Talk:Jon DeRosa

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Jon DeRosa (born December 21, 1978) is an American musician and singer-songwriter best known for his project Aarktica. He has also been involved with several other critically acclaimed acts, including Dead Leaves Rising, Pale Horse and Rider, and Flare, in addition to releasing music under his own name. DeRosa has also been the vocalist for Black Tape for a Blue Girl since 2020. (2)

His most recent albums as Aarktica are Paeans, released on May 5th, 2023 on Projekt Records and We Will Find the Light released on September 30, 2022 on Darla Records. Both albums were produced by Grammy-nominated producer Lewis Pesacov.(3)

AARKTICA

Started in New York City in 1998, Aarktica is the ambient/atmospheric project of Jon DeRosa. While DeRosa is the sole permanent member, Aarktica has featured a number of musicians and collaborators throughout the project's lifespan. Aarktica is known primarily for using guitars, along with mostly organic instruments like brass, strings, harmoniums and voices on some albums, to create its unique textural sound. (5)

Aarktica's debut album No Solace in Sleep was recorded in 1999 in DeRosa's NYU dorm room on a 4-track cassette recorder shortly after going deaf in his right ear. The accompanying auditory hallucinations and disorientation led DeRosa to start recording experiments with his guitar and various effects in an effort to recreate how he was hearing sound. No Solace in Sleep was largely the result of these experiments and would be released on Silber Records in 2000 (6).

In the difficult years following his hearing loss DeRosa began studying Indian classical vocal music with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. He credits his studies with them (and later, composer and former Young disciple Michael Harrison) as very influential to his sound and would affect all of his musical output from that time forward.(7)

In the 2000's, Aarktica would go on to record albums for Ochre Records (UK), Darla Records and Silber Records.(8) (9) (10). Aarktica's sound would evolve from solo guitar-ambient to a more eclectic style that brought together elements of post-rock, shoegaze, free jazz, and experimental music, often aided by the addition of additional members and collaborators (11).

This evolution in sound grew to an apex on Aarktica's 2005 release Bleeding Light, drawing critical comparisons to bands as disparate as Talk Talk (12), Hood (13), classical Indian raga (13), Slint (14) and even Frank Sinatra's more impressionistic output (15), before a return to form on 2009's In Sea.

After a decade-long hiatus, Aarktica returned in 2019 with the plant medicine-influenced full-length album Mariación (16).

Aarktica's most recent albums are Paeans, released on May 5th, 2023 on Projekt Records and We Will Find the Light released on September 30, 2022 on Darla Records. Both albums were produced by Grammy-nominated producer Lewis Pesacov.(3)

AARKTICA DISCOGRAPHY

Paeans | Projekt Records (2023)

We Will Find the Light | Darla Records (2022)

Eating Rose Petals (with Black Tape for a Blue Girl) | Projekt Records (2020)

Mareación | HanaqPacha Music (2019)

Ceremony EP | Fnord Tapes (Italy) (2016)

In Sea Remixes | Silber Records (2010)

In Sea | Silber Records (2009)

Matchless Years | Darla Records (2007)

Live at KUCI | Silber Records (2006)

Bleeding Light | Darla Records (2005)

Pure Tone Audiometry | Silber Records (2003)

Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway-

The Bliss Out, Vol. 18. | Darla Records (2002)

Morning One EP | Ochre Records (UK) (2001)

No Solace in Sleep | Silber Records (2000)

Jon DeRosa / Solo Artist

DeRosa released his first solo album Anchored in 2011. This more orchestral and vocal-forward sound drew comparisons to Spiritualized, Echo and the Bunnymen, Blue Nile and Scott Walker, and featured cellist Julia Kent, and horn player Jon Natchez. (17). DeRosa has said that a big influence for him in this style was his grandfather Anthony DeRosa, who was a big band singer during WWII. (18) ===

DeRosa followed this with 2012's A Wolf in Preacher's Clothes, after which he would support punk icon Lydia Lunch as an opening act on her 2013 European Tour. (19)

His last solo album Black Halo was released on May 25, 2015, on Rocket Girl Records. (4) The album was produced by longtime collaborator Charles Newman and features a song co-written by Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. (20)

JON DEROSA DISCOGRAPHY

Black Halo | Rocket Girl (2015)

A Wolf In Preacher's Clothes | Mother West / Rocket Girl (2013)

Anchored | Silber Records (2011)

Pale Horse and Rider

Pale Horse and Rider was a short-lived collaboration between DeRosa and Marc Gartman. Their recordings featured a variety of performers in supporting roles, including Alan Sparhawk (Low), Nathan Amundson (Rivulets), Charles Newman (Flare, Mother West), Paul Oldham (Palace Brothers) and Mike Pride.