Lorn

Lorn’s Marcos Ortega is an electronic producer, composer, and DJ from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Exposed to music at an early age, Ortega decided to pursue it as a career path after having been seduced by the dark, hypnotic, and schizophrenic sounds of the Aphex Twin classic “Come to Daddy.” Making his first appearance on the scene with his remix of grime MC Jammer’s track “Better Than,” he eventually became disinterested in working with eight- and 16-bar loops for scratch beat remixes, and his compositions gradually became longer and progressively layered. With this, Lorn went on to gain significant exposure in the mid- to late 2000s. Signing with independent label Wednesday Sound, he released a number of EPs, beginning with 7&13 in 2006. He put out a number of EPs via the label in subsequent years, including 2007′s Grief Machine and the DRUGS EP (a collaborative effort with labelmate Dolor). The year 2010 marked the producer’s shift from Wednesday Sound to experimental recording artist Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label. The move also marked the release of Lorn’s debut full-length effort, Nothing Else. Mastered by English electronic artist Clark, the record was a resounding success, receiving widespread acclaim. Many noted its evocative nature throughout, depicting tones and textures of melancholy, paranoia, and aggressiveness through an unwavering dark electronic sound palette and crystalline production techniques. More success followed, with Lorn’s music appearing in a number of video games and television shows, most notably the U.S. police/crime drama C.S.I. He went on tour alongside the likes of Amon Tobin, GonjaSufi, and Mary Anne Hobbs and, upon his return home, got to work on his sophomore effort. The resulting record, Ask the Dust (named after the 1939 novel by John Fante), was released in 2012 via Ninja Tune. While maintaining the darkness of previous efforts, the release was also injected with a new kind of vigor, boasting an aural canvas of “glitched-out soul music,” which also incorporated heavily manipulated vocal samples alongside the haunting and visceral melancholy evident in earlier works. Ortega returned with a new kind of project in 2014: a collaboration with composer Tyler Bates on the official score for the Killzone: Shadow Fall video game. Lorn returned to Wednesday Sound to launch his third album, Vessel, in 2015. The producer decided to quietly release the record himself on New Year’s Eve that year. ~ Rob Wacey