Anthony Davis, AKA Ant, one half of Atmosphere, has announced the first volume of a four part series of instrumentals. Collection of Sounds: Volume 1, his debut solo album, will be released on September 6th via Rhymesayers Entertainment. Ahead of the LP’s arrival Ant has dropped “Leather Soul” + “That Old Bongo Joint.” In his own words, he shares “I guess I have the audacity to believe I could put out a four volume instrumental music project, composed of music I’ve made over the last 30 years, and call it great art.”

The son of a military family, Ant grew up bouncing between locales: Texas, California, New York, Colorado, even as far away as Germany. While moving every couple of years presented plenty of challenges, it also exposed Ant to a wide array of different people and cultures. It also helped nurture his burgeoning love of music. Ant’s father, only 20 years his senior, was an avid record collector. “He was into funk and jazz and soul music and stuff,” Ant says. “When I’m ten years old, he’s only 30, and rap is out: he was listening to it, but he didn’t know the difference between Grandmaster Flash and Rick James. To him it was the same thing—this is all funk, this is all disco, this is just all music.”

“There was always this weird dream in my head that I could get somewhere,” says Davis. As one half of Atmosphere, the longtime Minneapolis resident has carved out the type of career that aspiring musicians across the world imagine as they cut their teeth in home studios and on small stages. Yet while decades of sold-out tours and critical acclaim might have been, at one time, an abstract notion to the now 53-year-old, he always had a sense that he could spin his ingenuity behind turntables into a living. While the last 30 years serve as proof positive that he was right, his new four-volume collection of instrumental work, Collection of Sounds, illuminates the variety of styles and skills that made that inkling a reality.

In 1990, he moved to Minneapolis, and entered the production world in which he would soon be a pillar. Creative partnerships with rappers named Beyond (later Musab) and Slug led to the formation of Atmosphere, which would go on to become one of the defining acts in not only underground hip-hop, but independent music writ large. In 1995, that trio joined with Brent “Siddiq” Sayers to found Rhymesayers Entertainment, a signature imprint that would go on to issue albums by Aesop Rock, MF DOOM, Eyedea & Abilities, and Brother Ali, alongside countless other acts.

Atmosphere would go on to became the backbone of Rhymesayers; with records like Lucy Ford (2001), God Loves Ugly (2002), and Seven’s Travels (2003), they established an inimitable style staked on sly, confessional raps and beats that were formally unimpeachable even as they threatened to wobble off any recognizable axis. But when the pair convened to begin work on When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008).

Ant
Collection of Sounds: Volume 1
Tracklist:

Collection of Sounds Start
Leather Soul
Bar One
SK15 Fly Strings
I Was Always A Collector
Lovely Original Sketch
My First Koop Session
This Happened
Only The Junk
Collection Side Two
Sun Decides
That Old Bongo Joint
Every Once In A While
Random Beat CD March 2005
Fooled You
4 Track Beyond Beat 1996
Outernet Sketch For Live Use

Ant 2024 Tour Dates

8/01 – Bend, OR @ Midtown Ballroom *
8/02 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House *
8/03 – Olympic Valley, CA @ Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival ^
8/04 – Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Music & Arts Festival – Britt Pavilion ^
8/06 – Billings, MT @ Downtown Billings Skatepark *
8/08 – Fargo, ND @ Up District Festival Field *
8/09 – Superior, WI @ Earth Rider Brewery *
8/10 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue #
8/16 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre +
8/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Rhyme Fest ^ (headlining)
10/02 – Casper, WY @ Ford Wyoming Center –
10/04 – Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Aspen –
10/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union –
10/06 – Las Vegas, NV @ Reggae Rise Up ^
10/08 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theater –
10/09 – El Paso, TX @ 11:11 –
10/11 – Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre –
10/12 – North Kansas City, MO @ Voodoo Lounge Harrah’s KC – (on-sale June 28th)
10/13 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge –
10/15 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn –
10/16 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre –
10/18 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom –
10/19 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm –
10/20 – Knoxville, TN @ The Mill & Mine –
10/22 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa –
10/23 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson Theater –
10/25 – Nashville, IN @ Brown County Music Center –
10/26 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee –
10/27 – Davenport, IA @ Capitol Theatre –

^ Festival Performance
* with HEBL and NOFUN!
– with NOFUN! and Reverie
# with NOFUN!, Wave Chapelle, and DJ Stage One
+ with Method Man & Redman, Deltron 3030, Skratch Bastid, and NOFUN!

Pre-order Collection of Sounds: Volume 1 by Ant HERE