Four Tet

Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), best known by the stage name Four Tet, is an English musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist.

Kieran Hebden
Four Tet performing at FYF Fest 2011 in Los Angeles, California
Background information
Also known as
  • Four Tet
  • KH[1]
  • ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ[1]
  • 00110100 01010100[2]
BornSeptember 1977 (age 42)
OriginPutney, London, England[3]
Genres
Instruments
Years active1995–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websitewww.fourtet.net

As Four Tet, Hebden has produced ten studio albums. He has remixed tracks by artists including Aphex Twin, Bicep, Explosions in the Sky, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Ellie Goulding, J Dilla, Lana Del Rey, Manic Street Preachers, Sia, Black Sabbath and Madvillain. As a producer, he has produced two albums by psychedelic improvisational group Sunburned Hand of the Man, and two albums by Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with jazz drummer Steve Reid and collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke.

Early life

Kieran Hebden was born in Putney, London, England,[3] to a South African-born Indian mother and a British sociology lecturer father.[4] He attended Elliott School in Putney,[4] where he formed the band Fridge with classmates Adem Ilhan and Sam Jeffers. The band signed a recording contract when Hebden was 15,[4] and released their first album, Ceefax, on Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings label in March 1997. While working with Fridge, Hebden went on to earn a degree in maths and computer studies from Manchester University.[5]

Career

Hebden's first solo release was the 1997 single "Double Density", released on the Output label under the artist name 4T Recordings. He began releasing material as Four Tet in 1998 with the 36 minute, 25 second single "Thirtysixtwentyfive". Later that year, he released another single, the jazz-influenced "Misnomer". 1999's Dialogue, again on Output, was Four Tet's first full-length album release and fused hip hop drum lines with dissonant jazz samples. This was followed by the double A-side single "Glasshead"/"Calamine", which was to be Four Tet's last release on Output.

In late 1999, Warp Records released Warp 10 + 3: Remixes, a tenth-anniversary compilation of remixes of Warp tracks. Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, which was considered to be his break-out release.[6]

In 2001, Four Tet's second album Pause was released on Domino Recording Company and found Hebden using more folk and electronic samples, which was quickly dubbed "folktronica" by the media and press in an attempt to label the style (often also applied to artists such as Isan and Gravenhurst).[6] Rounds was released in May 2003. Three singles were released from the album: "She Moves She", "As Serious as Your Life" and "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth". This last single was released as an EP featuring remixes by electronica duo Icarus and Isambard Khroustaliov along with additional Four Tet tracks "I've Got Viking in Me" and "All the Chimers". An accompanying DVD featured all of Four Tet's videos to date. In addition, the closing track "Everything is Alright" was featured in a U.S. Nike commercial in 2001 and 2002.[7]

At the beginning of 2003, Four Tet opened for Radiohead on their European tour. A remix of the song "Scatterbrain" from Radiohead's sixth studio album Hail to the Thief was released in November 2003 as a B-side to the single "2 + 2 = 5" and later included on their 2004 EP COM LAG (2plus2isfive). Furthermore, Hebden was among the people thanked by Radiohead in the booklet accompanying their 2007 In Rainbows "discbox" release.

Hebden performing at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004

A live album named Live in Copenhagen 30th March 2004 was released in April 2004 as a limited edition, available exclusively from the Domino Records website.

In March and April 2005, Four Tet performed two shows of improvisational music, in collaboration with jazz drummer Steve Reid, in Paris and London. He also appears on Steve Reid Ensemble 2005 album Spirit Walk. This collaboration was extended into a series of international tours, and the release of two albums, The Exchange Session Vol. 1 and The Exchange Session Vol. 2 over the course of 2005 and 2006.

His fourth studio album Everything Ecstatic was released on Domino on 23 May 2005. The video for the lead single, "Smile Around the Face", features actor Mark Heap. On 7 November 2005, Domino released a DVD version of Everything Ecstatic featuring video clips for each track of the album plus a CD with new material, titled Everything Ecstatic Part 2, which was later made available as an individual EP.

Hebden has also remixed, under the Four Tet name, tracks by a wide range of artists including Tegan And Sara, Madvillain, Andrew Bird, Bloc Party, Super Furry Animals, Beth Orton, Badly Drawn Boy, CYNE, The Notwist, Boom Bip, Battles, Kings of Convenience, Lars Horntveth, Bonobo, Rothko, The xx, Thom Yorke and Radiohead. On 25 September 2006, Domino Records released Remixes, a two-disc compilation of Four Tet remixes. The first disc contains twelve Four Tet remixes selected by Hebden, with the second disc comprising every official remix to date (both by Hebden himself and by other artists) of Four Tet tracks, many of which had previously been available on vinyl only.[8] A new EP, Ringer, was released on 21 April 2008.

Hebden performing at Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain in 2008

In 2008, Hebden collaborated with composer David Arnold to write "Crawl, End Crawl", the song used for the end credits of the film Quantum of Solace.[9]

In 2009, Hebden worked on a secret collaboration with former schoolmate Burial. The two track 12" was released with a plain black cover with no liner notes or details contained on the vinyl, other than the artists' names and the track titles: "Moth" and "Wolf Cub". The release was universally critically acclaimed.

In November 2009, details of the fifth full-length Four Tet album were released. Heavily influenced by a stint DJing at the Plastic People club in Shoreditch[10] and entitled There Is Love in You, it was released on 25 January 2010.[11] The album was preceded by a limited edition release of the 12" single "Love Cry".

In 2010, Hebden collaborated with Laurie Anderson playing keyboards on the song Only an Expert from her Homeland album.

In 2011, Hebden released a split 12" with Burial and Thom Yorke, entitled "Ego"/"Mirror". He began to release music under the alias Percussions, following a track he produced on his Fabriclive mix CD.[12] He was chosen by Caribou to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England.[13]

In 2012 Hebden collaborated again with Burial on the track "Nova".

The sixth full-length Four Tet album, Pink, consisting of eight tracks, six of them already released as singles, was released on 20 August 2012 through Hebden's own record label, Text Records. Hebden followed up Pink with 0181 on 15 January 2013. 0181 is a collection of unreleased material from 1997-2001, collected as one track and released online. A vinyl version was also released on the Text Records label.

Hebden released the seventh Four Tet album, Beautiful Rewind, in October 2013,[14] and his eighth album, Morning/Evening in July 2015.[15] In October 2015, Hebden released a remix of Eric Prydz's "Opus" under his Four Tet pseudonym.[16]

Hebden undertook a month-long residency as Four Tet for online radio station NTS Radio in May 2014. He has been an occasional DJ for NTS, playing in February, June and November 2015, and again alongside fellow DJ and producer Floating Points in June and October 2016, and March 2017.

On 29 September 2017, Hebden released his ninth full length album as Four Tet, New Energy.[17]

On 28 November 2017, Hebden was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Production, Non-Classical, for his remix of The xx's "Violent Noise". [18]

On 1 March 2019, Hebden released Only Human, his first new track since his last album, New Energy, [19], the track was named 'Best New Music' by Pitchfork, shortly after release. [20] A month after, on 17 April 2019, Hebden released another new single, "Teenage Birdsong". [21]

On 29 August 2019, Hebden had released a collection of three brand new songs as part of an EP called Anna Painting. The project was made in collaboration with painter Anna Liber Lewis, and features artwork by Liber Lewis in the release.

On 21 January 2020, Hebden announced his tenth album Sixteen Oceans for release in March.[22]

Discography
Main article: Four Tet discography

Albums (as Four Tet)

Mix albums

Albums (as Kieran Hebden)

References
  1. Sherburne, Phillip (4 March 2019). ""Only Human" by Four Tet Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  2. Selikow, Jami (28 August 2017). "Four Tet's New Album & 00110100 01010100". Indie Shuffle. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  3. "Kieran Hebden (born 1978, Putney, London), best known by the stage name Four Tet, is a post-rock and electronic musician". Soundcloud.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  4. John Lewis (13 July 2008). "Close-up: Kieran Hebden". The Independent on Sunday. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  5. Muggs, Joe. "Make It Funky, Make It Folky." The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 28 May 2005, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3642767/Make-it-funky-make-it-folky.html.
  6. Beta, Andy (13 May 2013). "Interviews: Four Tet". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 3 November 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  7. "CDNX : Four Tet". Cdnx.co.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  8. "Pitchfork: Four Tet to Release Remix LP". 25 May 2007. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  10. "Music Feature – Four Tet and the London Underground". Totally Dublin. 26 February 2010. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  11. "There Is Love In You". Four Tet official website. 5 November 2009. Archived from the original on 9 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
  12. "Four Tet releases new album as Percussions". Factmag. 13 January 2015. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  13. "Nightmare Before Christmas curated by Battles/Caribou/Les Savy Fav - All Tomorrow's Parties". Atpfestival.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  14. FACT. "Four Tet announces new album, Beautiful Rewind - FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music". Factmag.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  15. Goble, Corban (7 May 2015). "Four Tet Announces New Album Morning/Evening". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  16. "Four Tet remix Eric Prydz's 'Opus' - listen | NME.COM". NME.COM. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  17. Andy Beta (3 October 2017). "Four Tet: New Energy Album Review". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  18. "See The Full List Of 60th GRAMMY Nominees | GRAMMY.com". Web.archive.org. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  19. Maicki, Salvatore (1 March 2019). "Four Tet returns with new single "Only Human"". The Fader. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  20. Philip Sherburne (4 March 2019). ""Only Human" by Four Tet Review". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  21. "Four Tet Releases New Song "Teenage Birdsong": Listen". Pitchfork.com. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  22. Kim, Michelle; Monroe, Jazz (21 January 2020). "Four Tet Announces New Album Sixteen Oceans". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  23. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 210. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  24. "Four Tet". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
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