Four Tet Tickets

It’s easy to see why Kieran Hebden might be widely credited as the unwitting foremost purveyor folktronica. The DJ and producer better known as Four Tet has spent a career weaving analogue sounds into digital, creating some of the electronica’s most original and captivating music in the process. Yet any attempt to label Four Tet does a disservice to the mind-boggling array of influences and sounds that make up his music.

Raised in Putney in South London, Hebden’s first major foray into music was as a member of instrumental post rock band Fridge, signed to Outpost Recordings while still in high school. By 1997, he’d begun to release solo singles, first as 4T Recordings and then under the Four Tet moniker. His debut album Dialogue arrived in 1999, deftly fusing the organic (drums, double bass, tabla, sitar) to the electronic.

Four Tet moved to Domino for the follow-up, 2001’s Pause. Its open embrace of everything from new age jazz to West African folk saw Hebden cast more as an eclectic musical magpie and digital composer than the traditional concept of DJ or producer.

Four Tet’s 2003 album Rounds represented a major breakthrough for Hebden, his experimental urges interlocking beautifully with an inspired sense of melody. Radiohead(Opens in new tab)’s move into a similar sphere made Four Tet ideal tour mates and the two hit the road together later that year. Hebden also remixed their Hail To The Thief track 'Scatterbrain'.

Hebden’s flawless run of full-length releases continued through the double blast of sunlight that was Everything Ecstatic and Everything Ecstatic Pt.2 in 2005. Hebden also kept busy outside of his Four Tet moniker, collaborating with drummer Steve Reid on improvised music and reuniting with Fridge for a new album.

He was back as Four Tet soon after, releasing the hugely successful There Is Love In You album in 2010, and teaming up with diverse collaborators from Thom Yorke(Opens in new tab) and Burial(Opens in new tab) to Laurie Anderson. His sixth album, Pink, followed in 2012, consisting of a collection of singles released over the previous year. His seventh, Beautiful Rewind, arrived a year later.

Four Tet remained busy through the rest of the decade, with two more full lengths (Morning/Evening and New Energy), an EP with artist Anna Liber Lewis and a string of acclaimed singles. In 2019, he played his biggest live shows yet with a two-night stand at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Four Tet’s tenth full-length album was Sixteen Oceans, released in March 2020, along with a third collaboration with Burial and Thom Yorke. Towards the end of that year, he embarked on an ambitious live-stream project, later released as Parallel and 871. Butterflies, a new single with Skrilex and Starrah, arrived in May 2021.