Kodomo
Kodomo is the electronic music project of Chris Child, based in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in Tokyo in the 80's, Chris studied classical piano music while being exposed to early synth bands like YMO and Kraftwerk, all of which had a major impact on the music he creates. He took the moniker Kodomo from his last name, meaning "Child" in Japanese.
Kodomo's music is vibrant and moody, featuring lurking atmospheres, serene, drowsy melodies, vocal slices, intricate rhythms, and thick bass sounds. There are many influences to his craft, keeping his sound fresh, distinct and evolving. Classic 90's electronic IDM, dirty hip-hop beats, warm detuned 80's synths, and glitchy soundscapes all make their way into his music, creating a compelling retro-contemporary hybrid.
Kodomo's first official track “Spira Mirabilis” is an epic electro driven journey inspired by the Fibonacci series, which he used to govern the structure of the piece. It was produced in 2003 and released in 2007.
His debut album, Still Life, was released in 2008 on NYC's label 5 Point Records. The album was born out of a series of carefully curated photographs and explored how the images evoke rhythms, melodies, and textures. The album has an overall downtempo and chillwave feel, integrating hip-hop beats with nostalgic synth hooks. The album gained momentum online, with the success from the single Concept 11 leading to an EP, featuring remixes by Jordan Lieb of Black Light Smoke, and Taylor Deupree, founder of The 12k Label.
His second album, Frozen In Motion, was released in 2011 and took on a harder Electro/IDM direction with songs like “Decoder”, and the title track “Frozen In Motion”. The record focused on Kodomo’s obsession with field recordings of ordinary sounds from every day life and examined using them in the context of composed music. The album gained international attention and is heavily played on the NPR radio, Pandora, and last.fm. It was well received among critics, generating reviews and interviews among several music magazines including Death And Taxes and the UK's Milkfactory. Three singles were released along with remixes by Shigeto, Drift Static, Symbion Project, and Lumia (producer behind Caroline Lufkin). Interviews and live shows followed in Montreal at Mutek, as well as in venues in Barcelona, Tokyo, New York, Boston, and Connecticut.
His upcoming release Patterns & Light was recorded in studios in Manhattan and completed in Kodomo's studio in Brooklyn. The album evolved out of a two-year period of sampling classical music records he found at stores, flea markets and sidewalk sales in and around New York City. Inspired by pieces from Bach, Schubert, Debussy, and Chopin, Kodomo examines how these classics can be re-contextualized, having sampled, stretched, and dissected their often unnoticed and most subtle parts. The samples were fed through various software processing programs and analog gear, generating new sounds, patterns, and ideas from which elements for a track would emerge. In this way, the album pays homage to these classical pieces that Kodomo is intimately familiar with and inspired by.
The album has a dark yet epic tone to it, flowing through periods of both intensity and spaciousness. There are moments of German influenced Dub Techno, Electro, IDM, and Ambient soundtracks. Notably, this is the first Kodomo album to feature vocals in songs, highlighting his collaborations with Melissa Kaplan (Universal Hall Pass), Sasha Lazard, and John Hogg (Kassini).
In between releases, Kodomo has collaborated with and done remixes for Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Freezepop, TPWLYST, Symbion Project, and Kodacrome, among other artists. He has performed in and around New York City, Montreal, Barcelona, Paris, and Tokyo.
Chris is also an Emmy nominated composer and has written music for numerous commercials and TV series. His music is regularly featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, This American Life and All Things Considered. He also created music for the popular hit video games Rock Band, Phase, Amplitude and Frequency, produced by Harmonix.
Kodomo’s music parallels his interests in technology, science, visual arts, photography, and Buddhism. He approaches each album and project with the intention of moving in a new direction, inspired by original processes and ideas that inform the music he creates.
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