Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin is a Brazilian electronic music artist from Rio de Janeiro, born in 1972. He works as a musician, composer and producer, and is associated with electronic music, ambient, club, downtempo, drill and bass, drum and bass, dubstep, IDM, trip-hop and electronica. He also works under the aliases and projects 60Hz and Two Fingers. He records with Ninja Tune and Beatsmith, Inc.

Career

Tobin begins releasing music in the mid-1990s after moving from Brazil to the UK. He first records as Cujo, with Adventures In Foam issued on Ninebar and later reissued on Ninja Tune. Ninja Tune signs him as Amon Tobin after hearing that release, and he follows with his debut album Bricolage.

His early work develops from trip-hop and jazz-influenced sampling into a darker and more complex style. Bricolage combines jazz, beats, bossa nova, batucada and jungle, while Permutation pushes further into heavier and less background-friendly material. Tracks mentioned from that period include “Like Regular Chickens”, “People Like Frank”, “Sordid”, “Nightlife” and “Nova”. “Nova” later appears in Bebel Gilberto’s “Samba Da Bencao”.

Supermodified continues this move toward dense sound design and low-end frequency work, and includes collaborations with Chris Morris and Montreal beatboxer Quadraceptor. It contains “Four Ton Mantis”, “Deo” and “Get Your Snack On”.

Montreal and soundtrack work

Tobin relocates to Montreal in 2002 and records Out From Out Where there. The album presents a more clearly recognisable version of his sound, with tracks including “verbal”, “Hey Blondie”, “Cosmo Retro Intro Outro” and “Proper Hoodidge”. A tour from this period leads to his involvement in the Solid Steel mix series, with a Final Scratch DJ set recorded in Australia and released in 2004.

In 2004 Ubisoft asks him to compose music for Splinter Cell 3. The soundtrack appears on Ninja Tune and a 5.1 DVD-Audio version is released alongside the game. He follows this with Foley Room in 2007, an album built from sounds recorded in Ubisoft’s Foley rooms rather than relying only on beat sampling. The album uses the idea of creating music from sound itself, with high-resolution bit samples, distortion and gated processing, and includes samples from the Kronos Quartet.

Style and approach

Tobin is noted for detailed sound design and unusual production methods. His work moves from jazz-based trip-hop into darker electronic and soundtrack-influenced forms, with an emphasis on bass frequency, sampled textures and layered rhythmic construction. He is widely regarded as an influential figure in electronic music.