In July of 2021, Welsh Producer Lewis Roberts aka Koreless released his highly-anticipated debut album ‘Agor’. An album over five years in the making, ‘Agor’ was released to critical acclaim (see below) and to this day is widely regarded as one of the best electronic records of 2021.
One year on, Koreless returns today – 4 August 2022 – to once again push the boundaries of electronic music. Picking up were the final single of Agor ‘Strangers’ left off, Koreless takes his hyper-polished productions to new depths with ‘Droids’, a carefully designed soundscape that journeys through multiple layers of electro and techno; marking the beginning of a new phase for the producer “that has been subtly shaping British dance music” (Crack Magazine).
STREAM “Droids” HERE
Recent praise of ‘Agor’
“a simply breathtaking debut album that was absolutely worth the wait. If there’s one adjective worth applying here, it’s hyper-polished (in the best possible sense), meaning this is some formidably palpable electronic music with an almost holographic quality, so much so it kinda locks you in and paralyses all your senses from the first to the last glassy tone.” – THE QUIETUS
“Agor taking its name from the Welsh word for ‘open’ is no coincidence: Koreless’ latest record is a vast collection of experimental sounds that refused to be burdened by the cumbersome notion of “genre.”” – THE VINYL FACTORY
“It’s an accomplished work for an artist that has been subtly shaping British dance music” – CRACK MAGAZINE
“He remains an overwhelmingly technical producer, a virtuoso of the cut-up waveform, and much of Agor amounts to a bravura display of his brain-bending editing.” – PITCHFORK
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ABOUT KORELESS
Lewis grew up in the Welsh coastal town of Bangor, in a house built on the banks of a strong flowing estuarine river, spending his youth getting into scrapes sailing near the notoriously dangerous Menai Strait. He took his knowledge of the sea to study Marine Engineering at university. But even while learning about naval studies, he found he was thinking about music: “In the interview for my course, I was asked what would happen if I were to add these three waveforms together. I already knew the answer because I had been playing about with vst synths, with sound waves.”
Because Lewis was already making music and had been for a while. He began creating rudimentary tunes on a big old desktop computer running Cakewalk and VJ, which had been gifted to him by a Café del Mar-loving uncle. This gift proved crucial to Lewis. Rural North Wales can feel very distant from any music scene, but this old computer’s hard drive contained an “encyclopedic body of pop, electronica, chill out and house” ranging from Moby to Lemon Jelly. This cache was essentially Lewis’ introduction to listening to electronic music; it made him realise he wanted to be a music producer, and by the time he left school, Lewis had unlocked the processes that allowed Koreless to be born.
After a series of startling early releases, including his debut EP – 4D – in 2011, he started working with the London-based label Young, releasing collaborative work with Sampha and the game-changing ‘Yūgen’ EP later that year. And then he eventually turned his attention to his debut album, Agor, which was over five years in the making, as it was consistently in process in the background while he put forth this prolific run of collaborations including: touring worldwide with his A/V show ‘The Well’ with Emmanuel Biard, performing with Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s L-E-V Dance Company at Bold Tendencies in 2019, and not to mention 18 months on and off working with FKA twigs on the critically acclaimed Magdalene album, alongside other high-profile ghost production work. Roberts has also re-imagined Britten’s interlude “Moonlight”, and recently recorded remixes for Perfume Genius and Caribou.
In July of 2021, Koreless released Agor to critical acclaim. Unlike any other record you’ll hear, Agor straddles the worlds of ambient and contemporary classical while not sounding like an example of either. The album was regarded as one of the best electronic records of 2021 by the likes of CRACK, The Quietus, MOJO, Resident Advisor, Dummy and Clash.
