Dean Roberts, the experimental composer and multi-instrumentalist who carried out within the New Zealand noise trio Thela earlier than embarking on a collection of solo initiatives and data with Autistic Daughters, died this week, his labels Erstwhile and Kranky introduced yesterday (August 14). Roberts died in his sleep, Erstwhile’s Jon Abbey wrote, citing the musician’s sister. Roberts was 49 years previous.
Roberts, then a youngster, shaped Thela with Dion Workman and Paul Douglas in New Zealand within the early Nineteen Nineties, rising to prominence by way of Auckland’s free‐music scene with a pair of albums for the U.S. label Ecstatic Peace! The primary, 1995’s Thela, was a landmark of rock minimalism, mixing post-hardcore guitar thrums with noise sonics and sparse percussion. The next yr’s Argentina added ambient parts and glints of melody, attracting admirers of the coalescing post-rock community in addition to laptop computer composers like Fennesz, who later collaborated with Douglas’ Rosy Parlane mission.
When Thela parted methods, Roberts divided his output between releases underneath his personal identify and his White Winged Moth mission, typically releasing on his personal label, Formacentric Disk, in addition to on Mille Plateaux and Erstwhile. Although these initiatives tended to foreground alien frequencies and sophisticated noise parts—significantly his improv collaboration with Thurston Moore and Dr. Chad—he additionally started to sing, turning barren soundscapes into uncanny folks laments. He continued in the identical path on Autistic Daughters’ two albums for Kranky, Jealousy and Diamond and Uneasy Flowers, earlier than taking a pause from the studio and returning, from Berlin, in 2020 with Not Fireplace, the final studio album of his lifetime.
Amongst these to pay tribute was Lawrence English, who wrote on social media, “I’m going to deeply miss you. Your manner of transposing the world into tune. Your manner of discovering the hidden voices within the instrument you performed. Your smile & that snort…all the time that snort. To future ballads in future locations.”