Pantha Du Prince
| Pantha du Prince | |
|---|---|
Live at Rocket Bar, Boston on May 31, 2007
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Hendrik Weber |
| Also known as | Panthel, Glühen 4 |
| Born | 1975 (age 41–42) Bad Wildungen, West Germany |
| Genres |
Electronic Minimal Techno Microhouse Dark ambient |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels |
Dial Records Rough Trade |
| Website | www |
Hendrik Weber (born 1975), better known as Pantha du Prince, Panthel and Glühen 4 is a German producer, composer and conceptual artist for Electro, Techno, House, Minimal and Noise affiliated with Hamburg's Dial music label and British label Rough Trade.
He was born in Bad Wildungen.
Weber's style as Pantha du Prince evolved from the harder end of the house music spectrum and minimal techno to something the artist himself describes as 'Sonic House', incorporating acoustic elements, electronically altered field recordings, and shoegazing references. He launched his Pantha du Prince identity in 2002, with the four-track 12" "Nowhere". His first full-length CD/double LP, Diamond Daze (2004), featured hard-edged club songs, with Weber sampling The Chills’ "Pink Frost" on the track "Circle Glider". Writing for allmusic, Jason Birchmeier also detected an affinity for shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive as well as for the stylings of Detroit Techno producer Carl Craig. Weber’s 2005 remix 12" "Butterfly Girl Versions" and the 2006 "Lichten/Walden" 12" were again published on the German Dial label. In 2007, Weber released This Bliss in which he explored travel, time, and the joy of forward motion. Commenting on the album’s juxtaposition of ethereal melodic elements and a dance music backbone, Tim Finney gave it 7.7 out of 10 in a review for Pitchfork. The New York Times critic Jon Caramanica described This Bliss as Pantha du Prince's "high-water mark", "a pensive, slender and tough album". In 2010, Weber switched labels to Rough Trade Records before releasing his third album Black Noise. Here, Weber sought to "incorporate a wide range of sounds - field recordings, atonal noise, and stray percussion" - as part of a "period of musical exploration in the Swiss Alps." While some saw its tracks as a more compartmentalized treatment of moods and textures, as opposed to This Bliss' totalizing experience, it retained Weber's "gift for generating heavily melodic mazes of sound." Featuring Animal Collective's Noah Lennox and LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope as guest artists, and following the aforementioned label change, "Black Noise" was met with more excitement than Weber's previous work. Pantha du Prince and The Bell Laboratory released their collaborative album ‘Elements of Light’ in January 14, 2013. The ambitious project is a symphony for electronics, percussion and bell carillon, a three-tonne instrument comprising 50 bronze bells. When asked if there was anything he wanted listeners to take away from 'Elements of Light,' Weber said, "It was intended to be listened to in one piece — no single tracks, but one musical development — and I'd like it myself to be received that way, more like a DJ mix." Due to his integral approach, he manages to unite different areas of cultural production such as popular music, performance and fine arts to one artform. His installations coalesce sounds, architecture and objects into a transcendental space.
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