User:Ilt17/sandbox
Axhan Sonn | |
|---|---|
 Axhan Sonn performing a DJ set in Liège, Belgium (2012) | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Thomas Collard |
| Born | 1 August 1990 Verviers, Belgium |
| Origin | Spa, Liège, Belgium |
| Genres | Electronic Music (Electronica, Ambient, Experimental, Acid Techno, Industrial, ...) |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Lord Cal Nerve System Records Narcosis |
| Website | http://www.lordcal.com |
Axhan Sonn, born Thomas Collard 1st August 1990 in Verviers, Belgium, is an electronic music composer.
He grew in the thermal town of Spa (town) and lives now in Geel, in Flanders, where he works as a technician for the musical manufacturer Roland.
Despite a still restricted diffusion, he's generally recognized as an upcoming talent on the belgian electronic music scene.
He founded the label Lord Cal in 2012.
Biography[edit]
1990-2006 : Early days[edit]
Thomas Collard was born August 1st 1990 in Verviers, Belgium, from a schoolteacher mother and a father working as an interim agent. Music landed in his life at the age of 4 by buying one of the famous Thunderdome compilations. It's also at this time he began to produce noises with his mouth, practising till several hours a day. Hardcore, Gabber and Trance compilations occupied then his whole childhood, often at the astonishment of his family.
During these years, he recorded a lot of audio tapes imitating radio programs and involving music, family and friends. A taste for harder tracks was already taking place by then, which also gave rise to numerous drum sessions on pans at home.
At the age of 10, a cousin gave him a small music software and Richie Hawtin's mix «Decks, EFX & 909», which was a major musical turn to him, introducing techno music with artists such as Jeff Mills, Surgeon and Hawtin himself. Many early compositions followed and he soon exchanged his childhood CD collection for a pair of turnatbles and a few vinyl EPs. He could then start to learn mixing techniques, soon upgrading to three turnatables, while maturing his production skills.
From this era also emerged first signs of the main component of his later work : Ambient.
2006-2011 : From the bedroom to the stage[edit]
Collard's first perfomances took place as DJ acts around Spa between 2006 and 2007. He was reluctant at the time to play his own music live and it's only with some insistence from his father that he first performed live under the name of Axhan Sonn in April 2008.
After the last recordshop closed up in Verviers, he pushed the door of Timeless Network, a recordshop based in Liège and owned by a local DJ known as Bioxyd. Quickly, a friendship took shape and a demo was exchanged, which would be aired a few weeks later on the local electronic music radio.
A series of first bookings took then place in Liège, which allowed him to meet and become friend with local clubbers and party organisers, friendship who would reinforce over time and bring him bigger bookings along artists like Cylob or D'arcangelo from british label Rephlex.
He caught the attention of a few event organisers from Brussels and got his first live acts programmed in the belgian capital, where he also started to frequent record stores and parties, sharing demos and contacting a few labels.
2011-2014 : First releases and recognition[edit]
Despite a lot of positive feedback, no label showed interest into releasing Collard's music yet, judging the material good but unsuitable for their catalog.
This systematic refusal pushed him, in 2011, to invest into a self-released promotional EP on vinyl, in order to make it available for free trough the distribution circuit. This brought his music to a wider audience and good impressions were received from different country listeners around Europe, nameless or not, such as Deg (resident DJ at the Fuse nightclub in Brussels) or italian duo D'arcangelo(signed on Aphex Twin's label, Rephlex).
He obtained the same year his bachelor's degree in electronics and was hired as a technician by the musical manufacturer [Roland Corporation|[Roland] in Flanders.
He decided in 2012 to launch his own label Lord Cal, following the good criticism raised over the year on his promotional EP. The first output was a collection of tracks recorded between [[2005] and 2008 released in November under the name «Laols Acsients 2».
A label finally showed interest into releasing Axhan's Music : Nerve System Records, freshly launched by Brussels Lara Dudek. They soon came to an agreement for releasing a double album on vinyl.
Meanwhile, he was hired to build the soundtrack of a contemporary dance performance, under the direction of belgian choregrapher Selim Aydogdu, whose representations took place in various art festivals of Belgium and France.
He also won a national electronic music contest in December, selected amongst 160 other artists and obtaining an invitation to contest at Red Bull's Elektropedia Bass Camp in Antwerp, in 2014.
2013 saw many live acts happening in Belgium and a second release on his label Lord Cal, « Aaron Toolsday EP », under the moniker Aaron Noseday. Despite support from the environment and Brussels DJ Acid Kirk, it proved to be almost impossible to get distribution deals for this record and it didn't reach any better than a confidential scope, which paused the label's activities until further notice.
He worked then with Lara Dudek on his first album, selecting 14 recordings from his youth to form his first album « Mesehyena Tracks », released in january 2014.