Bonobo

Simon Green's work as Bonobo delivers a wide-ranging yet earthy strain of electronic music equally suited to the dance floor and moments of repose. He first appeared with the gritty, loop-based downtempo set Animal Magic in 2000; since then his writing and scoring have grown markedly more ambitious, folding in live players and drawing from jazz, folk, soul, plus African, Asian, and Middle Eastern traditions. Although Green still performs alone as a DJ, he assembled a full band in 2004 that delivers meticulously arranged renditions of his material to large crowds, among them multiple sold-out headline shows and prime-stage slots at Coachella and Glastonbury. Releases after Black Sands in 2010 have leaned further toward club environments, especially U.K. garage and house. Steady growth in visibility followed, evidenced by Migration in 2017 and Fragments in 2022 both reaching the U.K. album chart's upper five places.

A largely understated presence amid Ibizan dreamers, Green started out in Brighton, England, placing a track on Tru Thoughts Recordings' 1999 compilation When Shapes Join Together. After the Scuba EP and the single "Terrapin" drew overtures from Mute and XL, he remained with Tru Thoughts for the well-regarded debut album Animal Magic (2000). Its blend of downtempo dub, funk, and sitar textures proved immediately popular, prompting measured European live dates. In 2002 the label assembled One Offs: Remixes & B Sides, gathering material from limited pressings plus Bonobo's reworkings of tracks by Amon Tobin and Pilote.

Having joined Coldcut's Ninja Tune roster in 2001, Green spent the next two years shaping his second album, Dial "M" for Monkey, which surfaced in 2003. A supporting tour was later captured on the 2005 EP Live Sessions, including a Four Tet remix of the earlier single "Pick Up." His first mix collection, It Came from the Sea, appeared the same year within Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series. The third studio album, Days to Come, arrived in 2006 and shifted away from electronics toward jazz, spotlighting India-born vocalist Bajka along with a contribution from Ninja Tune's Fink. BBC Radio 1's Gilles Peterson listeners named it Album of the Year, and Bonobo's music began turning up regularly in films, television, advertisements, and games.

A concert DVD, Live at Koko, was issued in 2009, followed by the single "The Keeper," which introduced British soul singer Andreya Triana. Black Sands, the full-length, came out in 2010 and again featured Triana on the singles "Eyesdown" and "Stay the Same," the former built on a U.K. garage rhythm that refreshed Bonobo's palette for the post-dubstep period. Green also produced Triana's debut album, Lost Where I Belong, released by Ninja Tune that year. Black Sands Remixed appeared in 2012, containing reinterpretations by Lapalux, FaltyDL, Machinedrum, and others plus two previously unreleased pieces.

Bonobo's fifth album, The North Borders, arrived in 2013 with R&B singer Erykah Badu among its contributors. It became his strongest commercial showing to that point, entering the U.K. album chart's Top 30 and launching an extensive worldwide tour. Late that year Green compiled a volume for the LateNightTales series, which included his reading of Donovan's "Get Thy Bearings." The North Borders Tour: Live was issued by Ninja Tune in 2014, preserving both sound and visuals of the stage presentation. Two further EPs that year, Flashlight and Ten Tigers, continued his turn toward dance-floor material. The studio album Migration followed in early 2017, featuring Rhye, Nick Murphy (previously Chet Faker), and Moroccan ensemble Innov Gnawa; it climbed to number five on the U.K. chart and received Album of the Year at the first Electronic Music Awards.

Fabric Presents Bonobo, an uptempo mix, surfaced in 2019 to mark the London club's twentieth anniversary. Later the same year the track "Linked" earned a Grammy nomination. In 2020 Bonobo collaborated with English producer, DJ, and singer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs on the singles "Heartbreak" and "6000 ft." Pandemic restrictions gave Green time to compose and record his seventh album, Fragments, released in 2022; it emphasized club textures and included Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, and O'Flynn. Two further club tracks, "ATK" and "Defender," appeared later that year.