SJ Esau is the music project of Sam Wisternoff, an experimental pop musician from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Although ostensibly a solo project, Wisternoff is often joined by the drummer Sean Talbot and has incorporated a variety of other musicians into recording projects and live performances.

History and work

Born on 28 November 1977, Wisternoff’s music career began in the late 1980s as a prepubescent rapper, collaborating with his brother,

Jody Wisternoff Joseph Wisternoff (born 25 November 1973) is an English electronic music producer and DJ. He is best known as one half of the electronic music duo Way Out West, and also as a solo producer of dance music spanning early 1990s hardcore to deep ...

to release a single on

Smith & Mighty Smith & Mighty are an English trip hop group from Bristol, England, consisting of Rob Smith and Ray Mighty. Their first releases, in the late 1980s, were breakbeat covers of " Anyone Who Had a Heart" and " Walk On By". Both songs entered the ...

’s Three Stripe Records. Spending his later teenage years in

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band, The Pudding, Wisternoff released the first SJ Esau album, ''Queezy Beliefs'', in 1999 on his Enormous Corpse label which was followed by various CDR albums and limited edition releases for labels such as

Static Caravan Recordings Static Caravan Recordings is an independent record label based in the North West of England, whose artist releases include singles and albums by Darren Hayman, the Hornblower Brothers, Hannah Peel, Erland & the Carnival, Shady Bard, the Ye ...

, Twisted Nerve Records and Fooltribe. In 2007,

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It is now collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and ma ...

Records re-released the album '' Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse''. The next album, ''

Small Vessel ''Small Vessel'' is the second studio album by British indie rock musician SJ Esau. It was released on Anticon in 2008. Critical reception Matt Rinaldi of AllMusic commented that ''Small Vessel'' "continues in the same genre-bending vein as its ...

'', was released by Anticon in 2008. In the following years, Wisternoff released various SJ Esau EPs as well as taking part in a variety of collaborative projects such as Jeremy Smoking Jacket with

Rose Kemp A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

and Hesomagari with Yoshino Shigihara from the band, Zun Zun Egui. In 2010, Wisternoff started a music video production and audio mastering company entitled Ill Spectre Productions, producing music videos for bands such as Gravenhurst, Thought Forms and

Get the Blessing Get the Blessing (previously known as the Blessing) are a jazz rock quartet based in Bristol, England. The band formed in 2000 when Jim Barr (bass guitar) and Clive Deamer (drums), who had played with Portishead, joined Jake McMurchie (saxopho ...

. In 2014, fromSCRATCHrecords released the album, ''

Exploding Views ''Exploding Views'' is the third studio album by British indie rock musician SJ Esau SJ Esau is the music project of Sam Wisternoff, an experimental pop musician from Bristol, England. Although ostensibly a solo project, Wisternoff is often joi ...

''.

Discography

Albums

* ''Queezy Beliefs'' (1999) * ''Queezy Epiphany Coming Through The Wall'' (2003) * '' Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse'' (2007) * ''

'' (2008) * ''

'' (2014)

EPs

* ''Photocopy Of My Face Sellotaped To Adrian's Face'' (2004) * ''Live In Doors'' (2005) * ''5 Track EP'' (2006) * ''The Gist'' (2009) * ''Internal Workings'' (2011)

Miscellaneous

* ''V/A vs SJ Esau - Stop Touching My Cat - Remix Collection'' (2005) * ''Under Certain Things / Aerial Split 7" w/

Bronnt Industries Kapital Bronnt Industries Kapital is a musical project from Bristol, England based around producer and multi-instrumentalist Guy Bartell. It has released six studio albums, ''Virtute et Industria'', ''Häxan'', ''Hard for Justice'', ''Turksib'', ''Arsenal'' ...

'' (2006) * ''Twocsinak & SJ Esau Are A Pair Of Pussies / SJ Esau & Twocsinak Are Feline Groovy Split w/ Twocsinak'' (2006) * ''V/A vs SJ Esau - More Touching - Remix Collection'' (2008) * ''Once Inch Badge Split 7" w/

Half-handed Cloud Half-handed Cloud is an American recording project, based in Helsinki, Finland since 2015. It was started in 1999 as a one-man band by John Ringhofer, who created the band name based on an occurrence in the Old Testament. The majority of Half-hand ...

, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names & Kopek'' (2009) * ''Sellotape Epiphany'' (2009)

Collaborations

* ''Onanist Homework Robot & The Guano Ignoramus - Large Ghost'' (2004) * ''Jeremy Smoking Jacket - Now We Are Dead (And Other Stories)'' (2005) * ''Hesomagari - Hanasu Shapes'' (2011)

References

External links

Official website

fromSCRATCHrecords page

Anticon biography

Ill Spectre Productions site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esau, SJ Anticon British indie rock musicians Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians_from_Bristol