Bibio

Stephen James Wilkinson (born 4 December 1978), better known as Bibio, is an English musician and producer.

He is known for a distinct analog lo-fi sound, and for working in a diverse range of genres, beginning in folktronica and ambient and later stretching to include instrumental hip hop, indie pop, electronica, soul, funk, and alternative R&B.

He currently releases music on Warp Records, and previously released on Mush Records.

A resident of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England, Wilkinson developed a passion for experimental music during his time at Middlesex University in London from 1999 to 2003, where he studied "sonic arts".

His earliest songs were mainly layered guitar compositions inspired by Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, one of his earliest being "Cantaloup Carousel", which was originally recorded in 1999 at his university residence.

His recording equipment at the time consisted of a "plastic" microphone, a budget sampler, cassette deck, and a portable MiniDisc recorder.

Wilkinson's university recordings from 1999 to 2003 formed the basis of his debut album fi, released in February 2005.

Listening to music on Warp Records in 2000 led him to experiment with programming virtual synthesizers in SuperCollider, which he was introduced to via his university classes.

His discovery of Nick Drake and The Incredible String Band in 2001 also encouraged him to try fingerpicking and alternative guitar tunings, which "opened up new avenues of melodic expression and serendipity" and "made playing guitar feel fresh and exciting again".

Wilkinson credits these "happy days of discovery" at university with helping develop his signature lo-fi sound.

Upon graduating, Wilkinson left London and returned to Wolverhampton, setting up a recording space in the spare bedroom of his girlfriend's parents' house.

He worked part time while recording music, and was briefly a lecturer at Stafford College teaching Music Technology.

After sharing his collection of recordings with Marcus Eoin of Boards of Canada, Eoin recommended Bibio to American indie label Mush Records, who signed Wilkinson in 2004.

He adopted the name "Bibio" from the name of a black-and-red artificial fly his father used on fly-fishing trips for trout in Wales.

Roberts co-wrote and co-produced several Bibio songs, the pair began a short lived music project named SK Dreams, and the three along with Matt Cutler started a record label named Artists' Valley, which released a limited 7-inch Bibio single "Shelia Sets Sail" in 2005.

While continuing to record lo-fi guitar pieces, Wilkinson was inspired by artists like J Dilla, MF Doom, and Madlib to begin a short-lived hip hop side project named Duckula.

Listening to Daft Punk and Warp Records artists also inspired him to create 90s french house and electronica tracks, and Brazilian guitarists like Marcos Valle and João Gilberto deeply influenced his guitar playing and led him to write funk, soul, and samba inspired pieces.

After a period of trying to separate his various styles into different side projects, Wilkinson was encouraged by his friends to de-compartmentalize and merge his interests under the Bibio name.

Sophomore album Hand Cranked was released March 2006, and continued in a similar style, seeking to emulate the sound of mechanical music boxes using antique instruments.

In 2007, he recorded the song "Ambivalence Avenue", which he now regards as a milestone in his career – "it combined the lofi tapey Bibio guitar sound with weightier beat based production, fingerpicking with jazz chords, it had a Brazilian influence, a folk influence and a hip hop influence, it was a realization of an idea in my head trying to come out, it was a combination I had been striving for a while. Making this track gave me a new confidence and triggered what became the most prolific period of my life so far."

The song caught the attention of Steve Beckett of Warp Records, who encouraged him to keep recording in this style.

Wilkinson "knuckled down" and recorded the tracks that would make up Ambivalence Avenue between 2007 and 2008.

On the strength of these recordings Bibio signed to Warp Records in August 2008.

His third full-length album Vignetting the Compost, released February 2009, carried on with his signature sound while progressing towards more traditional folk song structures.

Digital only EP Ovals and Emeralds followed in March 2009 and explored circus music and the sounds of fairground organs.

Bibio's output on Mush Records mostly consisted of instrumental guitar compositions, centered around the use of looped melodies, ambient field recordings, found sounds, tape distortion and manipulation, additional folk instruments, and gentle synth drones.

Only occasional songs featured vocals ("Mr. and Mrs. Compost", "Great Are The Piths", "Abberiw", and "Flesh Rots, Pips Sown").

Bibio occasionally worked with Letherette during this time, after Wilkinson met Richard Roberts working at the same pub as him.

Ambivalence Avenue was released in June 2009, four months after Ovals and Emeralds, and marked the start of a new sound and era, embracing vocals, hip-hop beats, folk and pop song structures, and funk/soul guitars.

Wilkinson regarded it as "another debut album" and recalled recording the album during "difficult years, having a degree that meant nothing to the world around me... being in my mid 20s and not knowing where I was heading in life in a town with little opportunity," and was uncertain whether people would enjoy its variety.

Ambivalence Avenue was met with largely favorable reviews, with Tiny Mix Tapes describing it as his "most creative and penetrating release yet" and Pitchfork ranking it as the 33rd best album of 2009, stating "it's shocking how utterly and successfully he rewrites his playbook."

Some reviewers were more critical, with Drowned in Sound claiming "Bibio's tendency... to either smooth the edges of his creations into non-threatening abstraction or fail to zone in on his best ideas is frustrating."

Companion release The Apple and the Tooth followed shortly after in November 2009, his fourth major release of the year, featuring four new songs and eight remixes of tracks from Ambivalence Avenue.

The original tracks were described as "expert, full of electronic papier-mache layers of arpeggiated guitars, glitchy drum patterns and joyful percussive samples," by The Guardian.

In some publications, it is referred to as Bibio's fifth album due to its length.

Bibio's next studio album, Mind Bokeh, was released on 29 March 2011 in the US and 4 April in the UK, promoted by the single "Excuses" in February 2011.

It continued the sound of Ambivalence Avenue with more mixing of genres, including forays into power pop on "Take Off Your Shirt" and microhouse on "Saint Christopher".

Wilkinson described the album as having a "balance of the familiar and the non-familiar."

Mind Bokeh was met with mixed reviews.

Clash ranked Mind Bokeh the 24th best album of 2011, and Slant praised the album for being "fluid and formless, committing to pop structure and melodies one moment only to eschew them the next, often all within the same track", while Tiny Mix Tapes called the album "an ugly stepchild of a record, neither diverting enough to work as pop nor novel enough to satisfy as pure electronic music," and XLR8R felt the LP had "a less than desirable success rate".