Randall Dunn


Randall Dunn is an American record producer, songwriter, and composer known for his genre-blending work across alternative rock, pop, hip hop, and experimental music. Over a four-decade career, he has collaborated with a wide range of artists, produced charting singles, and developed a distinctive sound characterized by layered arrangements, atmospheric textures, and unconventional production techniques.
As a music producer, he has worked with artists and filmmakers including Danny Elfman, Jim Jarmusch, Panos Cosmatos, Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie, Guillermo Del Toro, Björk, Oneohtrix Point Never, Thurston Moore, Zola Jesus, Algiers, Sunn O))), SQÜRL, Six Organs of Admittance, Marissa Nadler, Boris, Anna Von Hausswolff, Pallbearer, Oren Ambarchi, Eyvind Kang, The Cave Singers, Akron/Family, Earth, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Jesse Sykes, among others. Pitchfork has described him as "a go-to producer for metal but also for indie acts looking to add more edge and atmosphere."
𝕏 alephdunnFB RandallDunnMusic

Early life

Originally from Michigan, Dunn moved to Seattle in 1993 to explore his interest in film music. He attended the Art Institute of Seattle to study sound design for film, and formed connections with local musicians, including Skerik and Matt Chamberlain. In an interview, Dunn stated, "I'm sort of a frustrated filmmaker that turned into a record producer. The people I met when I moved here spun me in a way that sent me down this path of treating sound the way I would have treated film."
During his studies he received practical experience at Hanzsek Studios under the instruction of Jack Endino. He gradually became involved in the recording and producing of sessions.

Career

As a fan of the band Naked City, Dunn contacted keyboardist Wayne Horvitz in Seattle who introduced him to Eyvind Kang. Dunn received his first credit for a session with Eyvind Kang, resulting in the piece "5th NADE/Invisible Man" on the 7 NADEs album released in 1996. His involvement resulted in a long-term friendship with Kang, through whom he met a number of musicians, mostly in the jazz-rock genre. Dunn was later introduced to the engineer Mell Dettmer and together they founded Aleph Studios.
In 1998 he engineered the live portion of the album Bumpa by Critters Buggin, while he received a writing credit for his involvement with Mr. Birdy's Fryday by the Rockin' Teenage Combo. In 2001 he worked together with trumpet player Lesli Dalaba and guitarist Bill Horist, releasing the ambient album Zahir. He engineered Kang's 2002 album Live Low to the Earth, in the Iron Age.
In 2005, he was credited as an engineer on the Impaled album Death After Life released through Century Media. In the same year, Dunn met Dylan Carlson of the band Earth in Seattle and recorded their fourth album, Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method at Aleph Studios.
After hearing his work with Asva, Stephen O'Malley contacted Dunn to produce the collaborative album between Sunn O))) and Boris, Altar. This began a long relationship with the band doing live sound and producing several of their albums including Monoliths & Dimensions and Kannon.
In 2010, Dunn and Omar Souleyman entered the legendary ADA studio in Istanbul to record and produce a remix of Björk's "Crystalline” which was released on her third remix album, Bastards, in 2012. In the same session, Dunn recorded a full-length Omar Souleyman album, which was not released.
Dunn began an ongoing collaboration with Native American glass artist Preston Singletary, whose work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Singletary and Bernie Worrell began recording as Khu.éex’ under Dunn's musical direction in 2013.
In 2017, Dunn entered the studio with Myrkur, producing her second album Mareridt.
In 2018, Dunn produced Anna Von Hausswolff's fourth studio album, Dead Magic. The album was critically well received with reviews highlighting Dunn's attention to capturing her vocal performance. Later that year, Dunn produced Cloud Nothings' fifth studio album, Last Building Burning.
The Association of Danish Music Critics nominated Randall Dunn for Producer of the Year in 2018 for his work with Sort Sol, Myrkur, and Childrenn.
Following the release of Panos Cosmatos' Mandy, Dunn and Cosmatos conceived a fictional record made by the character Jeremiah Sand. Along with Milky Burgess, Dunn produced and co-wrote Jeremiah Sand's Lift It Down, which was issued by Sacred Bones in 2018. Pitchfork described the record as “ a forged artifact, an album recorded largely because those who created it had so much fun inhabiting its outlandish world.” The record featured Angel Deradoorian, Tad Doyle, Faith Coloccia, Monika Knot, and Marissa Nadler.
On November 9, 2018, Dunn released his first solo studio album titled Beloved. It featured guest vocals from Frank Fisher of Algiers and Zola Jesus.
Dunn produced American doom metal band Pallbearer's fourth album in 2020, Forgotten Days, which was released by Nuclear Blast and described by Consequence of Sound as "Perhaps the best doom metal album of 2020".
In 2020, Dunn opened the studio Circular Ruin, along with Ben Greenberg and Arjan Miranda. Circular Ruin took its name after the eponymous Jorge Luis Borges story in which a surreal plot is revealed to have been dreamed. Dunn likens the act of music making to mystical themes within the Borges text; the group founded the studio as an invocation of a collective, metaphysical, and medicinal approach to music. Signifying this influence, the studio's logo is derived from the Jungian maze.
Dunn and Ben Greenberg co-produced Algiers’ third studio album There Is No Year, issued by Matador Records in 2020. AllMusic described the record as “ extend the reach of their previous outings while offering a more strategically articulated, disciplined musicality without sacrificing their core sound or blunting their emotional impact.”
Dunn produced Zola Jesus’ sixth studio album Arkhon, issued by Sacred Bones in 2022. The record featured drums by Matt Chamberlain, and was hailed by Pitchfork as “a pleasantly shapeless record widens the scope of her music while retaining its primal, gothic spirit.”
Dunn produced Silver Haze, the first full-length record from SQÜRL, featuring performances from Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anika, and Mark Ribot. It will be released on May 5, 2023 by Sacred Bones.
Danny Elfman's 2020 single "Happy," his first solo pop single in nearly forty years, featured mixing by Dunn, as well as additional synth design.

Master Musicians of Bukkake

In addition to his work as a producer and engineer, Dunn is a keyboardist and founding member of the experimental group, Master Musicians of Bukkake. Dunn described the project as "a way to escape how I make music in the studio when I'm doing records for people".
In 2004, alongside his bandmates, Dunn wrote, arranged and produced the first Master Musicians of Bukkake record, The Visible Sign of the Invisible Order. The album was released on Sun City Girls' label, Abduction Records and featured the musicians Eryn Young, James Davis, Don McGreevy, Alan Bishop, Charlie Gocher, and John Schuller.

Film and television

Randall Dunn’s work in film and television extends his experimental production sensibilities into scoring, sound design, and collaborations with filmmakers. His projects include composing original scores, engineering recordings, and producing music for both independent and mainstream productions.

Collaborations

Dunn produced the Khu.éex’ score for the documentary on the life and work of Preston Singletary, combining his experimental music approach with cultural storytelling.

Style

Randall Dunn’s production style is characterized by a willingness to blend heavy, experimental, and ambient textures with rich atmospheric layering, often achieved through a hybrid approach that incorporates both analog and digital recording techniques.Autre Magazine. “Friday Playlist Honoring Producer Randall Dunn.” 2016.
Critics and collaborators have noted Dunn’s ability to move fluidly across genres — from drone and doom-metal through his work with Sunn O))), Earth, and Wolves in the Throne Room, to avant-folk and experimental rock through collaborations with Marissa Nadler and Anna von Hausswolff — often injecting “edge and atmosphere” into indie and underground acts.New Noise Magazine. “Randall Dunn Discusses His First Solo Effort ‘Beloved’.” Interview, 2018.
Dunn has described his creative philosophy as treating the studio like a cinematic or sculptural environment, approaching production much like film sound design — emphasizing mood, spatial depth, texture, and emotional resonance rather than polished, clinical mixes.NPR. “Randall Dunn Creates a Surging Space on His Solo Debut ‘Beloved’.” 2018.
He has stated in interviews that he often prefers receiving “rough demos” rather than polished pre-produced tracks, believing that unrefined material gives him more freedom to craft a unique sonic identity for each project.Self-Titled Magazine. “A Studio Visit With Randall Dunn.” 2019.
His influences are broad and eclectic, ranging from avant-garde electronic music to free improvisation and ambient soundscapes. In his solo work, Dunn channels these influences to create music driven by emotional depth, texture, and sonic exploration rather than conventional structures or genre boundaries.Pitchfork. Review of “Beloved,” 2018.
Because of his versatility, Dunn is often sought out by artists looking to push sonic limits — combining heaviness, atmosphere, and subtlety, or creating moods that are cinematic without sacrificing intensity or emotional grounding.Resident Advisor. Feature: “Inside Randall Dunn’s Sound World.” 2017.
When being offered to produce someone, Dunn prefers "people to send the roughest demos possible rather than more elaborate ones. And I try to see if it's music that I – or my aesthetics – can work with. Like, with their vision, and the end goal". He also pointed out that "people themselves are a really big thing for me. I just try to find people that you can spend ten days with in a small room, still enjoy each other's music and company, and be collaborative". As a musician, Dunn described himself "as an arranger in the studio. You have to think several steps ahead as a musician – tuning, performance, rhythm – you have to think about all these layers of how sounds work".
On several occasions, Dunn has expressed a preference for the use of analog recording equipment: "I'm not a huge fan of the predictability of digitally processed music. But when you combine it with analog, you can get a cool medium. I rarely mix in the box, or use Pro Tools to do mixes. Everything is hands-on with faders. I'll start with tape—if it's a rock band, recording to 16-track two-inch tape. It's a beautiful sound you don't hear much of any more. I like the hybrid approach with the soul of tape and the precision of digital."
Dunn credits his open approach in the studio as being influenced by his studies of Buddhism and psychology.

Discography

Solo studio albums

  • ''Beloved''

Collaborative albums

As Master Musicians of Bukkake

The Visible Sign of the Invisible Order Totem One Totem Two Totem Three Far West
  • ''Far West Quad Cult''

Production credits