Bvdub is an American

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

producer originally from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. Since 2007 he has released more than 50 albums and EPs under this name and other pseudonyms including his birth name, Brock Van Wey. Residing in

Shaoxing Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the south ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, he produces

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

and

ambient techno Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, The Orb, The ...

music that has received critical acclaim from the likes of online magazines ''

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform established in 2001 and dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. Its editorial team provides news, music and ev ...

'', '' Headphone Commute'' and '' Gridface''. His first release as Brock Van Wey, ''White Clouds Drift On And On'', was included in RA's Top 20 Albums of 2009.

Overview

Van Wey was born in 1974 and grew up in Livermore near

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. He was classically trained as a child and from the age of five he was taught

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and, later,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. By age eleven he had composed his first piece of music for the trio of cello, violin and viola and had written several more pieces by his mid-teens. Feeling that he did not actually enjoy classical music (and preferring instead to "remix" the pieces he learned in his head) he eventually gave it up altogether. In the early 90s he heard, by chance, a

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ...

mix tape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

that would inspire him to pursue electronic music. He was soon performing as a deep house and ambient DJ and appearing regularly at

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

s in San Francisco, initially under his own name and later under the bvdub moniker. Van Wey composed his first electronic piece in 1993 - an

industrial techno Industrial techno is a subgenre of techno and industrial dance music that originated in the 1990s. Characteristically, it incorporates influences from the bleak, noisy sound and aesthetics of early industrial music acts, particularly Cabaret Vol ...

/classical track - that differed significantly in style to the music he would later produce. In 2001, Brock moved to China, having become disillusioned with the scene in San Francisco, and sought to make a fresh start in a country that had always held a fascination for him. He began work as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of English, teaching over 200 students. It was not until 2006 that he started to produce his own music after a friend spent time teaching him the finer details of various pieces of hardware and software. His first release as bvdub was ''Strength In Solitude LP'' in 2007, an album which comprises the first six tracks he created in the order that they were made. In 2007 Van Wey founded the label ''Quietus Recordings'' in response to his friends' music being turned down by other

record labels "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

for being "too self-indulgent" or "too deep". Creating the label allowed bvdub and others to release their most personal compositions without fear of it being rejected. The label, in fact, encourages its artists to present only the music by which they would want to be remembered. To make each release as personal as possible, Van Wey takes the photos for the CD label and the cover art himself whilst listening to the music that the images are to accompany. The label has released bvdub's own recordings as well as productions by

Quantec Wolfgang Buchleitner (known as "Wolf" Buchleitner, born Wolfgang Schwarz) (b. June 25, 1954) is a multifaceted German artist, equipment designer and inventor. Buchleitner is the head and catalyst of the Quantec ProAudio enterprise. Personal lif ...

and Arc Of Doves. After returning to China, following a period of living once more in San Francisco, a mutual friend put Van Wey in touch with indie label

Darla Records Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York (state), New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters (band), Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi music, lo-fi band from Memphis. ...

. A fruitful relationship blossomed that has seen bvdub release several albums on the label to date including 2011's ''Resistance Is Beautiful'' and 2012's ''Serenity''. In 2018 he was part of "The Ambient Files", a mix CD project by Stars Over Foy.

Name

The name ''bvdub'' was given to Brock by a colleague and is simply a shortening of his initials, BVW, rather than being intended to denote dub or

dub techno Dub techno is a subgenre of electronic music that originated in the early 1990s, blending the repetitive, minimal structures of techno with the echo-laden, spacey production techniques of dub music. It is notable for its deep, atmospheric soundsc ...

music. Brock describes his own music as electronic, ambient and ambient techno (though prefers not to categorize it at all) and has stated that he has never produced anything he would associate with dub. However, he has worked with dub techno label and production duo Echospace, who released his album ''White Clouds Drift On And On'' and whose member Intrusion remixed it in full.

Discography

Albums

*2007 ''Strength In Solitude LP'' (2600 Records) *2009 ''We Were The Sun'' (Quietus Recordings) *2009 ''A Prayer To False Gods'' (Shoreless Recordings) *2009 ''White Clouds Drift On And On'' (as Brock Van Wey) (echospace) *2010 ''The Art Of Dying Alone'' (Glacial Movements Records) *2010 ''A Silent Reign'' (Styrax Records) *2011 ''Tribes At The Temple Of Silence'' ( Home Normal) *2011 ''One Last Look At The Sea'' (Quietus Recordings) *2011 ''The Truth Hurts'' (with Ian Hawgood) (Nomadic Kids Republic) *2011 ''Songs For A Friend I Left Behind'' (Distant Noise Records) *2011 ''I Remember (Translations of Mørketid)'' (Glacial Movements Records) *2011 ''Resistance Is Beautiful'' (

) *2011 ''Then'' (AY) *2012 ''121 Years'' (as Earth House Hold) ( Home Normal) *2012 ''The First Day'' ( Home Normal) *2012 ''Don’t Say You Know'' (

) *2012 ''Serenity'' (

) *2012 ''Strangers No More'' (With Or Without You) *2012 ''All Is Forgiven'' ( n5MD) *2013 ''A Careful Ecstasy'' (

) *2013 ''At Night This City Becomes The Sea'' (AY) *2013 ''Born In Tokyo'' ( n5MD) *2013 ''Erebus'' (with Loscil) (Glacial Movements Records) *2014 ''I'll Only Break Your Heart'' (

) *2014 ''Home'' (as Brock Van Wey) (echospace) *2014 ''A History Of Distance'' ( n5MD) *2014 ''Tanto'' (Quietus Recordings) *2015 ''A Step In The Dark'' (AY) *2015 ''Safety In A Number'' (self-released) *2016 ''Yours Are Stories of Sadness'' (Sound In Silence) *2017 ''Epilogues for the End of the Sky'' (Glacial Movements) *2017 ''Heartless'' ( n5MD) *2018 ''A Different Definition of Love'' (Dronarivm) *2018 ''Drowning in Daylight'' (

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

) *2019 ''Explosions in Slow Motion'' ( n5MD) *2020 ''Ten Times the World Lied'' (Glacial Movements) *2020 ''Burn Back Time'' (Silent Reign) *2020 ''101 Rooms'' (self-released) *2020 ''Wrath & Apathy'' ( n5MD) *2021 ''Hard Times, Hard Hearts'' (AY) *2021 ''Measures of a Greater Mercy'' (Silent Reign) *2022 ''Violet Opposition'' ( n5MD) *2022 ''Decades On Divided Stars'' (Affin) *2022 ''Anodyne Rains'' (Silent Reign) *2022 ''Equilibrium'' (with Netherworld) (Glacial Movements) *2022 ''Departing in Descent'' (with James Bernard) (Past Inside the Present) *2023 ''How Deep Is Your Devotion'' (as Earth House Hold) (A Strangely Isolated Place) *2023 ''Slowly Shifting Lakes'' (Past Inside the Present) *2023 ''Fumika Fades'' (EC Underground) *2023 ''Days of Gold'' (quiet details) *2023 ''Four Forgetting'' (Sound In Silence) *2023 ''Destroyesterday.'' (with Inquiri) (AY) *2023 ''Asleep in Ultramarine'' (Dronarivm) *2024 ''Leaving'' (self-released) *2024 ''Tsunami'' (as East of Oceans) (self-released) *2024 ''The Ghost Where You Used to Be'' (self-released) *2024 ''In Iron Houses'' (EC Underground) *2024 ''Still Time'' (self-released) *2024 ''Lucidity'' (self-released) *2024 ''Memories in Every Color'' (self-released) *2025 ''13'' (Past Inside the Present) *2025 ''No More Rain'' (self-released) *2025 ''Oak and Divisidero'' (self-released) *2025 ''Release Me'' (self-released) *2025 ''Us Again'' (self-released) *2025 ''Even When It Hurts'' (self-released)

EPs

* 2007 ''I Never Cried a Tear EP'' (Night Drive Music) * 2007 ''Requited Love'' (Styrax Records) * 2007 ''Daydreams of Exile'' (Queitus Recordings) * 2008 ''No Turning Back EP'' (3rd Wave Music) * 2008 ''Dreams of Red Chambers'' (Quietus Recordings) * 2008 ''Monuments to Oblivion'' (Southern Outpost) * 2008 ''Return to Tonglu'' (Quietus Recordings) * 2008 ''Wish I Was Here'' (Millions of Monuments) * 2008 ''Where To Now'' (Millions of Monuments) * 2008 ''A Moment's Peace'' (Meanwhile) * 2009 ''To Live'' (Smallfish) * 2012 ''Strangers No More'' (With Or Without You) * 2013 ''It Could Have Been So Beautiful'' (Third Wave Black) * 2015 ''Wishing And Withering'' (with Earth House Hold) (self-released) * 2024 ''A Life in Setting Suns'' (with Inquiri) (Past Inside the Present) * 2025 ''For Everything, an End'' (self-released) * 2025 ''Colder Than Snow'' (self-released) * 2025 ''Simulations in Stasis'' (self-released) * 2025 ''Someone to Call Your Name'' (self-released) * 2025 ''Decades in Red'' (self-released)

Compilations

*2011 ''Air Texture Volume 1'' (with Andrew Thomas) (Air Texture) *2015 ''Lost Ambient'' (self-released) *2015 ''Tech From Times Past'' (self-released)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Deep house musicians Darla Records artists