Labradford was a trio from Richmond, Virginia, formed in the early 1990s by guitarist and singer Mark Nelson, keyboardist Carter Brown and bassist Robert Donne. Its debut, Prazision, came out in 1993 as the very first release on Kranky, catalogue number one, and helped define the slow, spacious sound that the label would become known for.
The early records leaned towards drone rock, layering guitar effects, sustained keyboard tones and murmured, half-buried vocals; later albums such as E Luxo So (1999) and Fixed::Context (2001) grew more instrumental and chamber-like, close to what critics were then calling post-rock. In 1999 the group also ran a touring concert series of its own, the Festival of Drifting. The band never formally split but has released nothing since 2001; Nelson has continued to record for Kranky as Pan American.