Rothko were a London-based instrumental ambient group. The group mainly used bass guitars and keyboards to create their soundscapes. They derived their name from the painter Mark Rothko. They have been described as post-rock for their habit of using rock instruments to create non-rock music.
Formed in 1997, the original line-up consisted of Mark Beazley, Crawford Blair, and Jon Meade all playing bass guitar in a variety of different ways. This line-up released 3 albums on Lo Recordings and a host of singles and EPs on other labels before Beazley disbanded it in 2001.
Between 2001 and 2004, Beazley continued to perform and release music under the Rothko name either solo or with a variety of different line-ups, including one which featured the entire line-up of London/Aberdeenshire experimental rock band Delicate AWOL. Since 2004, the line up stabilised as Beazley (bass guitar), Michael Donnellly (bass guitar), Ben Page (keyboards) and Tom Page (drums and percussion) - the latter three all being ex-members of Delicate AWOL.
The group finally disbanded in October of 2010, with their last and final release being the "Sunset to Sunrise" EP, on Mark Beazley's own Trace Recordings label.
As Rothko, Beazley also collaborated with artists such as Susumu Yokota, Caroline Ross of Delicate AWOL and JS Adams, aka BLK w/BEAR. He has also provided some of the music for the Discovery Channel documentary "The Flight That Fought Back", about United Airlines Flight 93.