Botany

With only a handful of releases to his credit, Texas native Spencer Stephenson has covered a vast array of musical ground with his work as Botany. Integrating live instrumentation and dusty samples, his compositional techniques are informed by hip-hop and beat-heavy electronic music, but they reference spiritual jazz, psychedelic folk, ambient, and numerous other styles. His work varies from more rhythmic tracks to free-flowing washes of sound, but it's always conscious, uplifting, and organic.

Originally from northern Texas, Stephenson started experimenting with music production as a teenager, inspired by Four Tet, Madlib, J Dilla, and others. He began sharing his music online in 2008 and released his first EP Feeling Today, featuring vocalist Ashley Rathburn in 2010. Botany remixed artists such as Ryat and Cuushe and produced a track on Lushlife's 2012 album Plateau Vision.

In 2013, after relocating to a farm outside Austin, Stephenson recorded his full-length debut Lava Diviner (Truestory). The most hip-hop-oriented Botany release to date was the limited LP Dimming Awe, the Light Is Raw in 2015 which included guests like rapper Milo and Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid. In 2016 came the surprising excursion into cosmic