Originally from London, Oliver Coates is a cellist who has worked with a wide variety of artists from the classical, alternative, experimental, and electronic music worlds, in addition to composing his own innovative solo work. His debut album, 2013's Towards the Blessed Islands, included interpretations of pieces by composers ranging from Iannis Xenakis to Squarepusher. His subsequent works have further blended his contemporary classical and electronic influences, with 2016's Upstepping and 2018's Shelley's on Zenn-La creatively incorporating elements of British techno and garage. Aside from his solo work, Coates has worked extensively with Mica Levi, in addition to appearing on albums by Radiohead, Actress, Laurel Halo, and others.

Coates was classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music, earning the highest grades in the university's history, and performed with orchestras including Aurora Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, and the London Sinfonietta. He began experimenting on his own, composing solo work inspired by the harsh, barren electronic music of Autechre. He collaborated with composer Mira Calix on several pieces that were released by Warp (also home to Autechre) on the 2008 CD The Elephant in the Room: 3 Commissions. Coates also collaborated with Calix on a cover of Boards of Canada's "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country" for the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation in 2009. Coates won the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2011 and became an Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre. He played on Nico Muhly's 2011 album Seeing Is Believing, as well as the soundtracks for There Will Be Blood and The Master, both composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

In 2012, Coates collaborated with composer Leo Abrahams on an album of electro-acoustic experiments titled Crystals Are Always Forming. He released his debut solo album, Towards the Blessed Islands, in 2013. The following year, he released Another Fantasy, an EP featuring his interpretation of the title track, composed by house producer Bryce Hackford, as well as two remixes by Hackford himself. He also played on Mica Levi's award-winning soundtrack to the science fiction film Under the Skin, which was released in 2014. Coates contributed to Radiohead's 2016 full-length, A Moon Shaped Pool, and according to the group's leader, Thom Yorke, the cellist played a major role in shaping the album's sound. During the same year, Coates released his second solo album, Upstepping, which was heavily inspired by British dance music (particularly '90s techno groups like Orbital as well as U.K. garage) but created almost entirely with cello and electronic processing. He also collaborated with Levi on an album titled Remain Calm.

In 2017, Coates and Eliza Carthy released a split 7" single containing interpretations of songs written by Levi, in her Micachu guise. Coates signed to RVNG Intl., and his first release for the label was an LP of Canticles of the Sky, a composition by John Luther Adams. This was followed later in 2018 by Shelley's on Zenn-La, an original work inspired by IDM and rave culture. Also in 2018, Coates played on albums by Actress and Laurel Halo, as well as soundtracks composed by Jonny Greenwood (The Phantom Thread) and Daniel Pemberton (One Strange Rock). ~ Paul Simpson

A Berlin-based, Danish-born singer/songwriter and classically trained pianist with an elegant and elastic voice, Agnes Obel's poised and melancholic chamber pop draws from the same atmosphere-heavy well as cinematic spellcasters like Antony & the Johnsons and Lisa Hannigan, but with a succinct aura of Scandinavian refinery. Her evocative blend of classical, pop, jazz, and electronic music found success in Europe on the strength of the platinum-selling Philharmonics and Aventine. Her ambitious 2016 release, Citizen of Glass, which introduced ghostly electronics, voice modulation, and a late-'20s monophonic synthesizer called a Trautonium into the mix, helped to establish her overseas as well.

Born Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel on October 28, 1980, she took up the piano at a very young age, honing her craft amidst the strains of Bartok and Chopin emanating from the fingers of her musician mother. She later drew inspiration from the work of Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson, and it was between those two worlds that her own sound began to emerge. Citing influences as diverse as PJ Harvey and Claude Debussy, and drawing comparisons to the likes Ane Brun, Eva Cassidy, and Joni Mitchell, Obel's 2010 debut, Philharmonics, was written (with the exception of a cover of John Cale's "I Keep a Close Watch"), performed and produced by the artist herself. Pure, austere, and remarkably poised, the pristine mix of instrumentals and atmospheric, melancholy balladry was both a critical and commercial success, especially in her native Denmark, where the record went double platinum. Composed, produced, arranged, and mixed by Obel herself at Chalk Wood Studios, 2013's impressionistic Aventine was another commercial success, charting in nine countries. For her much-anticipated third studio album, 2016's transparency-themed Citizen of Glass, Obel experimented with vintage synthesizers, as well as her own voice, which is at times heavily modulated. The LP earned Obel the Album of the Year award from the Independent Music Companies Association. In 2018 she inked a deal with Deutsche Grammophon and curated a Late Night Tales compilation. 2020 saw Obel release her fourth full-length effort, Myopia, which was entirely self-recorded. ~ James Christopher Monger