Brokenchord

Necessity is the mother of invention they say, a proverb that’s especially true when it comes to musicians. Hailing from the small industrial town of Utena, in north-east Lithuania, where most people are employed by various factories, Ernestas Kaušylas didn’t have much in the way of culture and art growing up – but he did have his own imagination. Having learned to play multiple instruments, he turned his hand to composing and production, happening upon a dubby, echo-laden electronica that, as Brokenchord, has been his signature sound ever since.

After signing to Bristol-based cult label Black Acre, he released his first 7 inch and EP, and was played on Radio One by Mary Anne Hobbs. A debut album, Endless Transmissions, was next – described by Kaušylas as “a movie painted with sound” – and there is an orchestral, cinematic quality to his compositions, expansive soundscapes that billow and flow and clank. The record is also a homage to technology, creativity, and the tactile nature of the human body – as he himself put it, “machines that mimic human grooves are boring, but the other way around it becomes quite interesting.”

There are nods to Radiohead, Four Tet, and Bonobo is his work; cerebral as well as joyous, it’s music meant for dedicated listening as much as dancing or 3am introspection. A restless polymath, Kaušylas has also composed for various theatre groups and is currently studying for his Bachelor Music Studies at the prestigious Institute of Sonology in The Hague – a long way to have come from such humble beginnings.