Emancipator in Asheville

Emancipator is the recording project of American producer and multi-instrumentalist Douglas Appling, who grew up in Virginia and later settled in Portland, Oregon. He makes instrumental downtempo electronic music shaped by sampled beats, strings and acoustic instruments. The debut album Soon It Will Be Cold Enough, featuring “First Snow,” was later issued in Japan by Nujabes’s Hydeout Productions; subsequent releases include Safe in the Steep Cliffs, Dusk to Dawn and Seven Seas. In 2013, Douglas Appling established the Emancipator Ensemble to perform the catalog with live violin, guitar, bass, drums and electronic production. A concert at the Georgia Theatre was released as Live in Athens, and Emancipator also performed at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.