught
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
and, later,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
. By age eleven he had composed his first piece of music for the trio of cello, violin and viola and had written several more pieces by his mid-teens. Feeling that he did not actually enjoy classical music (and preferring instead to "remix" the pieces he learned in his head) he eventually gave it up altogether.
In the early 90s he heard, by chance, a
deep house mix tape that would inspire him to pursue electronic music. He was soon performing as a deep house and ambient
DJ and appearing regularly at
raves in San Francisco, initially under his own name and later under the bvdub moniker. Van Wey composed his first electronic piece in 1993 - an
industrial techno
Industrial techno is a subgenre of techno and industrial dance music that originated in the 1990s. Characteristically, it incorporates influences from the bleak, noisy sound and aesthetics of early industrial music acts, particularly Cabaret Volt ...
/classical track
- that differed significantly in style to the music he would later produce.
In 2001, Brock moved to China, having become disillusioned with the scene in San Francisco,
and sought to make a fresh start in a country that had always held a fascination for him.
He began work as a
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of English, teaching over 200 students. It was not until 2006 that he started to produce his own music after a friend spent time teaching him the finer details of various pieces of hardware and software. His first release as bvdub was ''Strength In Solitude LP'' in 2007, an album which comprises the first six tracks he created in the order that they were made.
In 2007
Van Wey founded the label ''Quietus Recordings'' in response to his friends' music being turned down by other
record labels
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
for being "too self-indulgent" or "too deep".
Creating the label allowed bvdub and others to release their most personal compositions without fear of it being rejected. The label, in fact, encourages its artists to present only the music by which they would want to be remembered. To make each release as personal as possible, Van Wey takes the photos for the CD label and the cover art himself whilst listening to the music that the images are to accompany.
The label has released bvdub's own recordings as well as productions by
Quantec and
Arc Of Doves.
After returning to China, following a period of living once more in San Francisco, a mutual friend put Van Wey in touch with indie label
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
.
A fruitful relationship blossomed that has seen bvdub release several albums on the label to date including 2011's ''Resistance Is Beautiful'' and 2012's ''Serenity''.
In 2018 he was part of "The Ambient Files", a mix CD project by
Stars Over Foy
Stars Over Foy is a Dutch ambient music producer with Australian descent. 3 of his releases entered the ''World Chill Lounge Charts'' in April 2016.
History
Stars Over Foy was founded in 2015 to create relaxation, meditation and sleep music ...
.
Name
The name ''bvdub'' was given to Brock by a colleague and is simply a shortening of his initials, BVW, rather than being intended to denote
dub or
dub techno
Dub techno is a subgenre of techno that combines the style with elements of dub music, including its sparse, delay-heavy production and prominent bass.
Characteristics and history
In the early 1990s, producers Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestu ...
music. Brock describes his own music as electronic, ambient and ambient techno (though prefers not to categorize it at all) and has stated that he has never produced anything he would associate with dub.
However, he has worked with dub techno label and production duo
Echospace, who released his album ''White Clouds Drift On And On'' and whose member Intrusion remixed it in full.
Discography
Albums
*2007 ''Strength In Solitude LP'' (2600 Records)
*2009 ''We Were The Sun'' (Quietus Recordings)
*2009 ''A Prayer To False Gods'' (Shoreless Recordings)
*2009 ''White Clouds Drift On And On'' (as Brock Van Wey) (echospace)
*2010 ''The Art Of Dying Alone'' (Glacial Movements Records)
*2010 ''A Silent Reign'' (Styrax Records)
*2011 ''Tribes At The Temple Of Silence'' (
Home Normal)
*2011 ''One Last Look At The Sea'' (Quietus Recordings)
*2011 ''The Truth Hurts'' (with Ian Hawgood) (Nomadic Kids Republic)
*2011 ''Songs For A Friend I Left Behind'' (Distant Noise Records)
*2011 ''I Remember (Translations of Mørketid)'' (Glacial Movements Records)
*2011 ''121 years''
*2011 ''Resistance Is Beautiful'' (
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
)
*2011 ''Then'' (AY)
*2012 ''The First Day'' (
Home Normal)
*2012 ''Don’t Say You Know'' (
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
)
*2012 ''Serenity'' (
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
)
*2012 ''Strangers No More'' (With Or Without You)
*2012 ''All Is Forgiven'' (
n5MD)
*2013 ''A Careful Ecstasy'' (
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
)
*2013 ''At Night This City Becomes The Sea'' (AY)
*2013 ''Born In Tokyo'' (
n5MD)
*2013 ''Erebus'' (with
Loscil
Loscil is the electronic/ ambient music project of Scott Morgan from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Morgan launched the project in Vancouver in 1998 while a member of the multimedia collective Multiplex, which curated audiovisual events at a ...
) (Glacial Movements Records)
*2014 ''I'll Only Break Your Heart'' (
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
)
*2014 ''Home'' (as Brock Van Wey) (echospace)
*2014 ''A History Of Distance'' (
n5MD)
*2014 ''Tanto'' (Quietus Recordings)
*2015 ''A Step In The Dark'' (AY)
*2015 ''Safety In A Number'' (Not On Label (Bvdub Self-Released))
*2017 ''Epilogues for the End of the Sky'' (Glacial Movements)
*2017 ''Heartless'' (
n5MD)
*2018 ''A Different Definition of Love'' (Dronarivm)
*2018 ''Drowning in Daylight'' (
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
)
*2019 ''Explosions in Slow Motion'' (
n5MD)
*2020 ''Ten Times the World Lied'' (Glacial Movements)
*2020 ''Burn Back Time'' (Silent Reign)
*2020 ''101 Rooms'' (self-released)
*2020 ''Wrath & Apathy'' (
n5MD)
Compilations
*2011 ''Air Texture Volume 1'' (with Andrew Thomas) (Air Texture)
*2015 ''Lost Ambient'' (Not On Label (Bvdub Self-Released))
*2015 ''Tech From Times Past'' (Not On Label (Bvdub Self-Released))
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Deep house musicians
Darla Records artists