Early years As a youth, Kosten burst his lung while playing clarinet for the National Youth Orchestra. A London-based art school drop-out, Kosten spent the better part of his twenties in his home studio, teaching himself recording and production techniques and exploring far-flung combinations of sound. Faultline's debut single, "Control", was built around death threats left on Kosten's answering machine. Kosten appropriated the messages, applying the threats alongside wayward noise, rhythms and
Steve Reich-inspired neo-classical music.
Closer Colder On his debut album,
Closer Colder, released via the
Leaf label in 1999, Kosten continued this approach to music making, using samples in place of vocals. Most notably, the album's title track lifted
Dennis Hopper's voice from
Blue Velvet. Kosten is reported to have obtained permission to use the sample directly from Hopper and
David Lynch.
Closer, Colder showcased Kosten's arranging abilities, and this elegant blend of soundscape and avant-garde was met with widespread acclaim: • The Times 25/9/99
"...an album so supremely modernist that it approaches the classical...Closer, Colder can both stir deep emotion and chill to the bone. The sweetest cello, trumpet and violin resonate against a background of abrasive electronica...emotional and sonic disjunction are rarely as eloquently expressed as this". • DJ 10/99 ''"...a quite breathtaking, visionary album that promises to take listeners to places they've never been before....one of the finest experimental albums this year."'' • Q 11/99
"...Closer, Colder brims with invention...An accomplished, intriguing, distinctly Lynchian debut." • Esquire Magazine top 10 album of the year.
Your Love Means Everything Released three years later,
Your Love Means Everything was an instant testament to the fruits of Kosten's ongoing sonic experimentation, as well as his skill at creating an environment in which inspiration strikes his collaborators. The album, originally released on
Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis'
Blanco Y Negro imprint in 2002, fell prey to label politics, but re-released by EMI/Capitol in 2004, and awash in spectral electronic melancholy, it received high praise: • ''“Faultline's heady combination of electronic avant-garde classical/dance is, thematically, about complicated as it sounds but Kosten's vision translates, aurally, as a series of threadbare, hauntingly programmed compositions, each simplistic and engrossing”.''
– Pitchfork •
"Exquisitely moving" - Mojo •
"Devastating and compelling" - The Sunday Times •
"A must-hear record...12 songs of heart-shattering sadness" – NME On
Your Love Means Everything, the Faultline attitude to 'voices' was inverted, with vocal contributions from Coldplay's Chris Martin,
Jacob Golden, the Flaming Lips'
Wayne Coyne and
Steven Drozd,
Cannibal Ox and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. Coldplay's Chris Martin hadn't even begun recording
A Rush of Blood to the Head when he sang on two Faultline tracks: "Where is My Boy?" and "Your Love Means Everything Part 2". The Flaming Lips were just outgrowing their cult status when they collaborated on "The Colossal Gray Sunshine". With gentle, hypnotic beats that kaleidoscope into multicoloured, atmospheric sounds, the tone of "Your Love Means Everything" can be summed up with this track. With its cinematic, nightmarish feel, the song serves as the lynchpin of the album, which
Rolling Stone called
"a masterpiece of widescreen psychedelic soft rock." R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe collaborated on a cover of "
Greenfields", a piece of dark Americana from late-50s folk revivalists
The Brothers Four. (Kosten expressed incredulity about recording this, his favourite childhood song, with the R.E.M. singer). "We Came from Lego Blocks" is a fractured, downbeat lullaby featuring vocals from
Vordul Megilah of East Coast underground hip-hop duo Cannibal Ox. Cult singer/songwriter
Joseph Arthur collaborates on a truly eerie cover of
The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses", while "Biting Tongues" features Ras B, a ragga-styled MC from
Adrian Sherwood's On U-Sound crew. Other album tracks like "Your Love Means Everything", "Theme for Half Speed" and "I Only Know Myself" reveal the many degrees of Faultline's ghostly, sublime and orchestral sound.
Third album Kosten is working on his third Faultline album. ==Discography==