Xilent

Eryk Kowalczyk (born 29 July 1989), better known by his stage name Xilent /ˈzaɪlənt/, is a Polish dubstep, electro house and drum & bass music producer residing in Poland. He is best known for his track "Choose Me II", released on May 16, 2011, which peaked at #1 spot on Beatport's Dubstep chart and stayed in the Top 5 for 3 months. The track was also selected as Zane Lowe’s “Next Hype” track on BBC Radio 1.^[1] Xilent was nominated as “Best Newcomer Producer” by Drum and Bass Arena Awards in 2011.^[2] He is currently signed to AudioPorn Records.^[3]

Biography

Eryk produced his first bits at the age of nine, when he was introduced to the Propellerhead Rebirth RB-338 synthesizer set. From then on, he tended to diversify his sound from techno, through breakbeat, finally to find his place in drum and bass, influenced by artists like Future Cut, Calyx and Concord Dawn. Throughout that time he also found himself playing the drums in a few hardcore punk bands like Fast Forward.^[4]

Many of his digital releases have seen the light of day hitting the top drum’n’bass charts on TrackItDown, one of which was rated “one of the biggest tracks of 2009 without a shadow” and even a “drum’n’bass anthem” – (‘Terminal’, Ammunition Rec., rated by TrackItDown).^[5]

Xilent spent the next three years in Edinburgh (Scotland), where he studied Software Engineering at University, and where he became a member of international labels such as Beta Recordings managed by John B himself, Ammunition Recordings, Mindtech Recordings and more while DJing throughout Europe, supporting acts like Spor (stage name of Jon Gooch).^[6] In December 2009 Xilent played for the first time live in his home country, Poland (Łódź).^[7]

In 2011 Xilent was signed by AudioPorn Records; an independent label owned by former RAM Records Producer/DJ Shimon. Since then, Xilent has released numerous EPs and singles, including the “Choose Me EP”, “Skyward EP” and “Evolutions Per Minute/Tenkai” (released on Mainframe Recordings) and the drum and bass electro track “Clear Your Mind”.^[8]

In May 2012 Xilent released his "Ultrafunk" EP on AudioPorn Records featuring four original tracks Twisted, Ultra, Beyond (named "Hottest Record in the World" by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe^[9]) and Do It.

On January 21, 2013 Xilent released his single Boss Wave on AudioPorn Records which took the number 1 position on the Beatport Top Dubstep Tracks in four days and remained as #1 for several weeks.^[10] The official music video for Boss Wave directed and produced by Kristofer Ström (previously directed videos for Delta Heavy and 16bit) depicts Xilent inside a video game robot that fights off enemies to protect humans.^[11] This video has been shown in the episode "Robots" of Adult Swim's Off the Air.

In May 2015, Xilent released his debut album "We Are Virtual" via AudioPorn records. The album sparked numerous positive reviews, and explored various genres including dubstep, drum and bass, drumstep, mid-tempo, trance, and house.

Xilent collaborated with Monstercat artist Razihel and vocalist Becko on "Edge of the World", a free single released by the label on November 10, 2015. He is planning to collaborate with Au5 in the future.

Discography

Releases

Remixes

Awards

References

External links

• Xilent on Audioporn Records