Nathan Fake

Nathan Fake (born 3 March 1983) is an English electronic music artist from Necton, Norfolk, England.^[2] He has released music on the Border Community, Ninja Tune, and Cambria Instruments labels (the latter a project by Fake and Wesley Matsell).

Nathan Fake
Fake performing at La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, April 2018
Background information
Born	(1983-03-03) 3 March 1983 (age 41)[1] King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
Origin	Necton, Norfolk, England
Genres	Electronica, techno, ambient
Occupation(s)	Producer, performer
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Cambria Instruments, Ninja Tune, Border Community

According to Fake, he started producing music in 2003^[3] with the release of the Outhouse EP on James Holden's label "Border Community". Over the next few years, other singles and EPs were released, in particular The Sky Was Pink, which caused Fake, Holden, and Border Community to gain popularity due to Holden's remix of the song. In 2006, Fake released his debut album Drowning in a Sea of Love which was described as similar to the Scottish band Boards of Canada by The Guardian,^[4] and gained critical acclaim. Over the next few years, a number of remixes of the content from this album, notably the Fortdax and Four Tet remixes of the song You Are Here, further boosted Fake's popularity, and the album was followed by another in 2009 - Hard Islands, also on Border Community.

Fake has produced several remixes, notably in 2011 a remix of Radiohead's song Morning Mr Magpie was released on the remix album TKOL RMX 1234567 after being approached by the band's frontman Thom Yorke,^[5] and he has also remixed songs by Jon Hopkins, Clark, and Irène Drésel.

In 2012, Fake released his last album on Border Community - Steam Days, after which he founded the label Cambria Instruments with Wesley Matsell in 2014, the inaugural release being a split single between the two artists.^[6] The following year, he released the Glaive EP on the same label.

After a period of writer's block, Fake signed to Ninja Tune and released the singles "DEGREELESSNESS / Now We Know" and "RVK" in 2016 and 2017, followed by the album Providence. Two remix EPs - "Providence Reworks" Part I and Part II, were released later in the year, featuring Overmono, Konx Om Pax, and Olga Wojciechowska. In 2018, the "Sunder" EP was released on Ninja Tune.

In 2019 two of Fake's early EPs - "Watlington Street" and "Dinamo" were reissued on Cambria Instruments.

In April 2020, Fake's fifth studio album Blizzards was released by Cambria Instruments.^[7] It was preceded by 2 singles - "Tbilisi" and "Vectra". The album gained critical acclaim.

In April 2021, Fake released the Sanxenxo EP on Cambria Instruments, the title track being left over from the Blizzards recording sessions.^[8][9] Later in the year, he released Blizzards Remixes, a remix EP.

After releasing two singles - "The Grass (feat Wizard Apprentice)" and "Vimana", his sixth album Crystal Vision was released on 7 April 2023 on Cambria Instruments.^[10][11][12] The album was followed by the Guiro EP on 27 October 2023, also on Cambria Instruments, preceded by the title track Guiro as a single. According to Fake, it differs in that it is mostly "more raw and club-oriented" than Crystal Vision.^[13]

In December 2024, Fake will release the EP Covers (From Memory) on Cambria Instruments. It contains the cover versions of ‘What You Want’ by Industry Standard, ‘Positive Education’ by Slam and ‘Attached’ by Orbital. He noticed that he discovered the tracks in his youth and that they influenced him. In terms of methodology, he covered the tracks from memory without listening to them again.^[14]