Esselfortium

Esselfortium is the electronic musician Michael Mancuso. His music is often characterized by densely-layered arrangements, warm sounds, and melancholy but uplifting melodies, taking an assortment of stylistic influences from Boards of Canada, Radiohead, and other idm, electronic, and even rock musicians. His own sound and style are known to vary significantly from one song to the next, ranging from fuzzed-out ambient/downtempo experiments to cyberpunk-inspired drum and bass with a wide variety in between.

Born in rural New Jersey in 1989, he experimented with music from a young age, briefly taking piano, saxophone, and guitar lessons as a child but becoming quickly bored with practicing and preferring to improvise and play by ear. In 2003 he began experimenting with electronic music production shortly before a move to Wilmington, North Carolina, and adopted the Esselfortium moniker in late 2005.

In 2007, two of his songs were featured on the first volume of the electronic music compilation series One on Twoism shortly before the release of his official debut album A Terrible Flood that April.

His sophomore release Seventeen More Times was released in May 2011 after four years of development, featuring 16 songs following a loose conceptual narrative.

Esselfortium has also written music for corporate clients including Richard Day Research, and is currently involved in the scoring of an independent short film.

Free tracks and a number of streamable songs from both albums are available at Esselfortium's SoundCloud page. More information can be found at essel.spork-chan.net.