Petrichor

Petrichor is the techno project of Glasgow-based DJ and producer Simon Stokes. His sound combines dancefloor toughness with lush nostalgia, as on his 2015 debut album, Mångata.

Born in Edinburgh in 1983 and brought up in rural Scotland, <a href="spotify:artist:1ZTCaPJViyNxH1dalHMlTE">Stokes</a> grew up listening to electronic music on the radio and the record collections of his older brothers, including happy hardcore, trance, and house and techno; <a href="spotify:artist:3y1SoTOdrmRNTBVph5T0VZ">Laurent Garnier</a> was an early inspiration. <a href="spotify:artist:1ZTCaPJViyNxH1dalHMlTE">Stokes</a> moved to Glasgow to attend university, where he studied audio engineering. There he became an avid clubber, regularly attending Harri & Domenic's nights at Subculture and <a href="spotify:artist:0Y0Kj7BOR5DM0UevuY7IvO">Slam</a>'s Pressure parties at the Arches. Using the knowledge he had gained with his degree, he started to produce house music under his own name in 2008. A series of low-key digital EPs in a range of styles from minimal to deep appeared on labels like Minibus, Backwater Community, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sleaze%22">Sleaze</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rekluse%22">Rekluse</a>.

Later <a href="spotify:artist:1ZTCaPJViyNxH1dalHMlTE">Stokes</a> started the techno-oriented Petrichor project, named for the sweet smell that emanates from the ground when rain falls after a long dry spell. His initial demos got enthusiastic responses from several big labels, but he held out in an attempt to get a deal with <a href="spotify:artist:0Y0Kj7BOR5DM0UevuY7IvO">Slam</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a> label, of which he had long been a big fan. He succeeded, and his first EPs for the label, On Tides and Some Bara, were released in 2013 to considerable acclaim from the techno community. Largely hardware-based with live playing on Fender Rhodes, his sound combined dancefloor toughness with lush melody and a nostalgic sensibility, with breakbeat and ambient techno influences. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soma%22">Soma</a> encouraged him to record an album, and his debut full-length, Mångata (a Swedish word meaning "the road-like reflection of moonlight on water"), came out in 2015. After several more popular EPs, Petrichor's sophomore album, Narisshu, arrived in 2019. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi