Four Tet
Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acclaimed albums such as Rounds (2003), Everything Ecstatic (2005) and There Is Love in You (2010). In addition to his twelve studio albums as Four Tet, Hebden's work includes a number of improvisational works with jazz drummer Steve Reid and collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke.
Kieran Hebden
1995–present
Alongside his own recordings, Hebden has produced albums by American improvisational group Sunburned Hand of the Man and Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman, and arranged the 2021 Madlib album Sound Ancestors. He has also remixed tracks by artists including Aphex Twin, Bicep, Explosions in the Sky, Bloc Party, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Ellie Goulding, J Dilla, Lana Del Rey, Manic Street Preachers, Sia, Black Sabbath and Madvillain; several of these were collected on the compilation Remixes (2006). He has additionally performed DJ mixes, including sets with American producer Skrillex and British producer Fred Again.
Early life[edit]
Kieran Hebden was born in Putney, London, England,[4] to a South African-born Indian mother and a sociology lecturer father.[9] He attended Elliott School in Putney,[9] where he formed the band Fridge with classmates Adem Ilhan and Sam Jeffers. The band signed a recording contract when Hebden was 15,[9] and released their first album, Ceefax, on Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings label in March 1997. While working with Fridge, Hebden began a degree in maths and computer sciences at the University of Manchester alongside the members of Simian Mobile Disco.[10][11]
Musical style[edit]
AllMusic's Paul Simpson called Hebden "perhaps the definitive indie electronic artist", noting that his "experimental yet highly accessible recordings, which blend organic and electronic sounds, have earned widespread acclaim from critics and fans of electronic music as well as indie rock."[5] His work has drawn influence from styles such as spiritual jazz, krautrock, folk music, and hip hop.[5] According to Piotr Orlov of Pitchfork, Hebden's music has touched on genres such as folktronica, electronic jazz and global trance, with his 2003 album Rounds specifically drawing from hip hop's collage approach and "pushing IDM into a whole new space."[47] Hebden rejected critics' early labeling of him as a "folktronica" artist as misleading, calling attention to the influence of hip hop producers such as Rodney Jerkins and Timbaland on his work instead.[7]
