Dylan Henner

Very little is known about Dylan Henner, who appeared on the experimental-ambient scene with his debut longplayer The Invention of the Human, released on AD93 in 2020 and immediately receiving a much-coveted place on BBC 6Music’s Albums Of The Year list.

Henner is not to keen on promoting himself on socials, instead choosing to communicate mostly through wondrously imaginative soundscapes and disarmingly poetic song titles (’The Sun Made the Sea Look Gold’, ’Children Were Climbing The Old Tree in the Park’, ’A Spring With The Remains Of A Fire’) and ditto visual artwork. His music comprises superbly constructed human-not-human soundscapes built from synthesized and processed voices and choirs, synthesis, marimba, and field recordings, all morphed into wide-ranging symphonies with moods ranging from serene and cerebral to alienated and desolate, referencing ambient and experimental music, sound design and filmscore.

Debut album The Invention of the Human (AD93, 2020) attempts to tackle a set of basic philosophical questions - what exactly makes us human? What good is civilisation when there’s so much misery attached to it? How will technology affect humanity in the long run? - through the mind and soundcard of a computer. The album is neither utopic or dystopic, with nature and technology in a strange yet perfect balance.

2022 saw the release of a new full length on AD93 You Always Will Be. The album, a single 40-minute piece, tells the story of a single life from birth to death. Dylan writes “I've been thinking about the passage of life a lot recently as I lost all four of my grandparents but celebrated the birth of my daughter all within a short period of time. The brevity and preciousness of being really hit me."

The record enjoyed critical acclaim on release, including being named as Album of the Week by The Quietus, and effusive praise from Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber, leading music writer Shawn Reynaldo and 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft.

Dylan Henner has also covered Ryuichi Sakamoto, Terry Riley and Su Tissue, and released a loveletter to a train journey through rural Pennsylvania in late 2021 EP Amtracks. He has released cassette and digital records for Brighton-based Phantom Limb, Belgian label Dauw and AD93’s tape-only imprint Syon. He recently completed his first soundtrack, due for release in early 2024 on Phantom Limb.