Soundspecies [UK]
Soundspecies is the alias of producer/musician/DJ brothers Henry and Oliver Keen, based in London. A self-contained production and performance unit, they have played and DJ'd at numerous venues and festivals around the world over the past five years including Glastonbury, The Big Chill, Bestival, Sonar (Barcelona), Sunsplash (Turkey), Larmer Tree, Secret Garden Party, Cargo, Guanabara, Gramaphone, Plastic People, Louvana (Cyprus) and with Red Bull Music Academy in Seattle (USA). They released a debut album in April 2009 on London-based independent label BurntProgress - featuring collaborations with various celebrated artists from the UK and worldwide such as AHU, Black Spade, Foreign Beggars and Deborah Jordan - along side a limited edition vinyl E.P which sold out in weeks and made record of the week charts on various polls and was selected for Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers vol.4. They have recorded for the BBC at Maida Vale studio and count Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs and Ras Kwame among their supporters. Soundspecies perform as a live electronic duo and as a band with anything up to 9 members as well as regular bookings as DJ's.
Raised with a jamboree of musical instruments for toys, playing with sounds and rhythms was an early passion for the Keen brothers. This playful approach to music and sound manipulation still forms a large part of their creative process and is evident in their sound. The name Soundspecies was coined to coincide with the 2000 release of a 12" 4 track E.P which contained the very first "finished" tracks Henry and Olly had been working on on their home Mac G3 setup. Soundspecies hibernated as the brothers explored the world a while, then started to take momentum again when in 2004 Olly joined Henry in London. Being in closer proximity led to more frequent and productive music making sessions, their separate experiences and inspirations were shared and forged into a larger whole. Since then, Soundspecies continue to work towards finishing and releasing material, travelling the world, taking inspiration, improving their skills and honing their sound.
Theirs is not Genre music. Soundspecies is about common vibe/philosophy/love for music/life/eachother, rather than a common tempo/breakbeat/haircut.