Hailing from London, the enigmatic
patten -- no capitalization -- produces experimental electronic music heavy on samples and layered textures. His blown-out, abstract recordings are heavily influenced by '80s post-punk/goth as well as seminal Warp acts such as
Autechre and
Seefeel, with nods to 2000s electronic music such as grime, footwork, and deconstructed club music.
Guided by his own vision, the artist known only as
patten began releasing music in 2006, starting with the CD-R Lacuna. There Were Horizons was released on his Kaleidoscope label as a "pay what you like" digital download and as a limited mail-order CD-R packaged in a 7" sleeve with a foldout poster. Sketching the Tesseract was issued the following year in the same fashion. He gained recognition in 2009 when his track "Version [Test Mixxx]" made waves on Internet blogs; Pitchfork named it Best New Track with comparisons to
Liquid Liquid and
LCD Soundsystem. After 2011's acclaimed full-length
GLAQJO XAACSSO, released on No Pain in Pop,
patten signed with Warp, where he released the EP
EOLIAN INSTATE (2013) and the album
ESTOILE NAIANT (2014), the latter of which featured graphic design from frequent visual-artist collaborator Jane Eastlight. The year 2014 also saw the release of several Re-Edits digital EPs; he would continue the series into the next decade.
In 2015,
patten performed with guest vocalist A, appearing at Warp's 25th anniversary concert in Poland; he released
Psi, featuring A, in 2016. He went on to collaborate with Hisham Bharoocha (
Soft Circle), spontaneously recording an EP at London's Barbican Gallery and quickly pressing it to vinyl. During this time,
patten formed the 555-5555 creative agency with partner Eastlight, delving into a wide range of projects that encompassed graphic design, apparel, and live events. He continued with remixes of tracks by the likes of
Giorgio Moroder and
Björk, among others.
The four-song EP Requiem was released in 2017, and then
patten focused on live performances. He toured Japan in 2017 and the next year opened an installation at the Tenderpixel Gallery in London. Further exhibits at the Tate Gallery and Somerset House were launched, along with DJ sets in various European locales. The club-centric FLEX appeared in 2019, followed by several 2020 releases. The mostly beatless GLOW (July) preceded the noisier GLO))) (September), and the abstract techno of Aegis arrived in October. ~ Jason Lymangrover & Paul Simpson