Bvdub


Bvdub is an American electronic music producer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 2007 he has released more than 70 albums and EPs under this name and other pseudonyms including his birth name, Brock Van Wey. Residing in Shaoxing, China, he produces ambient and ambient techno music that has received critical acclaim from the likes of online magazines Resident Advisor, Headphone Commute and Gridface. His first release as Brock Van Wey, White Clouds Drift On And On, was included in RA's Top 20 Albums of 2009.

Overview

Van Wey was born in 1974 and grew up in Livermore near San Francisco. He was classically trained as a child and from the age of five he was taught violin and, later, piano. By age eleven he had composed his first piece of music for the trio of cello, violin and viola and had written several more pieces by his mid-teens. Feeling that he did not actually enjoy classical music he eventually gave it up altogether. In the early 90s he heard, by chance, a deep house mix tape that would inspire him to pursue electronic music. He was soon performing as a deep house and ambient DJ and appearing regularly at raves in San Francisco, initially under his own name and later under the bvdub moniker. Van Wey composed his first electronic piece in 1993 - an industrial techno/classical track - that differed significantly in style to the music he would later produce.
In 2001, Brock moved to China, having become disillusioned with the scene in San Francisco, and sought to make a fresh start in a country that had always held a fascination for him. He began work as a professor of English, teaching over 200 students. It was not until 2006 that he started to produce his own music after a friend spent time teaching him the finer details of various pieces of hardware and software. His first release as bvdub was Strength In Solitude LP in 2007, an album which comprises the first six tracks he created in the order that they were made.
In 2007 Van Wey founded the label Quietus Recordings in response to his friends' music being turned down by other record labels for being "too self-indulgent" or "too deep". Creating the label allowed bvdub and others to release their most personal compositions without fear of it being rejected. The label, in fact, encourages its artists to present only the music by which they would want to be remembered. To make each release as personal as possible, Van Wey takes the photos for the CD label and the cover art himself whilst listening to the music that the images are to accompany. The label has released bvdub's own recordings as well as productions by Quantec and Arc Of Doves.
After returning to China, following a period of living once more in San Francisco, a mutual friend put Van Wey in touch with indie label Darla Records. A fruitful relationship blossomed that has seen bvdub release several albums on the label to date including 2011's Resistance Is Beautiful and 2012's Serenity.
In 2018 he was part of "The Ambient Files", a mix CD project by Stars Over Foy.

Name

The name bvdub was given to Brock by a colleague and is simply a shortening of his initials, BVW, rather than being intended to denote dub or dub techno music. Brock describes his own music as electronic, ambient and ambient techno and has stated that he has never produced anything he would associate with dub. However, he has worked with dub techno label and production duo Echospace, who released his album White Clouds Drift On And On and whose member Intrusion remixed it in full.

Discography

Albums

  • 2007 Strength In Solitude LP
  • 2009 We Were The Sun
  • 2009 A Prayer To False Gods
  • 2009 White Clouds Drift On And On
  • 2010 The Art Of Dying Alone
  • 2010 A Silent Reign
  • 2011 Tribes At The Temple Of Silence
  • 2011 One Last Look At The Sea
  • 2011 The Truth Hurts
  • 2011 Songs For A Friend I Left Behind
  • 2011 I Remember
  • 2011 Resistance Is Beautiful
  • 2011 Then
  • 2012 121 Years
  • 2012 The First Day
  • 2012 Don’t Say You Know
  • 2012 Serenity
  • 2012 Strangers No More
  • 2012 All Is Forgiven
  • 2013 A Careful Ecstasy
  • 2013 At Night This City Becomes The Sea
  • 2013 Born In Tokyo
  • 2013 Erebus
  • 2014 I'll Only Break Your Heart
  • 2014 Home
  • 2014 A History Of Distance
  • 2014 Tanto
  • 2015 A Step In The Dark
  • 2015 Safety In A Number
  • 2016 Yours Are Stories of Sadness
  • 2017 Epilogues for the End of the Sky
  • 2017 Heartless
  • 2018 A Different Definition of Love
  • 2018 Drowning in Daylight
  • 2019 Explosions in Slow Motion
  • 2020 Ten Times the World Lied
  • 2020 Burn Back Time
  • 2020 101 Rooms
  • 2020 Wrath & Apathy
  • 2021 Hard Times, Hard Hearts
  • 2021 Measures of a Greater Mercy
  • 2022 Violet Opposition
  • 2022 Decades On Divided Stars
  • 2022 Anodyne Rains
  • 2022 Equilibrium
  • 2022 Departing in Descent
  • 2023 How Deep Is Your Devotion
  • 2023 Slowly Shifting Lakes
  • 2023 Fumika Fades
  • 2023 Days of Gold
  • 2023 Four Forgetting
  • 2023 Destroyesterday.
  • 2023 Asleep in Ultramarine
  • 2024 Leaving
  • 2024 Tsunami
  • 2024 The Ghost Where You Used to Be
  • 2024 In Iron Houses
  • 2024 Still Time
  • 2024 Lucidity
  • 2024 Memories in Every Color
  • 2025 13
  • 2025 No More Rain
  • 2025 Oak and Divisidero
  • 2025 Release Me
  • 2025 Us Again
  • 2025 Even When It Hurts
  • 2025 Unbreakable
  • 2025 A Silent Voice
  • 2025 SITE
  • 2025 Reconciliation
  • 2025 Ride or Die
  • 2025 Forget the Future
  • 2025 ''Farewell''

    EPs

  • 2007 I Never Cried a Tear EP
  • 2007 Requited Love
  • 2007 Daydreams of Exile
  • 2008 No Turning Back EP
  • 2008 Dreams of Red Chambers
  • 2008 Monuments to Oblivion
  • 2008 Return to Tonglu
  • 2008 Wish I Was Here
  • 2008 Where To Now
  • 2008 A Moment's Peace
  • 2009 To Live
  • 2012 Strangers No More
  • 2013 It Could Have Been So Beautiful
  • 2015 Wishing And Withering
  • 2024 A Life in Setting Suns
  • 2025 For Everything, an End
  • 2025 Colder Than Snow
  • 2025 Simulations in Stasis
  • 2025 Someone to Call Your Name
  • 2025 Decades in Red
  • 2025 Tears on Deaf Eyes
  • 2025 No One to Hold, No One to Hold You
  • 2025 Obisidian Skies
  • 2025 Staring Into Spaces
  • 2025 ''One More Try''

    Compilations

  • 2011 Air Texture Volume 1
  • 2015 Lost Ambient
  • 2015 ''Tech From Times Past''