# Kangding Ray
**Kangding Ray** is the alias of David Letellier (born 1978 in France), a Berlin-based electronic music producer and composer whose work spans experimental techno, ambient, and film scoring. He released his debut album *Stabil* on the Berlin label Raster-Noton in 2006, later ran his own imprint ara, and won the Cannes Soundtrack Award in 2025 for his score to Óliver Laxe's film *Sirât*.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) • [2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Real name, origin | David Letellier, born 1978 in France; based in Berlin[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) • [3](https://zkm.de/en/persons/david-letellier) |
| Training | Studied architecture in Rennes, France, and finished his studies in Berlin after moving there in 2001[4](https://inverted-audio.com/feature/kangding-ray-on-solens-arc/) |
| Debut | *Stabil*, Raster-Noton, 2006[5](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/) |
| Main labels | Raster-Noton, Stroboscopic Artefacts, and his own ara imprint, launched in 2019[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) |
| Studio albums | *Stabil* (2006), *Automne Fold* (2008), *OR* (2011), *Solens Arc* (2014), *Cory Arcane* (2015), *Hyper Opal Mantis* (2017), *61 Mirrors* (2020), *Ultrachroma* (2022), *Zero* (2024)[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) |
| Film score | *Sirât – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack*, released October 1, 2025 on INVADA Records UK, 12 songs[6](https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kangding-ray/206608271) |
| Awards | Cannes Soundtrack Award, May 2025; the film also took the Jury Prize at Cannes[2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html) |
## Background
Letellier grew up in Normandy, in a small village near the sea, and played guitar and drums in rock, industrial, and noise-rock bands as a teenager.[5](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/) • [2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html) He moved to Rennes to study architecture, then to Berlin in 2001 to finish his studies, and stayed.[4](https://inverted-audio.com/feature/kangding-ray-on-solens-arc/) In interviews he has described the move as decisive: he came for architecture and discovered the city's music scene once there.[5](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/)
## Recording career
**Raster-Noton years.** Letellier connected with Raster-Noton, the Berlin label associated with Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider, and Carsten Nicolai, and released *Stabil* there in 2006, a sharp, glitchy album that incorporated acoustic and sampled-and-looped elements.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) • [5](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/) *Automne Fold* (2008) was more song-oriented, and *OR* (2011) blended club rhythms with post-industrial atmospheres.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) From 2012 he also released on the Berlin label Stroboscopic Artefacts, beginning with the Monad XI EP and a split 12-inch with Pfirter, and his music moved toward the dance floor.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) • [5](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/) The conceptual albums *Solens Arc* (2014) and *Cory Arcane* (2015), the latter themed around a technology-obsessed ballet dancer in existential crisis, and the dystopian *Hyper Opal Mantis* (2017) followed on Raster-Noton.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290)
**ara and the 2020s.** Letellier launched his own label, ara, with the *Predawn Qualia* EP in 2019.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) His first studio album on ara, *Ultrachroma* (2022), followed three years of what he called "sonic research into finding new directions to develop my music," moving "beyond techno"; he described it as an "oblique take on a possible psychedelic future: hyper-digital, intricate, nervous, but also colourful and ultimately really beautiful."[7](https://ra.co/news/77102) *Zero* (2024) offered pared-down dancefloor techno, and the *Superfluid* EP arrived in March 2025.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290)
**Installation work.** In 2020 he released *61 Mirrors*, music for SKALAR, a large-scale art installation created with Christopher Bauder that was presented in Berlin, Mexico, and Amsterdam before the music's release.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290)
## Sirât and film scoring
Letellier's largest film project is the score for *Sirât*, by the French-Spanish director Óliver Laxe, a road movie that begins at a rave and follows its characters into the Moroccan desert.[8](https://filmmakermagazine.com/132234-interview-composer-kangding-ray-sirat/) Laxe, who was writing the screenplay while listening to *Solens Arc*, contacted Letellier by email, saying the album's rough electronic texture led him directly to the film.[2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html) The two worked for over a year and a half, aiming, in Letellier's words, to "dissolve this techno into something ethereal and spiritual."[8](https://filmmakermagazine.com/132234-interview-composer-kangding-ray-sirat/) About 80 percent of the music was created before shooting, an atypical workflow, and Letellier worked alone, treating the score as an extension of the sound of *Solens Arc*, built by channeling analog machines through tube compressors.[8](https://filmmakermagazine.com/132234-interview-composer-kangding-ray-sirat/) Two tracks from *Solens Arc* appear in the finished film.[2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html)
The film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2025, where it won the Jury Prize and Letellier won the award for best original music, the Cannes Soundtrack Award.[2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html) • [8](https://filmmakermagazine.com/132234-interview-composer-kangding-ray-sirat/) The 12-song soundtrack was released on October 1, 2025 on INVADA Records UK, the label run by Portishead's Geoff Barrow.[6](https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kangding-ray/206608271) • [9](https://2026.encounters.film/events/in-conversation-geoff-barrow-and-kangding-ray-2026-09-26) *Sirât* went on to receive two Academy Award nominations at the Oscars 2026, Best International Film and Best Sound.[10](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/an-unlikely-oscars-2026-nominee-is-a-tense-gut-wrenching-odyssey-through-the-desert-with-one-of-the-best-scores-this-awards-season/) Letellier has also performed the material live: an expanded, dialogue-free screening with live music at the Curtocircuíto festival in [Santiago de Compostela](https://www.edgepedia.org/santiago-de-compostela) drew more than 2,000 people, and he tours a [Sirāt](https://www.edgepedia.org/sirat) live A/V show.[2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html) • [11](https://ra.co/dj/kangdingray/tour-dates)
## Style and live performance
Critics place Letellier at the meeting point of techno and experimental music. AllMusic describes his output as pristinely crafted electronic music balancing avant-garde sound design and visceral impact, with styles listed as experimental techno, techno, glitch, and IDM.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290) The New Yorker wrote that his rhythm tracks have "a depth and a weight that rival anyone else's in techno."[12](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/kangding-ray) He has described his own trajectory as a gradual evolution "from my early works of filigrane ambient to a much more club-focused sound," while keeping a darker, more conceptual direction.[7](https://ra.co/news/77102) • [2](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html)
His live practice has shifted over time. He played almost exclusively live early on, then moved toward hybrid DJ sets that add his own sounds and loops using a small modular synthesizer and a drum machine, a format he adopted around 2015 because it allowed longer sets and more engagement with other producers' music.[13](https://ra.co/podcast/519) For hardware live sets he has described a fully hardware rig of sampler, drum machine, modular synthesizer, and effects units, chosen for sound, practicality, and transport rather than brand endorsement.[14](https://mixmag.fr/feature/rencontre-avec-kangding-ray1) He performs regularly at clubs and festivals internationally, with recent and scheduled appearances including Berghain in Berlin, Draaimolen Festival in [Eindhoven](https://www.edgepedia.org/eindhoven), Nowadays in New York, and dates in Barcelona, Budapest, and Taipei.[11](https://ra.co/dj/kangdingray/tour-dates) • [15](https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/kangding-ray)
## References
1. [Kangding Ray – Biography, Discography, Albums & Expert Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kangding-ray-mn0001002290)
2. [Kangding Ray, el arquitecto sonoro de las raves de la película 'Sirât', El País (August 12, 2025)](https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-08-12/kangding-ray-el-arquitecto-sonoro-de-las-raves-de-la-pelicula-sirat-queriamos-que-pudiera-verse-el-sonido-y-oirse-la-imagen.html)
3. [David Letellier, ZKM](https://zkm.de/en/persons/david-letellier)
4. [Kangding Ray On Solens Arc, Inverted Audio (March 6, 2014)](https://inverted-audio.com/feature/kangding-ray-on-solens-arc/)
5. [Interview: Kangding Ray, Red Bull Music Academy Daily (December 2015)](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/kangding-ray-interview/)
6. [kangding ray, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kangding-ray/206608271)
7. [Kangding Ray: 'I wanted this album to be an oblique take on a possible psychedelic future', Resident Advisor (April 19, 2022)](https://ra.co/news/77102)
8. [Existential Rave: Kangding Ray on Scoring "Sirāt", Filmmaker Magazine (October 16, 2025)](https://filmmakermagazine.com/132234-interview-composer-kangding-ray-sirat/)
9. [In Conversation: Geoff Barrow and Kangding Ray, Encounters Film Festival 2026](https://2026.encounters.film/events/in-conversation-geoff-barrow-and-kangding-ray-2026-09-26)
10. [An unlikely Oscars 2026 nominee is a tense, gut-wrenching odyssey through the desert, GamesRadar+](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/an-unlikely-oscars-2026-nominee-is-a-tense-gut-wrenching-odyssey-through-the-desert-with-one-of-the-best-scores-this-awards-season/)
11. [Kangding Ray · Tour Dates & Tickets, Resident Advisor](https://ra.co/dj/kangdingray/tour-dates)
12. [Kangding Ray, The New Yorker, Goings On About Town](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/kangding-ray)
13. [RA.519 Kangding Ray, RA Podcast](https://ra.co/podcast/519)
14. [Rencontre avec : Kangding Ray, Mixmag France](https://mixmag.fr/feature/rencontre-avec-kangding-ray1)
15. [Kangding Ray Concert & Tour History, Concert Archives](https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/kangding-ray)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music scenes › Transnational genre scenes › Electronic dance music (EDM) and rave culture › Artists, groups, and people: Electronic dance music (EDM) and rave culture › IDM, ambient, and downtempo artists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license