FM
Biography
Saul Stokes was born in Seattle Washington. After adolescent training on both the violin and trumpet, Stokes discovered the tonal possibilities of the synthesizer and started creating electronic music as a teenager in the mid 1980's. At the age of 20, Stokes made a highly impressionable move to Germany where he was introduced to the new blossoming techno movement. Returning to Seattle in 1993, Stokes began writing music and writing about music equipment as a monthly columnist in the early pages of Seattle's XLR8R magazine (now a San Francisco based electronic music magazine). His fascination with the palette of sounds available via synthesizer led him to learn the basics of analog synthesizer construction. While attaining a degree in Industrial Design, Stokes used his knowledge of synth DIY and design engineering, to build highly eccentric music devices, and began to restructure his musical ideas focusing on music created purely from home-made synthesizers and sampling technology.
Stokes' early demo Burning Igloo was featured in the December 1995 CD and magazine issue of Future Music (later to become demo of the year), which led to his connection with Hypnos founder Mike Griffin. Stokes' album Washed in Mercury was also the first album released on Hypnos, now recognized globally for their high quality ambient and experimental releases. Washed in Mercury achieved a sound as singular and personal as the homemade instruments used to make it. From the ethnic-tinged techno-funk of We Found it at IO to the mechanistic pulse of Zona, Washed in Mercury was a varied aural journey, a merging of lean, contemporary rhythms and classic analogue synth textures. Stokes' second album Zo Pilots was realized one year later and explored new sound ventures made possible by a wide variety of new electronic instruments the artist was continually to building. Zo Pilots retained Stokes' recognizable sound even as he branched out into new sonic and compositional territory. The arrangements were more confident, the rhythms more open and off-kilter, the soundscapes deeper and richer. Graduating from Bellingham Washington's Western Washington University, where Washed in Mercury and Zo Pilots were written, Stokes moved to Philadelphia and began work on his third Hypnos release Outfolding.
