Aarktica is the ambient/atmospheric project of Jon DeRosa, who has released a diverse catalog of music under this name since 1998. While DeRosa is the sole permanent member, Aarktica has featured a number of musicians and collaborators throughout the project’s lifespan. Aarktica is known for using guitars – along with mostly organic instruments like brass, strings, harmoniums, and voices on some albums – to create its unique textural sound.
Jon Pareles, NY Times: “Aarktica's songs are extended reveries, built on loops of guitars and drums and occasional voices. The musical elements hover and circle, float by or bristle with distortion as the songs drift through serenity and trouble.”
As the origin story goes, after going deaf in his right ear, DeRosa began recording audio experiments as a way to interpret sound as he now experienced it. These early audio endeavors, recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder, developed into what would become the first Aarktica album “No Solace In Sleep” (Silber Records, 1999).
It was also around this time that DeRosa began studying with minimalist pioneer La Monte Young. These studies would greatly influence all of DeRosa’s music in the years to follow.
Aarktica’s sonically diverse audio explorations span decades, straddling the lines of shoegaze and ambient, jazz and drone, electro-pop and post-rock. Aarktica's 2022 album "We Will Find The Light" is now out on Darla Records. Their latest "Paeans" is available now on Projekt Records.