User:Patrick Fuhrmann/sandbox

Rookley (born 1991 in Italy) is a US-Italian electronica producer. Most of his productions come from New York, although Rookley did feature in various international collaborations with other musicians from Europe and outlying countries. Amongst other artists, Rookley worked together with artists like Nashira Cole, Ulysses and Zekt. Rookley's identity is unknown, since he deliberately puts all emphasis on his music.

Music career
Rookley began his career as a jazz and funk guitarist in various bands with small success. After finishing at music academy, he moved to New York at the age of 21. Rookley was fascinated by the electronic music movement there and soon began to compose his own pieces on keyboard, synthesizer and analogue audio recordings. His first international hit production was the single "Melatonin" released 2017 through the German indie label Aimend. An electronic music blog described his musical style as "hard to pin down" – wherefore in his creations, the term urban electronica is used as a genre description.

Biography
Rookley started playing music at age 14, studying guitar at the jazz academy. As soon as he moved to New York in 2012, the ubiquitous electronic music scene inspired his fascination for composing digital music on his own. He learned to produce songs on keyboard, along with synthesizers and other techniques of analog recording. On a visit to Berlin in 2016 he met Malte Andrae, founder of the music label Aimend, and together they started to refine his music style.

Street art
Next to his music productions Rookley arranged various street art projects in multiple countries. Following the example of JR and the Bristol-based Banksy, Rookley passes open criticism on problems of our society such as modern consumerism behavior, environmental pollution and justice.

Style
Rookley's music style has a strong influence from the underground culture in Bristol, as well as some parts of the techno movement, especially from Berlin and the UK. Through his relocation from Europe to the US, Rookley developed his own signature downbeat/electronica style, known as "urban electronica". Inspirations in this development were other similar artists such as Boards Of Canada, Four Tet, Jamie XX, Burial and the German band Moderat. Elements from genres like UK Garage, Ambient, Two-Step and Techno play an important role in urban electronica, as much as influences taken from daily city life. The overall feeling resembles sounds from the urban scenery such as industrial machinery, traffic ambiance such as cars and zooming noises and street conversations; interlaced with the artistic account of the emotions and mood evoked by existentialist ideas about the human in this environment.

Discography

 * Singles
 * "Melatonin" (2017)
 * "Mechanic's Alley" (2017)


 * Album
 * Weak Or Absent Signal (EP, 2017)