Ramona Andra Xavier (born August 19, 1992) is an American

electronic musician ''Electronic Musician'' is a monthly magazine published by Future US featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians. History and profile ''Electronic Musician'' began as ''Polyphony'' magazine in 1975, publis ...

from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. She has released music under her primary Vektroid alias, as well as others, such as dstnt, Laserdisc Visions, New Dreams Ltd., Virtual Information Desk, and PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises. Xavier played a prominent role in the popularization of the

vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator music, elevator, contemporary ...

subgenre with the release of her ninth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''

Floral Shoppe is the ninth studio album by the American electronic musician Vektroid under the alias Macintosh Plus, released on December 9, 2011 by the independent record label Beer on the Rug. It is her ninth full-length album and was one of the first rel ...

'', under the alias Macintosh Plus. The album helped popularize the vaporwave genre throughout the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. Since then, she has continued to release music through

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

and other online platforms.

Early life

Xavier was born in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

on August 19, 1992.

Career

Xavier began producing and releasing

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 ( electroac ...

in 2005. She has released music through aliases, including Macintosh Plus, PrismCorp, and Laserdisc Visions, among others. She reports that she has put out over forty releases since 2005. Paolo Scarpa characterized Xavier's music as an "exposé of

late capitalism Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada to ...

". James Parker noted Vektroid's "sensuous virtuality" and "new cyber-pop unconscious". Writing for

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

, Adam Downer called ''

'' a shift toward beauty in an age that has nearly "run the gamut of what artists and musicians can do".

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

ranked ''

'' and '' 札幌コンテンポラリー'', released by Xavier under her Macintosh Plus and 情報デスクVIRTUAL aliases, respectively, on its list of its 50 favorite albums of 2012. ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' magazine called ''Floral Shoppe'' the defining album of

, the streaming service through which Vektroid releases her music. The album is the site's most user-recommended album in the

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

category. Xavier stopped releasing music regularly in early 2013, only releasing two albums of that year, ''

Home™ ''Home™'' is the thirteenth studio album by American electronic musician Vektroid (under her alias PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises), released on April 20, 2013 by Beer on the Rug. Released simultaneously alongside ''ClearSkies™'' under her Pris ...

'' and ''

ClearSkies™ ''ClearSkies™'' is the fourteenth studio album by American electronic musician Vektroid (under her alias PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises), released on April 20, 2013 by PrismCorp and Beer on the Rug. The album was released simultaneously with he ...

''. Both albums were released under the PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises pseudonym in April. In 2014, Xavier released '' Initiation Tape: Isle of Avalon Edition'', a revision of her release ''Initiation Tape - Part One'', as New Dreams Ltd. In early 2015, she collaborated with electronic duo Magic Fades to produce a remix of the song "Ecco" from their debut album, ''Push Through''. In February 2016 she released three albums, ''

Fuji Grid TV EX ''Prism Genesis'' is an extended play by American electronic and vaporwave artist Vektroid under the alias Fuji Grid TV released on August 2, 2011. The EP was re-released as ''Fuji Grid TV EX'' in 2016 under the alias New Dreams Ltd. instead of F ...

'',

Shader Complete ''Shader'' is the twelfth album by electronic musician Vektroid (under the one-time alias of ''Sacred Tapestry''). The album's musical style incorporates more drone and ambient influences compared to previous Vektroid vaporwave releases, and also ...

and

Sleepline ''Sleepline'' is the fifteenth studio album by electronic and vaporwave artist Vektroid under the alias New Dreams Ltd., released on February 14, 2016. Release The album was released simultaneously with ''Fuji Grid TV EX'' and ''Shader Complete'' ...

. The first two are revisions of some of her albums, while the last one was produced in 2013 but never released previously.

Impact

Under various aliases, Xavier played a role in the creation of the modern electronic genre

between 2010 and 2013. Her projects, Macintosh Plus and New Dreams Ltd., are considered as the primary artists in the vaporwave genre.

Personal life

Xavier now resides in

. She is a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

Discography

References

External links

* {{Authority control American electronic musicians 1992 births Living people Musicians from Washington (state) American experimental musicians American women in electronic music Vaporwave musicians 21st-century American women musicians American LGBT musicians LGBT people from Washington (state) Transgender artists Transgender women musicians