Prolific electronic artists, DJs, film score composers and producers of recording artists including Björk, Mara Carlyle and Nicolette, British duo Plaid are one of the most respected electronic artists of their generation.
The school friends Andy Turner and Ed Handley have been producing music together since 1989, when they founded The Black Dog with Ken Downie, with their first album as Plaid, Mbuki Mvuki, being released on their own Black Dog Productions label in 1991 – which led directly to them signing with Warp Records. They’ve since released six albums, often collaborating with acoustic musicians.
Their passion for working with others has enabled them to embrace diverse musical, visual and technological influences, developing shows with the likes of The London Sinfonietta, renowned academics from The Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast and most notably, with software production, being featured artist for Apple’s Logic Studio software.
Plaid’s interest in live audio visual performance, led to them working with the visual artist Bob Jaroc with their surround-sound DVD release Greedy Baby, which had its World Premiere at London’s IMAX cinema. They’ve also collaborated on videos with directors including Chris Turner for the English National Ballet, Parisian collective PLEIX on a piece for Creative Review and Evan Boehm for The Creators Project. The duo also composed the soundtracks for Michael Arias’ feature films, Heaven’s Door and Tekkonkinkreet which was awarded the Japanese Academy Prize in 2006 for Best Animated picture (fact: it was also the first anime film ever directed by a non-Japanese director!).