LIONEL
COHEN
Composing the 1980s, today.
From a New York apprenticeship in tape hiss and drum machines to a Hollywood studio he's run since 2013, Lionel Cohen has spent thirty years building entire worlds out of analog synthesizers. Cinematic synth, cartoon adventure scores, synthpop, synthwave, old-school hip-hop, industrial body music — eight different aliases, one uninterrupted decade.
The Roster
8 Projects · One Decade
Cinewave Redux
Cinematic Synth · Retrowave · Neon NoirCohen's most ambitious project — a four-volume modular soundtrack system built in the spirit of Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, and Harold Faltermeyer. There's no canonical sequence: each track is a scene, each volume a shift in tone, designed to be shuffled and recombined like film footage rather than played front to back. All four volumes are cleared for sync licensing, film, TV, and broadcast.
The opening statement — wide-screen and searching. A protagonist arrives in a city that doesn't know his name yet.
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- 01 Night Of The Female1:39
- 02 Revolution Comes In The Strangest Way1:47
- 03 The Fisting of Life2:30
- 04 I Am With Name1:38
- 05 It's Happening Now2:13
- 06 The Pain And Blade2:26
- 07 Innocence Passed Me By2:08
- 08 No Enemies Of My Own2:19
- 09 Forget My Name1:24
- 10 I Should Live My Life1:39
- 11 These Cerulean Skies1:42
- 12 Make Somebody Move1:46
- 13 The Talk Of Your Life1:48
- 14 Left At The Crossroads1:52
- 15 A Kind Of Living2:05
- 16 There Was Only Something Between Us1:57
- 17 On The Fires Of Night2:12
- 18 They Fall on Today1:58
- 19 Are These Really The Days2:02
- 20 For Tomorrow's Man2:40
Deeper into the night — slower pulse sequences and an atmosphere of beautiful menace.
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- 01 Dazzled By The New2:20
- 02 This Goddamned Starving Life2:05
- 03 A Safety Zone1:39
- 04 If Time Had Not Stood Still2:08
- 05 Cold Winter Bleeds1:57
- 06 The World Of Today1:49
- 07 Breathing In Only Doubt2:14
- 08 Every Single Move's Uncertain1:37
- 09 There's No More Of Me2:10
- 10 Good Time Drone2:00
- 11 Night Fear2:55
- 12 Unbearable Lives2:27
- 13 Blank Screen TV1:52
- 14 The Diamond Friendly1:33
- 15 Extremes Of My Sex1:47
- 16 When The Nightmare Comes1:44
- 17 Complex Fashion For A Simple Man2:12
- 18 20th Century Dies2:31
- 19 It's Confusing These Days1:40
- 20 Back To When It All Began2:03
The pivot — chase sequences, revelations, confrontations at dawn. Propulsive arpeggios and escalating tension.
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- 01 This Chaos Is Killing2:04
- 02 Call It A Day2:22
- 03 All The Concrete Dreams1:45
- 04 Tapping Out Your Memories1:54
- 05 Where Have All The Flowers Gone1:35
- 06 The Rain Sets In2:10
- 07 Re-Exposing You2:32
- 08 Nothing Is Vanity1:57
- 09 Stare At The Sun2:28
- 10 Anxiety Descending2:00
- 11 Majesty Of A City Landscape1:50
- 12 Twitch & Stream1:39
- 13 We Light Up Our Lives1:37
- 14 Back Away From The Light2:12
- 15 The Fabric Of Time Itself1:47
- 16 The Young Advance2:17
- 17 Looking Through Windows For Demons2:05
- 18 Forbidden Words2:59
- 19 Me Exploding You1:31
- 20 Flames Burn My Body1:40
The end credits roll — a melancholic, expansive finale carrying the weight of a journey completed.
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- 01 The Sober Philistine1:36
- 02 Tell The Others2:02
- 03 Beat on the Outside2:18
- 04 Deeply Felt Age2:23
- 05 A Zero On Everything2:12
- 06 Punks Burning In Their Glue1:52
- 07 A Fantastic Death1:08
- 08 Wishful Beginnings1:36
- 09 Some Kind Of Future2:08
- 10 The Clutch Of Life1:33
- 11 A Reject From The World1:56
- 12 Rings Of Flesh1:45
- 13 Thin & Frail2:32
- 14 Blended Sunrise1:41
- 15 Poor Bruised Passivity1:58
- 16 It'll End In Chrome2:13
- 17 My Days Are Numbered1:33
- 18 Remind Them Again And Again2:30
- 19 A Millennium Fetish1:39
- 20 It's The Angel-Man2:07
The Fascinated
Synthpop · New Wave · Vocal PopCohen's vocal-pop outlet: a Hollywood-based, 80s-influenced synth-pop duo formed in 2014, pairing Aussie singer-songwriter Beki Colada's voice and songwriting with his production. Where Cinewave Redux is wordless and cinematic, The Fascinated is glossy, hook-driven, and melodic — synth basslines, gated drums, and new-wave songwriting built for neon nights.
Beki Colada & Lionel Cohen
The duo's discography streams on SoundCloud and Apple Music — synthpop, new wave, and 80s-drenched production from the heart of Hollywood.
RoBOT LIKE ME
Synthwave · Future-Retro ElectroInspired by early computers, robots, cyborgs, and machines, RoBOT LIKE ME is Cohen's transmission from a future that sounds exactly like 1985 — pulsing analog beats, crystalline synth layers, and cinematic electro soundscapes, anchored by the long-running Futurewave trilogy and the latest album, Synthwave City.
The newest transmission from the grid — pulsing analog beats, crystalline synth layers, and cinematic electro soundscapes.
Vol. 1 set the future-retro template; Vol. 2 deepened the machine-built melodies; Vol. 3 continues the transmission — future-retro 80s pop-synth, streaming on SoundCloud.
Jaxon Evans
Old-School Hip-Hop · Boom Bap · Coast to CoastCohen's hip-hop persona — a reverent tribute to the 80s hip-hop scenes of South Central LA and the South Bronx, sampling the same SP-1200 drum machines, heavy bass lines, and jazzy loops that put both coasts on the map. A time machine to the block parties and spray-painted walls of the 1980s, captured on the album Old School Beats.
A time machine to the block parties and spray-painted walls of the 1980s — from South Central Los Angeles to the Grand Concourse in the South Bronx. Boom bap before boom bap had a name.
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- 01 Concord Avenue 🔥2:07
- 02 Brook Avenue2:19
- 03 Grand Concourse 🔥2:16
- 04 Prospect Avenue1:57
- 05 Sedgwick Avenue2:01
- 06 Southern Boulevard2:06
- 07 Morris Avenue 🔥2:16
- 08 Jackson Avenue2:24
- 09 Cedar Playground1:48
- 10 Willis Avenue1:34
- 11 Crotona Park 🔥1:59
- 12 Bruckner Boulevard2:09
- 13 Jefferson Boulevard1:52
- 14 South Central Avenue 🔥1:31
- 15 Vernon Avenue1:49
- 16 Crenshaw Boulevard 🔥1:40
- 17 Adams Boulevard1:40
- 18 Lewis Avenue1:34
- 19 Hooper Avenue1:50
- 20 E 103rd Street 🔥2:22
- 21 Rosecrans Avenue1:43
- 22 Figueroa Street1:36
- 23 Pico Boulevard1:40
- 24 Compton Boulevard 🔥1:31
Zed & Zero
80s Cartoon Synth Score · Adventure SynthwaveA full synth score built in the spirit of 1980s adventure cartoon music — the heroic, analog-driven electronic soundtracks that defined Saturday mornings and after-school animation. Synth arpeggios collide with 8-bit ghosts and analog pulses race against digital storms across a fifteen-level quest.
Strap in. The 1980s never ended — they just went faster. Zed & Zero drop their heroine into a neon-drenched multiverse of danger, wonder, and impossible odds. One quest. One synth score. Zero compromises.
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- LVL 01 States of Misfortune2:11
- LVL 02 Summoned for Exploration2:00
- LVL 03 Right of Refusal1:48
- LVL 04 The Chance Encounter3:06
- LVL 05 Threshold3:31
- LVL 06 First of Failures2:02
- LVL 07 Friends & Foes3:14
- LVL 08 The Innermost Chamber3:42
- LVL 09 A Shadow Self2:29
- LVL 10 Against Time and Space3:52
- LVL 11 The Harrowing of the Soul3:00
- LVL 12 Rewarded3:33
- LVL 13 Rescue from Without3:34
- LVL 14 Masters of Many Worlds2:48
- LVL 15 Over Again3:04
Nile Neon
80s Cinematic Instrumental · Neon NoirCohen's most recent solo alias — a charged, cinematic collection of 80s instrumentals: synthesizer-driven soundscapes built from neon-lit streets, late-night drives, and the electric pulse of a decade that never really ended. Twenty tracks asking the question the era always asked, and never quite answered.
Signal received. A run of mood pieces moving from urban paranoia to artificial euphoria and back again.
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- 01 A Club That Doesn't Exist
- 02 The Order of Silence
- 03 Rearview Reflections
- 04 From the Edge of Ordinary
- 05 Powdered Promises
- 06 Subterranean Dose
- 07 A Synthetic Eden
- 08 The Doctrine of Dust
- 09 Heroin Horizon
- 10 Twilight Stimulants
- 11 Plastic Highs
- 12 The Last Word Is Never Spoken
- 13 Midnight Injection
- 14 Architects of Tomorrow
- 15 Compass of Night
- 16 Everything Changes in the End
- 17 Whispers Behind the Curtain
- 18 An Agenda Behind the Agenda
- 19 Veilkeepers
- 20 Instructions from the Invisible
The L.A. Film Collective
Retro 1985 Production Music · Sync LicensingCohen's session-band alter ego — a rotating cast of LA studio players assembled for one purpose: recreating the exact sound of a 1985 film score. Where the solo aliases are personal albums, The L.A. Film Collective is built specifically for sync licensing, film, TV, and advertising — lush analog synthesizers, driving electronic drums, and the unmistakable neon atmosphere of the mid-decade.
Engineered to feel pulled directly from a 1985 film score vault. Genre: Synth Cinematic · Era: Authentic 1985 · Use: Film · TV · Ads · Games · Label: dna-productions.
The Filth Foundation
Old-School EBM · Industrial · Body MusicCohen's coldest alias — instrumental electronic body music rooted in the late-80s/early-90s industrial sound of Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, early Ministry, and Skinny Puppy. No vocals: instead, dialogue and sound design lifted from classic films are woven in as melodic and rhythmic leads. Razor sequences, relentless grooves, and pristine production, built for the floor and the machine.
Debut full-length. Driving industrial instrumentals with cinematic film-sample leads — old-school EBM architecture at its most uncompromising.
Fresh instrumental industrial grooves built for the body. The machine evolves — the discipline remains absolute.
The Composer
ProfileLionel Cohen built his ear in New York City. After studying cinema, photography, and fine art in Montreal and Toronto, he moved to Manhattan to study audio engineering and stayed for over sixteen years — playing in industrial and rock bands, scoring his first short films, and starting dna-productions as a small graphic-design studio that designed record sleeves for local artists. It was in that East Village world of tape machines, drum boxes, and DIY studios that his fascination with the analog synthesizer sound of the 1980s really took root.
In 2004, dna-productions became a record label. In 2013, Cohen relocated the whole operation to Los Angeles, settling into a Hollywood studio where it's been based ever since. From there, he's spent over a decade building out an entire roster of 80s-rooted aliases and collaborations — each one a different lens on the decade: cinematic synth and cartoon adventure scores, Hollywood synthpop, future-retro synthwave, and old-school coast-to-coast hip-hop.
Across these projects, Cohen's influences span John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and Harold Faltermeyer — composers who proved synthesizers could carry the full emotional weight of human drama — alongside the SP-1200 boom-bap of golden-era hip-hop and the cold machine pulse of Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. Same decade, eight different doors into it.
Heavy metal and punk bands, then film, photography, and fine-art studies — learning to think like a director first.
Audio engineering, industrial bands, first scores, and the founding of dna-productions as a graphic design studio.
dna-productions becomes a full record label, releasing albums across genres from a New York base.
Relocates dna-productions to Hollywood, where the 80s-rooted roster of aliases takes shape and grows.