Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer, and songwriter. His music has utilized tropes from various musical genres and eras, sample-based composition, and complex MIDI production.
Lopatin began releasing synth-based recordings in the mid-2000s and received initial acclaim for the 2009 compilation Rifts, as well as the influential vaporwave release Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010). He subsequently signed with Warp in 2013, and has since released studio albums on the label to positive critical reception. He has also composed scores for films such as Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019); the former won him the Soundtrack Award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Early life
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Lopatin is the son of Russian-Jewish "refusenik" emigrants from the Soviet Union, both with musical backgrounds. Some of his first experiments with electronic music were inspired by his father's music collection and his Roland Juno-60 synthesizer, an instrument that Lopatin would inherit and go on to use extensively. In high school, Lopatin played synthesizer in groups with friend and future collaborator Joel Ford, performing at school events. Lopatin attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts before moving to Brooklyn, New York to attend grad school at Pratt Institute, studying archival science. During that time, he became involved in Brooklyn's underground noise music scene.
Career
2007–2012: Early career, Rifts, Returnal and Replica
Lopatin initially released music under a number of aliases and as part of several groups, including Infinity Window and Astronaut, before adopting the pseudonym Oneohtrix Point Never, a verbal play on the name of the Boston FM radio station Magic 106.7. Early OPN recordings drew on synthesizer music, '80s new age tropes, and contemporary noise music. Lopatin released a series of cassette and CD-R projects interspersed with a trilogy of full-length albums: Betrayed in the Octagon (2007), Zones Without People (2009), and Russian Mind (2009). Much of this material was eventually collected on the 2009 compilation Rifts, which brought him international acclaim; it was named the second-best album of 2009 by UK magazine The Wire. Also in 2009, Lopatin released the audio-visual project Memory Vague, which included his profile-raising YouTube video "nobody here". His work during this period would be associated with the late 2000s underground hypnagogic pop trend.
In June 2010, Lopatin followed Rifts with his major label debut Returnal, released on Editions Mego. In the same year, he released the influential limited-edition pseudonymous cassette Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1, which would help inspire the 2010s Internet-based genre vaporwave, and he formed the duo Games (later renamed Ford & Lopatin) with childhood friend Joel Ford. Lopatin's next album, Replica, was released in 2011 on his newly formed label Software Recording, to further critical praise. On it, Lopatin developed a sample-based approach that drew on the audio of 1980s and '90s television advertisements. Also that year, Lopatin participated in the collaborative album FRKWYS Vol. 7 with musicians David Borden, James Ferraro, Samuel Godin and Laurel Halo as part of RVNG's label series; Ford & Lopatin released Channel Pressure, and OPN was chosen to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Lopatin and visual artist Nate Boyce collaborated on the 2011 Reliquary House performance installation; the music from this project would later be released on the split OPN/Rene Hell album Music for Reliquary House / In 1980 I Was a Blue Square (2012). In 2012, Lopatin collaborated with Tim Hecker on the album Instrumental Tourist.
2013–2016: Signing with Warp, R Plus Seven and Garden of Delete
In 2013, Lopatin signed with Warp Records. His label debut, R Plus Seven, was released on September 30, 2013, to positive reception. Lopatin collaborated with several artists on visual accompaniments, live performances, and internet projects for the album, among them his frequent collaborator Nate Boyce; Jon Rafman; Takeshi Murata; Jacob Ciocci, and John Michael Boling. Also in 2013, Lopatin composed his first film score—for Sofia Coppola's film The Bling Ring, a collaboration with Brian Reitzell—and OPN participated in the Warp x Tate event and was commissioned to create a piece inspired by Jeremy Deller's The History of the World.