Steven Ford, alias Bruno Pronsato, is one of those rare but increasingly ubiquitous contemporary techno producers with a background in some disparate instrumentalist music genre (see Adultnapper, who started out as a hardcore punk rocker, or No Regular Play, whose Greg Paulus hails from indie folk outfit Beirut, or [a]pendics.shuffle, for that matter, who cut his teeth in '90s noise rock band Furry Things.) There's something about these artists' pasts as instrumentalist musicians which imbues their forays into electronica with a uniquely heightened compositional sensibility not necessarily shared by their peers who live and die by the more limited palette of strict techno.
In the case of US-born Berlin-based DJ/producer Pronsato, it was punk rock and speed metal that he first got a taste for, playing drums in a slew of bands, before he delved into electronic music production in the 2000's. But he has an ear for far more eclectic sounds and musical influences than just hard rock. Tracks like "Wade In The Water, Children" quote lyrics from a soulful old negro spiritual from the American South, while other melodic productions borrow stylistically from the likes of early 20th century Viennese classical composer Anton Webern. In short, Pronsato is a cultivated aesthete with a clear reverence for music history in all its permutations, and a knack for allowing these influences to seep into his work as a minimal techno producer.
In only 4 years Pronsato caught the attention of some of the world's
top techno imprints, with releases on Perlon, Hello?Repeat, Minus, and
Spectral Sound. But in 2009 the acclaimed artist's latest project is
the launch of his own label, Thesongsays, along with a highly ambitious
39 minute-long experimental piece "The Make Up The Break Up", a "key
statement in exploratory, extended-playing, intricate minimalism."
Miami welcomes Bruno Pronsato for his highly-anticipated debut
performance at the Electric Pickle this Friday night, where he will be
joined by PL0T resident DJs Alejandro Sab and Basti.
Bruno Pronsato at Electric Pickle, Friday, September 11, 10 p.m.-5 a.m. 2826 N Miami Ave., Miami.