London-based producer Ryan Lee West is notable for making synthesisers sound human and atmospheric. With the release of 'Odyssey' (2013) and 'Sonne' (2014) under his moniker Rival Consoles, West has gained a reputation for making thoughtful electronica that spans a wide spectrum of musical ideas. Like many electronic artists, he spent his early years experimenting with IDM, glitch and dance, but one consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound. Through these experimentations he has found a process of producing electronic music that feels close to this urge. Restricting himself to a small selection of analogue equipment, West engages his hands directly with instruments and is very selective about what he then records into the computer. He reduces musical parts even further, leaving enough space around the sound for it to breath.

Some might be surprised that the man behind Rival Consoles shares a home with contemporary classical composers such as Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds and Peter Broderick. And yet they have a lot more in common than expected. Fascinated by sound from an early age, Ryan chose to dedicate his time to studying, experimenting with and producing sound graduating from De Montfort University in Leicester. West often composes early ideas on piano, violin and guitar, although the end result is much more electronic-laden. As an accomplished sound designer he has repeatedly performed at the Tate, and recently created a bespoke audio-visual performance for Boiler Room at the V&A. Ryan has also produced remixes for New York based composer Nico Muhly and UK producer Jon Hopkins, and composes original music for dance, film and television.

Continuing on from his 'Odyssey' EP released in 2013, Ryan creates atmosphere and space whilst exploring waves of sound and rhythm, and the power of colour. With his new release 'Sonne' he creates music to structure itself around a pulse, rather than the pulse being the defining point.

“I’m often looking at art in exhibitions and I always think to myself ‘why the hell don’t I have this much colour in my work?’ The answer in part I think is down to synthesis. It is very difficult to create colour without it sounding plastic. Colour in music is both the note combinations and the actual timbre of the sounds. There are lots of instances of very colourful ambient sounds, which I took great care to create for each song, using various methods – from passing analogue synths through chains of effects to chopping up random sequences of recordings and forming tiny collages." – Ryan Lee West