Jornt Elzinga (born 1989), commonly known as , is a Dutch musician regarded as a vaporwave figure that originated the mallsoft subgenre. He also previously recorded as Mesektet for his dark ambient releases.
Born in 1989, Elzinga started his music career in the 2000s with drone and noise productions. He began his independent vaporwave career in 2013, and became popular in the scene with his 2014 album Hiraeth. His solo works, including albums such as Palm Mall (2014), Cosmopolitan Dreams (2016), and News at 11 (2016), are known for popularising mallsoft. His collaborations with other musicians also spawned successful albums within the community, including Corporate Mixtape (2014) and Building a Better World (2019).
Elzinga's music explores concepts of late 20th century capitalism, presenting ambient shopping center recordings characteristic of mallsoft. It also portrays specific events, such as an alternate universe where the September 11 attacks never happened, or a fictional soundtrack to a retro fashion TV series. In 2019, he founded his own record label, Hiraeth Records. He is one of the best-selling mallsoft artists as of 2022.
Life and career
Early life and the September 11 attacks (1989–2001)
Jornt Elzinga was born in the Netherlands on 3 March 1989. He was influenced by the pop culture of the 1990s and the early 2000s, saying he "witnessed the world's globalization and grew up with slow dial-up Internet." His sister watched TV shows such as Saved by the Bell, which Jornt called "a childhood memory that has been in my mind forever." His dad frequently filmed and took photos as a kid; as Jornt said, "most of my memories from the early 90s are documented."
On 11 September 2001, as Jornt did French homework, his mother desperately called for him to watch the September 11 attacks on TV. In an interview with YouTuber Pad Chennington, Jornt said that although confused, he found the experience surreal, saying "On that date, I think the old world died. You know, that peaceful... world, that American Dream world." The event would greatly influence his future music career; he further explained:
"We have not and will never forget about what happened that day. I like to think there's a parallel universe where it never happened."
Early music and discovery of vaporwave (2001–2013) By his mid-teens and with faster access to the Internet, Elzinga discovered more of what he called "weird music," including dark ambient, drone, and noise. He experimented with stretching, field recording, and sampling to create a more narrative feel to his music, as well as transferring his recordings to cassette tape. For releases such as Towards a Bleak Sun (2014), Elzinga recorded under the alias Mesektet.
In 2013, Elzinga wanted to release music on floppy disk but did not know how to do so; searching on Google, he discovered Miami Vice's lofi release Culture Island (2012), an album released on that format. Elzinga revealed he listened exclusively to vaporwave after initially discovering it; he wanted to start producing it but "had no idea where to start," as he did not have previous knowledge of genres sampled, such as jazz and R&B.
Elzinga wanted to choose an alias name involving cats, and stated that "Corporation" fits the themes he would pursue with his music. He continuously translated names through Google Translate until it read , a name he found "genius."
Mallsoft releases and collaborations (2014–2016)
Elzinga's first successful album, Hiraeth (2014), established him as a vaporwave musician and showed the early internet culture of his youth within what The Outlines Emma Madden called the "ahistorical placelessness" of vaporwave. It was one of the best-selling vaporwave albums worldwide until July 2014, being called by Bandcamp Dailys Simon Chandler "one of [Elzinga's] standout albums" and by VWMusics Andrew Daly an influential release on the scene. Late Night Stereo, released in June 2014, was Elzinga's next release, and "just missed the cut" of Facts listing of July's "essential cassette releases."
Elzinga's next solo album, Palm Mall, was released in late 2014. It was one of the best-selling vaporwave albums worldwide in October 2014 and became Elzinga's most well-known music release, being called a "particularly atmospheric" album by author Samuel Cothron.
In 2014, Elzinga collaborated with anonymous musician Telepath on the album Blue Dream, whose musical style was once described as "washed out euphoria" by a reviewer. He also produced Corporate Mixtape with artist Donovan Hikaru in 2015, where he explores futuristic working soundscapes, and created a remix of Luxury Elite's "Strut" for her album World Class.