music
To talk about Stephen O’Malley is to talk about one of the most innovative figures in heavy experimental music and a key name in drone metal. Active since the mid-1990s, he has combined dense, intense sounds with the drawn-out atmospheres of drone, weaving layers of distortion and experimenting with the physics of sound and sound waves, influenced by acousmatic and minimalist music. A native of Seattle, he is known for his work with Khanate, KTL and, in particular, Sunn O))), the duo he founded in 1998 with Greg Anderson, perhaps the most important project of its kind and an inescapable reference in the world of contemporary experimental and avant-garde music.
In his own name, he has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including musicians and composers such as Kali Malone, François J. Bonnet (with whom he was at Semibreve in 2022), Merzbow, Scott Walker, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Alvin Lucier, Jim O’Rourke, Lucy Railton and Thurston Moore, choreographer Gisèle Vienne, writers Dennis Cooper and Alan Moore, director Jim Jarmusch and video artist Fujiko Nakaya.
In June 2025, Stephen O’Malley unveiled But remember what you have had, a piece commissioned by INA-GRM, the research group in the field of sound and electroacoustic music, currently under the auspices of the French National Audiovisual Institute. In this ambitious new work, the guitarist, producer and composer brings together the full range of his musical approach, while simultaneously promising an extraordinary future.
supported by mais frança, a programme promoted by the institut français du portugal and part of novembre numérique.
support portuguese republic – culture / general direction of the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theaters and cinemas.
