He managed Tycho and was the music "curator" for that producer's ISO50 blog. Alexander also DJ'd under the Aarnio moniker, and, latterly, was head of A&R at Ghostly International, the label that released his music. Introduced as a young man to ambient music by his mother, he loved the sound but hated the "Pure Moods" clichés often associated with it, and strove to create his own vision of the genre that avoided them. In 2004, while residing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he founded the eclectic electronica netlabel Moodgadget alongside his friend Adam E. Hunt, with the aim of "exposing the diversity in electronically made music." Many of the label's alumni later went on to release albums on Ghostly.

After years of daily DJ mix podcasts on ISO50 as Aarnio, Alexander's own music was released for the first time in 2011, and the hard-to-find EP compilation, Polite Isle, was issued under his real name through the digital subscription-only Ghostly Music Service. Then, in December 2012, the Ghostly label proper put out his debut album, Loyal, under the Heathered Pearls moniker. Created to help him deal with his own anxiety and heavily inspired by his favorite experience -- sitting by the ocean at night -- the hypnotic, soothing, melodic, loop-based ambient record dropped on vinyl and digital only. The digital-only Loyal Reworks, released in September 2013, compiled remixes from the likes of Terrence Dixon, Loscil, and Throwing Snow. A typically emotive, downtempo techno contribution from Lawrence pointed toward the sound of Body Complex, the second Heathered Pearls album, released in August 2015. It featured collaborations with labelmates the Sight Below, Shigeto, and Outerbridge. ~ John D. Buchanan & Andy Kellman