What started as a passion project dedicated to the late and great Stephen Hawking quickly evolved into a serious deep dive into the interconnectedness of live electronica, jazz and house music. Founded by keyboardist Jimmy Dunstan (YAMN, DAMN RIGHT, Spontaneous Underground), the life and death of the renowned physicist would become the inspiration for an honest, playful, scientific and philosophical outlook directly applied to improvisational dance music. Recurrent theme songs and adventures lived out in dreams transitioned from mind to paper to recorded tracks. Conceptually, a focus on the duality of light being both a particle and a wave depending on its external environment, and the quantum idea that all possibilities exist at the same time, stand at the forefront of Photon’s audible intentions. It’s all about where you want to focus the waveform. Where do you want it to collapse?
The initial years of exploration, the band’s membership quickly took form by recruiting esteemed drummer Neal Evans (Dopapod, Elephant Wrecking Ball) and bassist Dan Africano (Thievery Corporation, Ghost Light, John Brown’s Body), and together the best friends have brought the Photon sonic ethos to numerous clubs, radio shows and festivals.
The band began releasing some of their signature tracks on the Denver-based indie record label Color Red Music in 2021 and 2022. While they have carved out their own signature sound along the way, influences such as The New Deal, Medeski Martin & Wood and Tycho all come together as foundational touchpoints that guide their mission.
As the aforementioned original compositions were added to the live performance rotation, as did the band’s personnel on stage. Guitarists such as Tim Palmieri (Lotus), E. Shawn Quaisanni, Lucas Parker, Sasha Brown (Sister Sparrow), Caton Sollenberger (The Jauntee), Craig Broadhead (Turquaz), and Tim Wendel are rotating mainstays when the band takes the form of a quartet, and a myriad of bass assassins such as Felix Pastorius (Yes, Jaco’s son), Chuck Jones (Dopapod), Kirwan Brown (Many Colors) and Chris Duffy (The Magic Beans) can be found handling the low end interchangeably.