Assemblage 23 is an electronic act from the United States, currently based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1988 by Tom Shear who writes the music and lyrics and does the recording himself. Live performances are supported by Paul Seegers on keyboards and Mike Jenney on drums.

 

Assemblage 23 was founded in 1988 by Tom Shear who writes the music and lyrics and does the recording himself. Live performances are supported by Paul Seegers on keyboards and Mike Jenney on drums. Officially born after Shear experienced the industrial dance music played by an opening DJ for Depeche Mode. The style of this genre deeply impressed Shear; he believed he had finally found the sort of sound he wanted for his music. It took until 1998 for Assemblage 23 to gather enough positive acclaim to attract the attention of record labels.

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By 2001Assemblage 23 had become fairly popular within the EBM genre and closely cataloged alongside the "futurepop" genre, which Shear himself characterized — possibly tongue-in-cheek — as "mostly people who can't sing, over 90s-era trance patches.

 

His 3rd album Defiance was released in October 2002 on Metropolis and Accession, preceded by the single "Document", in September of that year. Assemblage 23 released a fourth album, Storm, in October 2004 with singles "Let the Wind Erase Me" in August and "Ground" in November. "Ground" spent eight weeks on the DAC Singles chart peaking at #2. In March 2007, Assemblage 23 released a new single, "Binary", which debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard US singles chart, preceding the album Meta, released in April 2007.

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Assemblage 23 performed at Montreal's Kinetik Festival in May 2009. In September 2009, Assemblage 23 released the single "Spark," followed by its sixth studio album Compass. On June 12, 2012, Assemblage 23 released the album "Bruise."The album "Endure" was released on August 28, 2016.

 

The latest album, "Mourn", was released on September 11, 2020.