DJ and electronica artist MASONIC (Mason Bates) has appeared at an enormous variety of spaces, from clubs to classical concert halls, from San Francisco to Berlin to Rome. His unique blend of downtempo hip-hop, trip-hop, and French house, often performed with jazz and classical musicians (most notably, upright bassist MarsBassMan) has been heard in clubs and lounges such as Temple, 111 Minna, Sugar, Skylark, Sip, Mint, and Fuse, as well as in art spaces such as the SFMOMA and the Berkeley Art Museum. A composer of symphonic music who often includes live electronica in his orchestral music, Mason Bates has become known as a unique artist who moves fluidly between those two worlds — performing on electronic drumpad and laptop, for example, with The National Symphony Orchesta in his Liquid Interface at Carnegie Hall, or creating an evening of concert music and electronica with members of The Berlin Philharmonic at the Volksbühne in the former East Side. While living in Rome as part of the Rome Prize, Masonic DJed in Monte Testaccio, the thriving nightlife scene built inside the mountain of an ancient pottery dump, at venues such as Metaverso and Scarabocchio.

Recent commissions have explored everything from the marriage of orchestral sonorities and the white noise of Southern insects (Rusty Air in Carolina, for The Winston-Salem Symphony and subsequently performed by The New York Philharmonic), to the fusion of techno beats and the ancient sounds of a pipe organ (Digital Loom, organ & electronics). A new work for The Calfiornia Symphony, exploring the sounds of the underground from subways to earthquakes, will be premiered in May as part of his recent appointment as their composer-in-residence. In addition, an upcoming hybrid musical event will showcase some of the finest classical performers in one of the city’s best clubs. On Feburary 1, at the hotspot Mezzanine, he presented Mercury Soul: An Electro-Acoustic Evening, an immersive night of groovy electronica, new symphonic and chamber music, and surreal visuals and lighting. Benjamin Shwartz and the San Francisco Symphony and visual designer Anne Patterson will be participating in the event, which can be found online at www.MercurySoul.org.

Now living in the Bay Area, Mason Bates studies at UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies with Edmund Campion. For more info, go to www.MasonicElectronica.com.