Fort Romeau

Michael Greene, the South London-based producer and DJ best known as Fort Romeau, constantly refines and expands his brand of lush, blissful house. Following the release of his acclaimed 2012 debut, Kingdoms, 2015′s Insides explored ambient, Krautrock, and cosmic disco influences. A multitude of his singles and EPs for labels like Running Back and Live at Robert Johnson have become staples of numerous DJ sets. His third album, 2022′s Beings of Light, mixed dreamy techno and rainy-day ambient. 2024′s Romantic Gestures, Vol. 1 focused on deep house and garage. An avid record collector, Greene started digging for vinyl at fairs and jumble sales with his father when he was eight years old. He studied music and visual art in Brighton, then moved to London after graduating from university. Along with playing guitar in collaboration with Ital Tek’s Al Myson and as a keyboardist in La Roux’s touring band, Greene developed Fort Romeau’s slow-burning, blissful sound in his bedroom studio using an old laptop and a Yamaha DX7. He released his debut album, Kingdoms, in 2012 on 100% Silk, home to like-minded artists such as Coyote Clean Up. Acclaim for Kingdoms led to a busy 2013, with the single SW9 on Ghostly’s Spectral Sound imprint arriving that March and a pair of releases, July’s Jetée/Desire single and September’s Stay/True EP, for Ghostly proper. While working on Fort Romeau’s second album, Greene issued the Her Dream EP via Live at Robert Johnson in 2014. Insides, which was inspired by Greene’s DJ sets as well as disco and kosmische, was released by Ghostly in March 2015. That year, Greene founded the Cin Cin label with Ali Tillett, which featured releases by Nick Höppner and Todd Osborn. Fort Romeau also issued a flurry of short releases, including 2015′s Fairlights EP and Frankfurt Versions, a collection of Insides remixes. The Secrets & Lies EP arrived via Live at Robert Johnson in 2016, along with a collaboration with Bezier on Cin Cin. The following year, Running Back released Emulators, an EP inspired by the E-MU II workstation, and the self-released Reasons EP also appeared. 2018′s “Pablo,” also self-issued, preceded SPC-140, his return to Spectral Sound. 2019 saw the release of additional EPs on Permanent Vacation (Heaven & Earth), Live at Robert Johnson (Dweller on the Threshold), and Correspondant (DADA), as well as tracks with Simian Mobile Disco’s Jas Shaw issued through Cin Cin. Two more EPs on Permanent Vacation, Fantasia and The Mirror, arrived in 2020. Rave flashback “FWD NRG” was issued by Phantasy Sound in 2021, preceding another Permanent Vacation single, “Control.” Fort Romeau returned to Ghostly with the 2022 full-length Beings of Light, which took inspiration from the work of American artist Steven Arnold. He then collaborated with Massimiliano Pagliara and Coloray on the single “Reset.” Several singles, including the U.K. garage-influenced “Hold Up” and deep house tracks like “The Man from Another Place,” were issued on an imprint called Romantic Gestures, and were featured on the 2024 full-length, Romantic Gestures, Vol. 1. ~ Heather Phares & Paul Simpson