Riz Maslen has been part of the electronic music scene since 1996, being one of the few female producers around to have gained much acclaim for her work. Riz started her career fronting many bands whilst growing up in the West Country moving to London during the heady days of the Rave Scene met and worked with ambient kings Future Sound of London, featuring on many of their albums, and singing on Top of the Pops with their hit “Papua New Guinea”.
She signed to Ninja Tune’s sister label Ntone in 1996, and released three critically acclaimed albums, culminating in a fourth released in 2004 on highly respected U.S. independent label Mush – “White Rabbits”.
During Riz’s career she has toured extensively in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia, where she has played solo shows, more recently with a full band.
The aim of her visual shows is to take the audience on more of a journey than most. Not only does Riz write and perform the music, she also produces photographic slides and films as part of her live set-up to create a cinematic, multi-media experience. Her work is often highly personal and about ‘journeys through life’ of her own. The visuals and music synchronise to give us a soul-baring glimpse in her experiences, the end result being something, which the audience can hopefully relate to and be moved by.
In 2000 Riz set up her own independent label Council Folk Recordings with long time collaborator Paul Jason Fredericks and has released under the name Frederick and Nina, along with Dose One from Clouddead.
Riz has worked with many artists who have collaborated on many of her music projects including Nick McCabe (The Verve), Low, Kaffe Matthews (sound artist) and Brian Dougans (FSOL).
Riz at present is working on various projects in 2010/11, including visuals for Etchasketch live shows in collaboration with 10sui.
Neotropic also was a runner up in the Peoples Music Awards 2010 in the Off the Beaten Track category.
Wet Sounds Tour - 2011 - installs at swimming pools at 7 UK cities. An open to the public event featuring live music by Joel Cahen and including the deep listening gallery featuring new work by selected artists under the theme ReVerse, these are: Daniel Blinkhorn (Au), Jessica Rowland (UK), Julius Holtz (D), Liam Quinn (UK), Philip Mantione (USA), Riz Maslen (UK)
Erasure is Maslen & Mehras’ and Riz Maslens’ first collaborative work. The artists combine imagery and sound to create an experimental screen based work, which questions the aggressive transformation of areas of East London due to the upcoming Olympics.
ERASURE has been screened at the following exhibitions and festivals
Olympic Visions – Nunnery Gallery London 19th June 2009
VIDEOHOLICA INTERNATIONAL VIDEO ART FESTIVAL 2009, VARN 2nd EDITION - August 4-13, 2009
Tilt Exhibition – 2009 – Untilted
London Jazz Festival - 2009 – Southbank Centre
