Perturbator

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Perturbator is the stage name of James Kent, a French electronic musician from Paris, born in 1993. His parents were music journalists, and had had a band themselves in their youth. That sparked his interest in synthesizers. Before starting Perturbator he played guitar in several black metal bands.

Music and breakthrough

Since 2012 he has made electronic music inspired by cyberpunk culture and films such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell and The Running Man. He uses software synthesizers that imitate classic instruments such as the OB-X and the CS-80. His first EP was called Night Driving Avenger. Later releases included I Am the Night (2012), Dangerous Days (2014), The Uncanny Valley (2016) and Lustful Sacraments (2021), often on the label Blood Music. Future Club, the track from School of Rock, is on Dangerous Days from 2014. A mix of darkness, dark synthesizers and a hefty dose of nostalgia defines his sound. It falls under synthwave, the style that revives the electronic film music of the 1980s.

Influence

Many people got to know his music through the computer game Hotline Miami from 2012 and its 2015 sequel, in which several of his tracks are heard. This brought him a larger audience. In 2019 he appeared in the documentary The Rise of the Synths, alongside other composers from the scene and the director John Carpenter, who told the story. He has a label of his own, Music of the Void, and a side project called Ruin Of Romantics.

Listening

• 
  Future Club · Perturbator, 2014
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 2012I Am the Night
• 2012TERROR 404
• 2014Dangerous Days
• 2016The Uncanny Valley
• 2021Lustful Sacraments
• 2025Age of Aquarius