Perturbator (FR)

About

Perturbator is the project of Parisian musician James Kent, whose sound pulls from cyberpunk cinema, darksynth, and the gritty pulse of industrial electronics. His tracks landed in both Hotline Miami games, which sent his name well beyond the synthwave underground and into the ears of a much wider crowd. He builds his productions around software emulations of classic vintage synthesizers, and the results tend to feel more menacing than nostalgic. Albums like The Uncanny Valley and Lustful Sacraments, both released through Blood Music, show a producer pushing into darker, more textured territory with each record. He also appeared in the 2019 documentary The Rise of the Synths alongside John Carpenter, exploring where this whole genre came from. Outside Perturbator, Kent runs the Music of the Void label and has a side band called Ruin Of Romantics, whose debut Velvet Dawn leans into shoegaze and ambient goth.