Louis Cole

Visiting Professor

A virtuosic multi-instrumentalist whose energized material often puts an ebullient spin on everyday pitfalls, Louis Cole is one-half of Knower and a frequent studio collaborator with artists including Thundercat and Sam Wilkes. Cole’s output reflects a voracious musical appetite for genres and styles ranging from soul, jazz, funk, and pop to extreme metal (he’s widely speculated to be a member of masked duo Clown Core), science fiction soundtracks, and video game music. As a solo artist, he’s released several albums on the Brainfeeder label, including Time (2018) and Nothing (with Metropole Orkest, 2024).

Encouraged by friend and collaborator Jack Conte to release music online, the Los Angeles native — who started on the drums at age eight — got to work after he graduated from the Jazz Studies program at USC Thornton School of Music. In 2010, Cole released a self-titled solo album, and he and partner Genevieve Artadi also issued their first full-length as Knower. Additional self-released solo and duo recordings, along with numerous videos, were scattered across the next few years. Cole co-wrote “Padded Cell” for Seal’s 2015 album 7, and within months, he and Artadi were featured on Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, Vol. 2. The year 2017 was particularly eventful for Cole, entailing a pair of co-writing credits on Thundercat’s Drunk (“Bus in These Streets,” “Jameel’s Space Ride”), his and Artadi’s placement of a song on the soundtrack for The Lego Ninjago Movie (“Dance of Doom”), and gigs opening for admirers the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

All this activity led to a deal with Brainfeeder, the label operated by fellow L.A. native Flying Lotus. Time, Cole’s third solo album and Brainfeeder debut, arrived in 2018. Made over the course of two-and-a-half years, it featured appearances from Artadi, Thundercat, keyboardist Dennis Hamm, and pianist Brad Mehldau. Cole contributed to albums by Vulfpeck and Thundercat before he completed his next solo album. Quality Over Opinion, his second Brainfeeder LP, arrived in 2022 with Artadi, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and saxophonist Sam Gendel among the contributors. The Interim release Some Unused Songs appeared in 2023. Cole then collaborated with the Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley on the 2024 album Nothing, which mainly consists of original material, along with reworked versions of a few pieces from Quality Over Opinion.