Curved Light
Biography
Curved Light is an American electronic and audiovisual music project founded in 2015 by synthesizer artist Peter Tran. Originally from the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area and later based in Austin, Texas, Tran works primarily with analog and modular synthesizers, creating music that encompasses ambient, experimental electronic music, psychedelia, minimalism, new age, musique concrète, noise, and more rhythmically driven forms of electronic music.
Before establishing Curved Light, Tran was active in the experimental music scenes of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., performing with experimental rock groups including Les Rhinocéros and Hume. Following the dissolution of Hume, he formed the electronic duo HD Sunrise with former Hume member Wilson Kemp. During this period, Tran accumulated an extensive collection of synthesizers, keyboards, and effects processors and increasingly focused on electronic composition and sound design.
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Curved Light emerged in 2015, when Tran and his partner, visual artist Deirdre Smith, relocated to Austin. Before the move, Tran sold much of his collection of full-size synthesizers and began working with a more compact modular synthesizer setup, an approach that became central to Curved Light. Although the music is composed and performed by Tran, the project has frequently functioned as an audiovisual collaboration with Smith, whose video and visual work has accompanied Curved Light recordings and live performances.
Curved Light's first major release, Mineral Wash / Indigo Rinse, appeared in June 2015 and collected material recorded between 2011 and 2015 in New York, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. It was followed by Prismatic / Loomstate in 2016. The project became particularly prolific in 2017, releasing Reversion, Vast and Infinite, Channelview, and Quartzsite through labels including Atlantic Rhythms, Field Hymns, Holodeck Records, and Constellation Tatsu.
Tran's compositions range from serene ambient minimalism and slowly evolving analog textures to dense modular synthesis, rhythmic sequencing, musique concrète, and abrasive noise. His work has been compared to artists including Terry Riley, Laurie Spiegel, Oneohtrix Point Never, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Merzbow, and Throbbing Gristle. Sound design and synthesis frequently function as compositional elements themselves, with changes in timbre, texture, and electronic tone determining the melodic and structural development of a piece.
In 2019, Curved Light released Airs of Modality, derived from a live electronic rescoring of the “Hoichi the Earless” segment of Masaki Kobayashi's 1965 film Kwaidan, as well as Flow and Return, a collection of material recorded between 2013 and 2018 in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Austin. Further releases included Primrose Path, Vita Ex Machina, and Fragment Reality in 2020, followed by Spirit Echo and A User's Guide to Existence in 2021. The latter was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic after a national tour on which Tran was performing with Lower Dens was interrupted in March 2020.
In 2023, Curved Light released the two-part Patterns of Environments series. Patterns of Environments I appeared in August, followed by Patterns of Environments II in September. Together, the two releases comprise twelve extended compositions identified by Roman numerals and colors or gemstones. They remain the most recent major Curved Light releases as of 2026.
Across more than a dozen album-length releases, Curved Light has developed a body of work centered on the expressive possibilities of modular synthesis and the relationship between sound and image. Live performances frequently incorporate synchronized or improvised visual elements, transforming the project into an immersive audiovisual experience. Curved Light has performed hundreds of shows and has appeared alongside artists including S U R V I V E, Suzanne Ciani, Lower Dens, and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.