Kane Ikin

Australian producer Kane Ikin came to prominence as half of ambient/drone duo Solo Andata before embarking on a solo career. A native of Melbourne, Ikin started out as a self-taught guitarist before exposure to electronic music got him interested in modular synthesis, field recording, and signal processing. He earned a degree in sound from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, where he met Paul Fiocco, a philosophy graduate. Together they started the Solo Andata duo, continuing the collaboration long-distance once Ikin moved back to Melbourne and Fiocco to Sweden. Ikin's debut solo release, in 2011, was the 7" single "Contrail" on Taylor Deupree's cult electronica label 12k, which had also released Solo Andata's eponymous sophomore album; it is notable for being one of the very few singles the label has ever released on vinyl. His debut solo album, Sublunar, followed in 2012. While sharing some features with the rest of the 12k roster, it was markedly more propulsive and beat-driven than the rest of the label's output at the time, with a subtle air of menace. That same year he also released a collaborative album, Strangers, with Library Tapes' David Wenngren on Simon Scott's label Kesh, a lush ambient/drone journey with dark overtones. After a couple of EPs in 2014 on Melbourne label This Thing, a digital-only "mixtape" of odds and ends culled from Ikin's hard drive, Sync/Textile appeared in 2015. His second solo full-length, Modern Pressure, dropped the following year on vinyl through experimental label Type. Born of a period of financial hardship that saw Ikin reduced to selling off his gear piece by piece to make ends meet, it was by necessity a more stripped-down affair, its dank and corroded atmospheres offering an insight into its creator's grim state of mind at the time.
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