For Fans Of: Luces, St Germain, Frank Ocean
Blurring the line between sprawling, infectious song writing and the left-field corners of dance music, Ted Jasper has marked himself out as a burgeoning presence on the London scene.
The Cornwall-raised musician and producer takes influence from an array of names, including Kanye West, St Germain and The Neptunes. Drawing on a compelling network of downtempo house, hip-hop and jazz, he’s quickly creating innovative tunes that have been praised by the industry’s top tastemaskers.
An obsession for producing, remixing, and re-working electronic music blossomed when Jasper relocated from Cornwall to Bristol at the age of 18 where he began to engage with the city’s vibrant electronic and deep house scene. Restless with his work rate and flourishing ideas, he began to attract the attention of names such as Chicago Fingers Inc.’s Robert Owens and Berlin-based DJ Daniel Haaksman, earning support from the latter when he played his mixes via Giles Peterson’s Worldwide FM. Following that, Haaksman would also go on to reach out to Jasper and ask him to remix some of his own material.
His inaugural 2018 EP One Day was release on Jamz Supernova’s Future Bounce imprint, and supported by Giles Peterson (6Music), Phil Taggart (Radio 1) and Laurent Garnier (Boiler Room). It was also praised by the likes of The Line Of Best Fit and London In Stereo. Following this, Jasper stepped out from behind the mixing desk, bringing his vocals to the forefront. Premiered by Jamz Supernova on 1Xtra, ‘Back For More’ is the first song he released featuring his silky voice. This lead to further commendations from Clash Magazine and Earmilk, more radio spins and additional support from BBC Introducing, Radio Nova and Radio X.
Now in 2020, he’s released two gorgeous new singles: ‘Stone Cold Kisses’ and ‘Too Worried’. The first track came on 5th February, and sees him take his mellow, guitar-lead instrumentation a step further. Speaking of the track and his writing process, Jasper commented “At least once a month I’ll go through all my unfinished projects and see if there’s anything that jumps out at me. I had this cute garage beat that felt really open so I started building it up and I ended up creating an arrangement that I was really excited to sing on. A lot of the time I’ll upload the instrumental to Soundcloud and then listen to it through headphones and go on big walks around London or Cornwall. I’ll just keep walking until I get it, no matter how long it takes. I love putting little references to things I’m reading or thinking about in my songs – Icarus flying too close to the sun, Caliban being kept prisoner by Sycorax in The Tempest, those are all there in ‘Stone Cold Kisses’ – and that comes a lot easier when I’m on the move.”
‘Too Worried’, which came later in the month, is of the same vein, but focuses more on popping percussion beats to drive his contrasting downtempo sound. These two tunes are the first taste of his forthcoming EP Equinox. The new project is set to show more of the talented artist’s range, with him stating “Moving forward from my first vocal EP I wanted to create a cohesive project that represented a certain mood and tone. I’ve always admired artists like SBTRKT or The Streets that create EPs/albums that hang off a subject matter or aesthetic, where every song just flows into one another.”
Stay tuned to see what’s next for Ted Jasper and the Equinox era.
Facebook – /TedJasperMusic
Twitter – @tedjasper