Biography
Jasper Leyland is the alias of York, United Kingdom-based sound explorer Jonathan Brewster, whose work combines melodic drone structures with deft acoustic manipulations and splashes of field recordings. He moves between a variety of instrumental sources such as zither, chimes, melodica, acoustic and electric guitars, and accordian, applying subtle digital processing and layers of found sound to craft dense organic compositions.
Born in 1984, his first forays into music making began in autumn 2004 with a sampler and effects, before investing in a laptop six months later and delving into the possibilities of computer processing. His debut EP Capsize came out in August 2005 on Stray Dog Army, and was praised by The Wire magazine for its "meticulous laptop manipulations". His debut album Margin followed in May 2006, and was extremely well received, with press and radio coverage both in the United Kingdom and worldwide.
Jasper Leyland began playing live shows late in 2005, and an early performance at the Cube Microplex in Bristol was described by Venue Magazine as already exuding "the cultured caress of a seasoned electroacoustic auteur". These initial performances were followed by a United Kingdom tour in December 2006, which saw him using a wider variety of acoustic instruments to further combine live playing with real-time digital processing.
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