Decoder Ring

Decoder Ring’s music is widescreen cinematic. Decoder Ring combine rich organic sounds and psychedelic electronic arrangements in an audiovisual journey that is as expansive as it is moving. Their music is a cacophony of pure emotion and atmospherics that renders the meaning of lyrics unimportant. As one writer put it recently “a lot of bands try to evoke emotion, these guys create it out of thin air.” *

Decoder Ring’s impressive debut offerings released shortly after their formation in 2002, Spooky Action at a Distance and Decoder Ring turned musical conventions on their head and were instantly amongst the years best releases, garnering the kind of praise in the Australian media that most bands can only dream of. Reviewers wrestled with superlatives as they tried to capture the sheer scope and abstraction of their sound, comparing them to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Mogwai, Sigur Ros, This Mortal Coil, and “a sublime cross between Eno and Neu!”.* 



2004 saw the local release of Decoder Ring’s achingly beautiful second album Somersault, the soundtrack to the multi award winning internationally acclaimed Australian film. Working the film score into an album complete, Decoder Ring created an astonishing record that works both as companion to the film, and as a remarkable stand-alone album. The soundtrack was critically acclaimed in both film and music circles alike. Decoder Ring won 5 awards for the soundtrack of 7 nominations including a coveted AFI award and award for best music at The Jackson Hole Film festival USA, whilst the single from the soundtrack was voted into national broadcaster Triple J’s hottest 100, a first for a song composed for a feature film.

Somersault’s worldwide release followed in 2005 -2006 on the Bella Union imprint in Europe and World’s Fair in the US respectively. Prior to its US release in 2006 Decoder Ring ventured Stateside performing preview shows in Los Angeles, New York and SXSW Austin Texas to enthralled audiences. On the local front the band also released Fractions, which they wrote and performed nationwide on The Big Day Out festival in 2005. Fractions was again received with rave reviews “the finest guitar and electronic album in one package”* “a superb creation so compelling and original it almost hurts..a mark of real genius”.*

Decoder Ring's soundtracks have premièred to standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival (Somersault 2004, Jewboy 2005) the Sundance Film Festival (Jewboy 2006) and Berlinale (Yolk 2008) together these films were invited to screen at 55 international film festivals moving filmgoers worldwide with the bands ability to convey in music what is not always present in the image on the screen.

On the live stage Decoder Ring are equally impressive. Since 2002 Decoder Ring have been invited to perform countless times at Australia’s key music festivals. When performed live, Decoder Ring’s songs are beautifully complemented by the stunning visual montages (projected from countless 16 mm projectors) of experimental filmmaker and band member Simon Killalea. In fact, Decoder Ring's music never strays far from its cinematic underpinnings. They treat the visual and the sonic as one, achieving in their live performance as one critic put it, “a flow of images and music that is close to dreamlike.”*

In addition to writing material for their forthcoming album, Decoder Ring continues to collaborate on numerous drama, documentary and live productions. In 2007 the band were invited to score and arrange a work of the Harvested TVC campaign. Their cinematic reworking of Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki, a pseudo-Japanese concept album produced in 1972 by French duo Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde (also known as The Yamasuki Singers) won a silver gong at the recent “Awards” awards.

Decoder Ring are set to head stateside for 6 weeks to record their fourth album ‘100 Suns’ with producer Scott Colburn (The Animal Collective, Arcade Fire) in September.

Decoder Ring are based in Sydney Australia. The current lineup consists of MattFitzGerald, Tom Schutzinger, Pete Kelly, Simon Killalea and Xavier Fijac and Matt Steffen.

*See select media

AWARDS/NOMINATIONS

2007 BEST ARRANGEMENT OF EXISITING MUSIC Harvested TVC Sliver AWARD WINNER
2005 BEST SCORE SOMERSAULT APRA/ASG Screen Composer Awards WINNER
2005 BEST SCORE SOMERSAULT Jackson Hole Film Awards (USA)WINNER
2004 BEST MUSIC SOMERSAULT Inside Film (IF) Awards WINNER
2004 BEST SONG FROM A FILM “Somersault” APRA/ASG WINNER
2004 AFI BEST SCORE SOMERSAULT WINNER
2004 APRA/ASG BEST SOUNDTRACK SOMERSAULT NOMINEE
2004 ARIA BEST SOUNDTRACK SOMERSAULT NOMINEE