Rone (musician)

Rone (born Erwan Castex, 20 June 1980) is a French electronic music producer and artist.

Early career
Erwan Castex was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. He grew up in Paris. His first EP, "Bora", came out in 2008 on the French label InFiné. French DJ/Producer Agoria selected the track for his mix compilation "At the Controls", attracting support from the UK (Massive Attack's 3D, Sasha and London's Fabric resident DJ Lee Burridge).

2009–2010: Debut album Spanish Breakfast
In 2009, Rone released a new maxi, entitled "La Dame Blanche". The track was later remixed by LCD Soundsystem's bass player Tyler Pope and Austrian electronic music artist Clara Moto. The same year he brought out his first album Spanish Breakfast, also on Infiné. Electronic Beats ranked him in their top 25 Best Albums of 2009.

2011–2012: Berlin, new inspiration, new album
In 2011, in search of new inspiration, Rone left his hometown of Paris for Berlin. This led in the spring of 2011 to the release of the EP So So So. A second album entitled Tohu Bohu (Biblical Hebrew expression meaning chaos) followed in October 2012, likewise on Infiné. The album featured the single "Let's Go", with vocals by US rapper High Priest from New York's Antipop Consortium Resident Advisor gave the album 4 out of 5 and Rone won three 2012 Trax Magazine awards: Best French Artist, Best Album and Best Music Video.

Tohu Bohu gave rise to three singles: "Parade", "Bye Bye Macadam" and "Let's Go". All three singles were promoted by videos, the most successful, "Bye Bye Macadam", having been viewed more than 40 million times on YouTube and been shown on Cartoon Network in Adult Swim's Off the Air episode "Worship".

2013: Tohu Bohu Tour, collaborations and Tohu Bonus
Early in 2013, the US indie band The National asked Rone to add some electronic sequences to their new album Trouble Will Find Me on 4AD. The National's lead singer Matt Berninger said in an interview, "Rone's work has brought something fresh to our sound, I’m not saying we re-invented ourselves as a band, but we’ve opened new doors".

The same year, Gabriel & Dresden, Juan Atkins, Clark (musician) and Dominik Eulberg remixed respectively the tracks "Bye Bye Macadam", "Let's Go", and "Parade". Jean-Michel Jarre selected two of his tracks to feature on the compilation "Infiné by JMJ". The album Tohu Bohu was later re-released with a bonus disc with 6 unreleased tracks; one of them features John Stanier on drums.

2014: Apache EP – North American tour
2014 saw the release of the Apache EP, in April. Simultaneously Rone toured North America for the first time, finishing with an appearance at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's The Do LaB Stage. In the same year, Rone made remixes for French pop singer Etienne Daho and the band Breton.

Testing new technologies
Rone also collaborated with sound engineers from Radio France on binaural versions of the tracks "Apache", "Quitter la ville" and "Acid Reflux", reproducing an audio 3D effect.

2015 : Third album: Creatures
After tours around the world, Rone returned to Paris and released his third album, Creatures, on 9 February 2015. Various artists collaborated on this album: Étienne Daho, François Marry (leader of pop group Frànçois and The Atlas Mountains), cellist Gaspar Claus, Bryce Dessner (co-leader of the group The National, and trumpet player Toshinori Kondo.

Rone also released a 360° virtual reality project, Quitter La Ville, in collaboration with La Blogothèque. The video was one of the first digital simulation clips, making him a pioneer in the Virtual Reality field.

2017: La Philharmonie de Paris / Fourth album: Mirapolis
On 14 January 2017, Rone performed a bespoke piece at the Philharmonie de Paris for which he invited various guest artists: the drummer John Stanier of the group Battles, the science-fiction writer Alain Damasio, and the leader of Frànçois and The Atlas Mountains François Marry.

On 23 March 2017, Castex received the French honorary decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

On 3 November 2017, Rone released his fourth album Mirapolis. The title was inspired by his childhood memories at the Mirapolis theme park, which closed in 1991. For Mirapolis, Castex pushed further his collaborative work, working alongside film director Michel Gondry who illustrated the album cover. His fourth album also includes various international collaborators: John Stanier, the drummer of the Battles, Kazu Makino from the vocal trio Blonde Redhead, Bryce Dessner, the guitarist of The National, and Baxter Dury.

2020: Room With A View
Invited by Ruth Mackenzie, the artistic director of Théâtre du Châtelet, Rone received a carte blanche for 9 performances, from March 5 to 14. Rone decided to collaborate with the collective (La)Horde for Room With A View. This project was both a musical and choreographic piece, performed by 18 dancers from the Ballet national de Marseille. This creative project mainly addresses the messages of climate change. Simultaneously, Room With A View became the artist's fifth album.

In 2020, Rone composed the original soundtrack for the feature film Night Ride. The score led to him being awarded the prize for best original soundtrack at the Festival International du film de Saint- Jean-de Luzz and at the Festival de La Baule. Rone also took home the 2021 César Award for Best Original Music.

2021: Rone & Friends - L(oo)ping
After previous projects being held back due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rone decided to produce a collaborative album with his vocalists Odezenne, Georgia, Jehnny Beth, Dominique A, Laura Etchgoyhen, Alain Damasio, Mood, Flavien Berger, Yael Naim, Malibu, Camélia Jordana, Casper Clausen, Melissa Laveaux and Roya Arab.

On 25 and 26 June 2021, Rone released L(oo)ping, an electro-classic concert, held at the Auditorium Maurice-Ravel, accompanied by 81 musicians from the Orchestre national de Lyon, the pianist Vanessa Wagner and the choir Bostgehio, under the direction of the Belgian conductor Dirk Brossé.

Filmography

 * 2010: The Cord Woman (Original soundtrack)
 * 2014: The Beast (short film) (Original soundtrack)
 * 2016 : Half Sister, Full Love, Opening credits (Bye Bye Macadam)
 * 2016 : I, Philip (Original soundtrack)
 * 2016 : I Want Pluto to be a planet again (Original soundtrack)
 * 2020 : Night Ride (Original soundtrack)
 * 2021 : Paris, 13th District (feature film) / 'Les Olympiades'' (Original soundtrack)

Choreographic pieces

 * 2020: Room With A View, (La)Horde & Rode with the Ballet National de Marseille at the Théâtre du Châtelet

Distinctions

 * 2017:Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
 * 2020: Grand Prix SACEM for electronic music
 * 2021—46th César Awards: Disque d'Or of Cannes Soundtrack Award (Festival de Cannes) for the original soundtrack of Les Olympiades.
 * 2022—47th César Awards: nominated for César Award for Best Original Music for Les Olympiades.