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Ralph Castelli

Playing low-key and lo-fi homebrewed music with a playful pop sensibility, Ralph Castelli has won a loyal following for his songs, which incorporate elements of hip-hop, electronics, and indie rock to fashion a sound that's subdued but sunny. Debuting in the mid-2010s, Castelli made his breakthrough with the 2019 EP Long Distance, whose leadoff track, "Morning Sex," would become a major streaming hit, while his full-length debut, 2020's Cut Out, offered a more layered sound without abandoning his sonic personality. The 2023 single Iris and I found him incorporating more organic elements into these arrangements. Ralph Castelli was born in Anchorage, Alaska, on May 27, 1997. His parents had an extensive record collection and young Ralph spent plenty of time exploring different sounds. Noticing his enthusiasm for music, Castelli's parents gave him a guitar for his eighth birthday, and he committed himself to learning the new instrument. He also took up songwriting, and when he turned 18, he left Alaska for Sydney, Australia, where he enrolled at the Australian Institute of Music, focusing on composition and production. After completing his studies, Castelli relocated to Los Angeles, where he started blocking out plans for a career in music. In 2017, he released a three-song EP titled Ralph Castelli, consisting of lo-fi bedroom recordings with acoustic guitars balanced against electronics. 2018's Lover Girl EP showed a more confident grasp of the recording process, and 2019's five-song Long Distance, informed by his relationship with someone 8,000 miles away, included two songs that became major successes on streaming services, "Morning Sex" and "Lonely." Castelli stepped up with his first full-length album in 2020, the ten-song Cut Out, where he further explored the possibilities of electronic manipulation of his sounds. Over the next several years, he focused on single tracks, most of which found him adapting melodic pop structures to his trademark style, though 2021's Moonlight/Rare featured two tunes with a moodier tone. 2022's Four Below and 2023's Plans reflected wintry themes and showed off the influence of Sufjan Stevens, who Castelli had cited as one of his favorite artists. 2023's Iris and I was a subtle step back, with an arrangement built around the organic sound of acoustic guitar that felt like a more sophisticated variation on his earliest releases.
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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Discography

15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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