Yves De Mey

Based in Antwerp, Belgium, Yves De Mey is a sound designer and engineer whose works have ranged from submerged minimal techno to expansive long-form drones. He initially produced music during the late ’90s under the name Eavesdropper, starting out with abstract drum’n’bass before gradually moving toward more experimental work, including scores for dance and theater performances. Eavesdropper’s final release was a minimal techno 12″ titled Ibidem in 2009; from then on, De Mey primarily used his given name for his solo recordings. He co-founded Sendai with Peter Van Hoesen, and the duo’s sound evolved from dubby techno to sparse, clicky IDM and clattering industrial textures. Sendai debuted in 2009 with two techno 12″s on Time to Express: System Policy and Sustaining the Chain. De Mey’s solo album, Lichtung, a 35-minute score to a dance performance by Catherine Jodoin, was released by Richard Chartier’s Line label that same year. Two years later, well-regarded U.K. ambient techno label Sandwell District released De Mey’s double-12″ EP Counting Triggers. Following Sendai’s 2012 debut full-length Geotope (on Time to Express), De Mey released three solo EPs in 2013: Transfer (Modal Analysis), Frisson (Archives Intérieures), and Metrics (Opal Tapes). He released an EP titled Double Slit on Semantica Records in 2014, and Sendai’s second album, A Smaller Divide, appeared on Archives Intérieures. He ended the year with a techno EP titled Lower Bounds (Inner Surface Music), released under new pseudonym Grey Branches. In early 2016, Sendai released a split EP with Cassegrain on Konstrukt, and De Mey released a solo double-LP, Drawn with Shadow Pens, on Spectrum Spools. A Grey Branches full-length titled Neuroclaps arrived in 2017. ~ Paul Simpson