SJ Esau is the music project of Sam Wisternoff, an experimental pop musician from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Although ostensibly a solo project, Wisternoff is often joined by the drummer Sean Talbot and has incorporated a variety of other musicians into recording projects and live performances.

History and work

Born on 28 November 1977, Wisternoff’s music career began in the late 1980s as a prepubescent rapper, collaborating with his brother,

Jody Wisternoff Joseph Wisternoff (born 25 November 1973) is an English electronic music producer and DJ. He is best known as one half of the electronic music duo Way Out West, and also as a solo producer of dance music spanning early 1990s hardcore to dee ...

to release a single on

Smith & Mighty Smith & Mighty are an English trip hop group from Bristol, England, consisting of Rob Smith and Ray Mighty. Their first releases, in the late 1980s, were breakbeat covers of " Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "Walk On By". Both songs entered the U ...

’s Three Stripe Records. Spending his later teenage years in

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band, The Pudding, Wisternoff released the first SJ Esau album, ''Queezy Beliefs'', in 1999 on his Enormous Corpse label which was followed by various CDR albums and limited edition releases for labels such as Static Caravan Recordings,

Twisted Nerve Records Twisted Nerve Records was a Manchester, England-based record label, founded by Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy) and Andy Votel. Best known for being the home of Badly Drawn Boy and Alfie, the label was active between 1997 and 2012. Mu ...

and Fooltribe. In 2007,

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It is now collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and man ...

Records re-released the album ''

Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse ''Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse'' is the first studio album by British indie rock musician SJ Esau SJ Esau is the music project of Sam Wisternoff, an experimental pop musician from Bristol, England. Although ostensibly a solo project, Wisternof ...

''. The next album, '' Small Vessel'', was released by Anticon in 2008. In the following years, Wisternoff released various SJ Esau EPs as well as taking part in a variety of collaborative projects such as Jeremy Smoking Jacket with Rose Kemp and Hesomagari with Yoshino Shigihara from the band, Zun Zun Egui. In 2010, Wisternoff started a music video production and audio mastering company entitled Ill Spectre Productions, producing music videos for bands such as Gravenhurst, Thought Forms and Get the Blessing. In 2014, fromSCRATCHrecords released the album, '' Exploding Views''.

Discography

Albums

* ''Queezy Beliefs'' (1999) * ''Queezy Epiphany Coming Through The Wall'' (2003) * ''

'' (2007) * '' Small Vessel'' (2008) * '' Exploding Views'' (2014)

EPs

* ''Photocopy Of My Face Sellotaped To Adrian's Face'' (2004) * ''Live In Doors'' (2005) * ''5 Track EP'' (2006) * ''The Gist'' (2009) * ''Internal Workings'' (2011)

Miscellaneous

* ''V/A vs SJ Esau - Stop Touching My Cat - Remix Collection'' (2005) * ''Under Certain Things / Aerial Split 7" w/ Bronnt Industries Kapital'' (2006) * ''Twocsinak & SJ Esau Are A Pair Of Pussies / SJ Esau & Twocsinak Are Feline Groovy Split w/ Twocsinak'' (2006) * ''V/A vs SJ Esau - More Touching - Remix Collection'' (2008) * ''Once Inch Badge Split 7" w/ Half-handed Cloud, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names & Kopek'' (2009) * ''Sellotape Epiphany'' (2009)

Collaborations

* ''Onanist Homework Robot & The Guano Ignoramus - Large Ghost'' (2004) * ''Jeremy Smoking Jacket - Now We Are Dead (And Other Stories)'' (2005) * ''Hesomagari - Hanasu Shapes'' (2011)

References

External links

Official website

fromSCRATCHrecords page

Anticon biography

Ill Spectre Productions site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esau, SJ Anticon British indie rock musicians Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians_from_Bristol