Tennyson with Photay live at SOhO

Tennyson is a brother-sister musical duo (Luke and Tess Pretty) from Canada. Since starting their journey from busking on the streets of Edmonton at the ages of 7 and 9 under the alias Luke & Tess, Tennyson have slowly matured into one of the most innovative artists in the music industry with their blend of jazz music and electronica gaining the attention of some of the biggest independent producers such as Ryan Hemsworth, Lido and Skrillex.

Luke and Tess spent the better part of their childhood performing actual analog jazz in cafes across their native Canada. They’ve been musical as long as they can remember — their dad made sure of that, exposing them to wild soundscapes as far back as prenatal times.

Tennyson the band formed a few years back when Luke infused jazz styles into his computer-programmed bedroom productions. He’s the true musical force behind the group. The band’s moniker is his middle name. Tess’s contribution is live drums, a feat not easily waved off when considering Tennyson’s charmingly erratic compositions.

Photay is the solo musical endeavor of Evan Shornstein, hailing from the lush and peaceful evergreen valley of Woodstock, NY. Having been introduced to Aphex Twin at the tender age of 9, he quickly began to embrace music in all of its forms. This early inspiration provided a foundation for his musical growth in drumming, turntablism and eventually composition.

Years later, after an eye-opening trip to Guinea, West Africa, Photay was born. Combining his newly acquired knowledge of polyrhythmic percussion and years of experimenting with sampling and field recordings, he went on to create and self-release his first project under the alias. Seamlessly combining a variety of audio sources and techniques, Photay’s sound is a balancing act of analog and digital, of natural and synthetic. It is not designed exclusively for headphones nor the dancefloor, but is genuinely at home in both contexts.