chillout

The imaginative recordings produced by Mad Professor (born Neil Fraser 1955, Georgetown in Guyana) demonstrate a mastery of electronic gadgetry. Working from his own studios, Mad Professor has overseen more than two hundred albums including ground-breaking remixes for Massive Attack, Sade, and Pato Banton. Born in Guyana, Fraser earned the Mad Professor tag from his childhood fascination with electronics. At the age of nine or ten he built a radio from scratch. Moving to London at the age of thirteen, Mad Professor continued to experiment with electronics.

Northcape is the ongoing work of a British artist, and can broadly be described as downtempo melodic electronica. Northcape self-released his first CD in 2005, following this with a second independent release ('Detach') in 2007 and an EP ('Some Bright Valley') on the monotonik netlabel. Northcape's latest album is Captured From Static, released by Sun Sea Sky Productions on April 6th 2010. The aim is to express ideas and evoke environments, landscapes and memory rather than to focus on the technology and techniques used.

Since 1999 Sola Rosa’s Andrew Spraggon has been tantalising listeners with otherworldly aural experiences, honing his craft and taking Sola Rosa from a self-released one man project to fully-fledged live powerhouse along the way. A number of highly-regarded albums have been released under the Sola Rosa moniker - 2001’s Solarized, 2003’s Haunted Out-takes, and Moves On in 2005 – each one picking up numerous nominations and getting Spraggon onstage for award acceptance speeches at both the NZ Music Awards and b-net Music Awards.

Somewhere between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brazilian marching street band and Japanese film noir is the 12-piece Pink Martini. Part language lesson, part Hollywood musical, the Portland, Oregon-based 'little orchestra' was created in 1994 in Portland, Oregon by Harvard graduate and classically trained pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale to play at political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, clean water, and public broadcasting. He soon invited fellow Harvard alumna China Forbes to sing with the band.