Spend The Night + Be Yourself: Pearson Sound (Hessle Audio)

About

Be Yourself x Spend The Night present Pearson Sound on Friday October 16th. Pearson Sound is a founding force behind Hessle Audio and one of the most influential voices to emerge from the UK underground. A pioneer of contemporary club music, he has spent the past 20 years moving between different aliases, sounds, and scenes, connecting the blueprint of UK soundsystem culture with the cutting edge of dance music. His work moves across the wider spectrum of bass, techno, broken beat, and leftfield club music, with a constant focus on experimentation and pushing the possibilities of sound. We’re beyond excited to welcome Pearson Sound back to PDX for his first solo set in 8 years with support from Gardenparty and Petite Syrah. About Pearson Sound At the intersection of distinct music styles, David Kennedy, a.k.a. Pearson Sound , connects the blueprint of UK soundsystems to the cutting edge of contemporary dancefloor music. Widely acclaimed as a producer, DJ and mix engineer—as well as one of the three founders of the Hessle Audio imprint—he is synonymous with a wide-angle view of the bass spectrum. Pearson Sound productions, DJ sets and remixes are all brought to life in high fidelity with dark rhythmic grooves, complex percussive arrangements and exacting melodic details. Contrasting the behind-the-scenes operational nature of Kennedy’s Hessle Audio responsibilities, his Pearson Sound productions have always cut boldly across a speaker stack, embracing futurism at every stage; this is evident in a run of iconic dancefloor cuts, from the dub-heavy minimalism of his late 2000s tracks inspired by seminal London clubs FWD>> and DMZ’, to contemporary breakout hits like 2020’s rave-ready Alien Mode and 2022’s Red Sky. Not content to only inhabit record bags and set lists, 2015 saw the release of Pearson Sound, a singularly hypnotic self-titled debut LP, which foregrounded a resolute desire to experiment with the form. Pearson Sound’s perpetual forward motion is fuelled by the crucial feedback loop that exists between production and DJing. Whether testing dubplates at club sets, bleeding across genres with on-the-fly edits, or sparking off within the dynamics of Hessle Audio’s legendary B3B DJ sets, his signature is ever-evolving.