Ready to embark on a journey? This show is for you. Five years since his last visit, Grammy award winning musician, DJ and producer Simon Green, better known as Bonobo, is set to make his Fuji Rock return this July. 

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Coachella

Where one might listen to Bonobo can drastically vary. Whether in a nightclub, a cafe or a moving train, I can assure you that wherever you are in the world, you could find a Bonobo track to fit. His is the music of nowhere and everywhere at once. 

Migration, his sixth album, explores a world in which we are in constant movement, one where we are untethered to a time or place. The track Bambro Koyo Ganda features vocal and percussion from New York based Moroccan sextet, Innov Gnawa. With place specific song-titles such as Kerala and Ontario, we may find ourselves asking the questions: Where have we been? Where are we going? And what do we take with us on this journey? Listening to the album at length is akin to crossing borders and searching for home within an intricate landscape of cultures and sounds. 

Green has a masterful and limitless approach to genre, unifying the worlds of electronica, house and jazz, and is known for his artist collaborations alongside a fierce intermingling of textures. For Bonobo, the surrounding environment plays just as much of a crucial role as another instrument. “That whole period where I wasn’t living anywhere, I just started recording things all around me: on the streets in New Orleans, or Hong Kong, anywhere that had an interesting sound”, he explains. 

Fragments, his newest release, opens with Polyghost (ft. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson), a delicate tune with sublime string arrangements to match. As we progress through the album, in true Bonobo fashion, we are up on our feet, finding ourselves dancing to the beats of Age of Phase.

You can catch Bonobo’s multilayered world of music at the White Stage on Friday, July 29, 2022.  Prepare to escape the world and connect to it. It’s time to travel by way of sound, to dance, and to wander through musical landscapes we have yet to imagine.

Text by Mishu