Strategy is the solo project of Paul Dickow, a US producer, musician, DJ and record label operator based in Portland, Oregon. He starts the project in 1999 and begins releasing music in 2003. Strategy appears on labels including Kranky, 100% Silk and Peak Oil.

Style and approach

Strategy spans ambient, electronic, dub, downtempo and related experimental forms. Dickow’s work includes headphone-oriented ambient music as well as house and dub. His studio process uses multi-tracked live instrumentation, older synthesiser equipment, archived recordings of improvisations and band rehearsals, digital sound design and sounds from non-musical sources. The music often combines quotations, small sonic jokes and altered references to music history into a dream-like and impressionistic whole.

Other projects and labels

Dickow is also involved with Sound People, Smoke and Mirrors, Fontanelle, Nudge and One Human Minute. He has previously played in Emergency, The Cold War, Two Noises and the Fracture Line. Together with David Chandler he runs Community Library, a label established in 2005.

Earlier act with the same name

There is also an earlier Strategy from Edinburgh, Scotland, formed in 1984 as an AOR/hard rock band. That group’s line-ups include Rich Malcolmson, Paul Rogers, Adam Kopystynski, Glenn Ketchen, Yvonne Morrison, Ray Wilson and Ian Mouat, with Allan Emslie also part of its live history. Its demos include songs such as Heart, Body and Soul, Silver Shadows, One More Lie, Carrie-Anne, Cry Wolf, Moth To The Flame and Homeward Bound.