Bonobo, AKA Simon Green, returns with his new album 'Distance in Static' — evoking fragments of memory and meaning echoed across more than two decades at the forefront of electronic music. The acclaimed British musician, producer and DJ — known for his richly textured, globally influenced sound palette — continues his long-standing tradition of inspired collaborations, featuring Joy Crookes, Ichiko Aoba, Nilüfer Yanya, Arooj Aftab, Nicole Miglis (Hundred Waters) and Aanya Martin.

Lyrics appear in English, Urdu and Japanese, while historic Iranian samples and guzheng recordings sit alongside Green’s own meticulously processed instrumentation, woven together across recording sessions spanning LA, Tokyo, London and beyond with a significant portion of the record completed at Neil Young’s legendary Broken Arrow Ranch in California. It’s a record that represents the culmination of over 25 years as an artist and DJ. A reminder, if ever one was needed, of Bonobo’s enduring influence — newly felt by a generation rediscovering ’90s genres through a contemporary lens. That duality — introspective composer and club-focused selector — sits at the heart of a body of work full of depth, detail and emotion: both beautiful and driving; as ambitious and forward-thinking as ever

TRACK LISTING

1. Dawn
2. Cycles
3. Fire on the Water (feat. Arooj Aftab)
4. Drift
5. Talk to Me (feat. Nicole Miglis)
6. Uncasually
7. Always on Your Side (feat. Joy Crookes)
8. Youth’s Fountain (feat. Nilüfer Yanya)
9. Shokoufeh
10. Can’t You See (feat. Aanya Martin)
11. ID700
12. Me and You
13. Equinoctial (feat. Ichiko Aoba)
14. Mercury (feat. Kanako Yamamoto)

Influenced by the divergent, bass-driven strands of the UK electronic music scene at that time, Green artfully fitted those evolving sounds into his own wider vision. The record’s lasting importance stems from the depth that he found in those combinations, rattling two-step rhythms and heavy pressure sub-bass twinned with carefully crafted songwriting and lush, brightlyrealised instrumentation.

It’s a record that’s both timeless and wonderfully of its time. From ‘Kiara’, which weds cinematic, string-laden composition with chopped up vocals and luminous synth arpeggios, to ‘Eyesdown’, where subterranean swells of bass meet Andreya Triana’s warm, peerless vocals, the album is effortlessly multifaceted. Listening back a decade later, it still sounds just as beguiling, emotive and transportive as it did the first time around.

“Using repurposed material offers sound parity with virgin vinyl, and yet it is currently habitually underutilised despite the efforts of sustainability focussed pressing plants. Ninja Tune is committed to utilising the surplus PVC from pressed vinyl records across its back catalogue - often referred to as ‘eco mix’ - in pursuit of more sustainable vinyl production. The marbled, random multi-coloured effect vinyl can easily support the demand for new and recycled black vinyl. With artists such as Bonobo, Ninja Tune is committed to making eco vinyl the industry standard,” says Sean Preston, Head of Production, Ninja Tune.

In an effort to set a new and more sustainable precedent for catalogues to be repressed on reclaimed vinyl rather than the standard black or other coloured variants, all records in the recycled vinyl campaign have also been manufactured at pressing plants that have shown commitments to sustainability, by participating in the Music Climate Pact and the Vinyl Alliance Sustainable Supplier Programme.

Launched in 2021, the Music Climate Pact united record labels to harness the power of the music industry towards inspiring transformational change on the climate crisis. Signatories to the pact commit to take individual and collective action to measure and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. One of the priority workstreams has focussed upon quantifying opportunities to reduce the impact of vinyl records- launching a sustainable supplier programme with the Vinyl Alliance in 2025.

For fans of Jon Hopkins, Four Tet, Caribou, DJ Koze, Burial, Little Dragon.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Prelude
A2. Kiara
A3. Kong
A4. Eyesdown (feat. Andreya Triana)
B1. El Toro
B2. We Could Forever
B3. 1009
C1. All in Forms
C2. The Keeper (feat. Andreya Triana)
C3. Stay the Same (feat. Andreya Triana)
D1. Animals
D2. Black Sands

“Play me something with the vibe of a man who sold his soul to the devil.” In Lazarus, that’s the cue for Bonobo’s 15-track score to take over–bringing a cool, pulsing energy to Shinichirō Watanabe’s latest anime epic. Blending electronic, trip-hop, and cinematic textures, Bonobo’s music underscores the tense and atmospheric moments of a future where the miracle drug “Hapna” went from salvation to humanity’s doom.

Pressed in a stunning color variant and tailored for collectors, this edition captures Bonobo’s score the way it’s meant to be heard–warm, detailed, and ready to spin for years to come.

Essential listening for Bonobo fans and anyone ready to bring the pulse of Lazarus into their vinyl collection.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of my favourite electronic producers, Bonobo brings us a beautifully glitchy selection of post-club ambient and rippling, atmospheric downbeat. Think North Borders era with a little more acoustic instrumentation and tentative unease. Stunning.

Fragments is the most emotionally intense record that he - aka Simon Green - has ever had to make. It’s no surprise that it’s also his masterpiece. The album features Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Born first out of fragments of ideas and experimentation, the album ultimately was fused together in a burst of creativity fuelled by both collaboration and Green’s escape into the wild.

Fragments is a series of 12 sonic affirmations, featuring some of the hardest and most hip-shaking grooves that Green has ever created. The ballads are perfectly placed throughout; they capture a world in flux and glow with hope. Coaxing the ideas out initially took some hard work. The constantly-touring Green creates best while on the move; the global shutdown forced him to stand still.

Musical themes began to arise through Green’s exploration of modular synthesis, recordings he had made of harpist Lara Somogyi, his work with arranger and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, his own playing of the Fender Rhodes and more, as the album was created, recorded and mixed by Green over the past two years. The album also came into focus as he sought refuge on solo adventures into nature, away from the shutdowns and wild fires and into the blazing California desert.

“Tides,” featuring Chicagoan singer and poet Jamila Woods, acted as a catalyst, and the album began to click into place around it. “I knew I had a centrepiece, I knew how it was all going to sound,” he says. Working with arranger and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, musical themes began to emerge. Recording orchestral musicians in actual studios helped bring the songs “out of the box” even more.

A rhythmic framework started to come together too: the structures of UK bass music and rave began to seep into beats that would become tracks like “Otomo” (eventually co-produced by O’Flynn and featuring a sample of the Bulgarian choir 100 Kaba-Gaidi), and “Sapien.” The ”old school, Detroity, Moodymann and Theo Parrish inspired” “Shadows” was recorded with friend Jordan Rakei. “Rosewood,” “Closer” and “Counterpoint” each start with an ecstatic snap to them, but snake down surprisingly different paths. Somogyi's harp and Atwood-Ferguson's strings mingle together on the beatless “Elysian.” Two ballads flesh out the second half of the record: “Day by Day” featuring Kadhja Bonet and “From You” featuring Joji.

It's about the dancefloor in many ways, about how “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other,” Green reflects. But the positivity isn’t just in the uptempo rhythms: even the most introspective and melancholic pieces have joy in them.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning new LP from Simon Green's Bonobo, fusing the clattering percussion and smooth rolling basses of 2010's 'Black Sands' with the more soulful, smooth sounds of the more recent outings. It's both a perfect artistic statement, and a wonderfully evocative listen, including some of the biggest names in modern soul and electronica. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Polyghost (feat. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson)
2. Shadows (feat. Jordan Rakei)
3. Rosewood
4. Otomo (feat. O’Flynn)
5. Tides (feat. Jamila Woods)
6. Elysian
7. Closer
8. Age Of Phase
9. From You (feat. Joji)
10. Counterpart
11. Sapien
12. Day By Day (feat. Kadhja Bonet)

Simon Green, aka Bonobo returns with his sixth album – the masterful, magisterial “Migration” – is a record which cements his place in the very highest echelons of electronic music and indeed, beyond. By turns lush, manic, beautiful, melancholy, joyful, packed with both emotion and technical skill, this is perhaps his most ambitious attempt yet to capture the very textures of human existence in his work, as Green says of the broad dynamics on the album, "Life has highs, lows, loud and quiet moments, beautiful ones and ugly ones. Music is a reflection of life."

It is a theme with a personal as well as a sociological aspect to it. Last year, a close family member passed away. “My Family and I are all disbanded and spread to far corners of the earth,” explains Green, “In the end we did the funeral in Brighton. My own personal idea of identity, where I am from, and what home is, has played into this record and its migratory themes. Is home where you are or where you are from, when you move around?”

It's tempting to relate Green's emotive aesthetic to his sense of dislocation. He grew up in rural Hampshire with a father heavily involved in the British folk scene. "We would have endless folk jams in the house. There would be random banjo and violin players crashing in the garage for the weekend.” Not that he was necessarily feeling his dad’s taste at the time: “I was a grubby little skater back then, listening to alt-rock, hardcore and hip hop”. But no doubt this phase was an early musical education, indeed Green started learning to play guitar, piano, 4-track tape recorders and effects pedals in this period, building up soundcscapes from an early age. His move to Brighton is also a key influence; his skill at drum programming harks back to his days DJing and producing in the small, musically fertile town. Under the initial guidance of Tru Thoughts' Rob Luis and at nights such as Phonic:hoop where he began to regularly play all-night DJ sets.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Has it really been almost 4 years since Bonobo's last full-length? Yes! yes it has, but the wait has been worth it. This is an altogether more soulful affair, still packed with the sort of downbeat rhythmic mastery you've come to expect but imbued with a melancholic and matured aura that only adds to mr Green's veritable mastery of his craft. A triumph.

TRACK LISTING

1) Migration
2) Break Apart
3) Outlier
4) Grains
5) Second Sun
6) Surface
7) Bambro Koyo Ganda
8) Kerala
9) Ontario
10) No Reason
11) 7th Sevens
12) Figures

Simon Green, aka Bonobo, returns with his third album and the kind of quantum leap in quality that very few artists make. "Days To Come" has the feeling of a classic all over – a big, brooding, emotional and uplifting record that you can dance to, do the dishes to, or sit and really study. Green has always been expert at welding together music dripping with atmosphere, combining his own musical and technical talents in such a way as to make utterly organic-sounding machine music. This is not just a knob-twiddling producer but a multi-instrumentalist at work, who writes, plays and then manipulates almost every note of music he releases. Now with the addition of fantastic soul-jazz singer Bajka on some tracks (label-mate Fink also makes and appearance), Bonobo's music reaches a whole new level. Radio play comes from Zane Lowe, Giles Peterson, Blue Room, Patrick Forge and more.

Second LP from Brighton's Simon Green (ex of Tru Thoughts, now on Ninja Tune), and it's an absolute gem. He ploughs a similar melodic, semi-acoustic furrow to Lemon Jelly, but with more of a jazz edge, and none of the increasingly annoying whimsy that that duo employ in their music. A perfect mellow, gentle sound-of-the-summer LP.