Morning One Release Day
12 September, 2023
Morning One is now available via Projekt Records Bandcamp as a "name-your-price" download exclusive.
Considered to be the “missing link” in the catalog, Morning One was released shortly after Aarktica’s debut No Solace in Sleep (2000) and marks a transition from pure guitar ambient to the atmospheric drone pop hybrid sound that has since become the project’s trademark.
Originally released in a limited CD edition of 500 and never before available digitally. Now, thanks to Projekt Records, it is available once again, in a remastered and expanded version, with additional tracks from that era.
Get it first here on Projekt Records Bandcamp to support Aarktica before the wider release on all digital platforms this coming Friday.
Gymnopédie No. 1
26 June, 2023
Aarktica's dream ambient version of the classic Satie composition "Gymnopédie No. 1" is available now on all digital streaming services.
You can also download direct via Aarktica's Bandcamp
From Tome to the Weather Machine:
An absolute tonal drift of a song that retains the melody and structure of the beloved song, while allowing the mind to drift in and out of the familiar refrain. For many people Satie is a gateway to music that really makes us feel something - a way of balancing multiple emotions at once. Lovely work.
Special thanks to Lewis Pesacov for the production and Ang Wilson for the beautiful cover photo.
Aarktica “Sky Family” Official Music Video
3 May, 2023
Aarktica has just released the video for "Sky Family," from the new album Paeans. Directed by video artist Brian Griffith.
Watch "Sky Family" here.
Paeans out now on Projekt Records
5 May, 2023
Aarktica's latest album Paeans has been released on Projekt Records.
This is Aarktica's first album for Projekt, and the first entirely instrumental Aarktica album since 1999's No Solace in Sleep. It features the cello and viola playing of Henrik Meierkord, who also appeared on Aarktica's 2022 album We Will Find the Light.
Paeans is "an album of hushed, glacially-paced guitar atmospheres, crystalline textures and vocal-less, hymnal meditations complemented by soaring strings. It’s 43 minutes of ambient guitar washes and celestial sweeping tapestries, both achingly visceral and softly stirring."
Available now on all digital platforms and at Projekt Records Bandcamp.
We Will Find the Light Available Now
30 September, 2022
Today is the day. We Will Find the Light is now available worldwide via Darla Records and to stream on all platforms.
My deepest thanks to all involved, to all who have supported this album, and especially to all who have been involved through the years. Your support means the world to me. Thank you.
We Will Find the Light
+ First Single
12 August, 2022
We Will Find the Light, Aarktica's 9th full-length album, will be released on September 30th, 2022. It is now available for pre-order on limited 2xLP or CD directly through Darla Records
The first single for the album "Can't Say I've Missed You" is now available on all digital streaming platforms.
We Can Wear the Light
11 August, 2022
New Aarktica shirts available now! These designs feature art from the upcoming album We Will Find the Light. Four designs available, in many different colors and sizes S - XXXL.
Available exclusively at Darla Records
photo by Jasper Coolidge
Aarktica to release new album on Darla Records
25 June, 2022
Via Darla Records:
“Darla Records is pleased to announce that we are once again working with Jon DeRosa and will release the new Aarktica record We Will Find the Light in late 2022.
We Will Find the Light is a balance of both dark pop vocal tracks and ambient tracks. It's very dark, also healing. Aarktica explores trauma, loss and ultimately healing and redemption. Think Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Ingram Marshall, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil.
This will be the first physical Aarktica release since 2009's In Sea and the first full-length since 2019's Mareación. We Will Find the Light follows Aarktica's three full lengths on Darla: Matchless Years (2007), Bleeding Light (2005), ...Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway: Bliss Out Vol. 18 (2002) and two of our all-time favorite ambient albums No Solace in Sleep and Pure Tone Audiometry (Silber).
Jon DeRosa and Sam Rosenthal podcast interview
10 Jan, 2022
Dreams of Consciousness Podcast Episode #209 features an interview with Sam Rosenthal and Jon DeRosa about their musical collaborations and Jon's recent involvement as vocalist in Black Tape for a Blue Girl.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Black Tape for a Blue Girl: The Cleft Serpent now available
1 Oct, 2021
THE CLEFT SERPENT and the companion INSTRUMENTAL & ALTERNATE MIXES album. CD in 4-panel digipak with 12-page booklet. Second CD in 4-panel digipak, limited edition of 500. And digitally wherever music is streamed...
Purchase via Bandcamp
Purchase via Projekt Records
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
Black Tape for a Blue Girl: The Cleft Serpent
5 Jul, 2021
Some wonderful news we've been keeping under our hat for a while... Jon has joined Black Tape for a Blue Girl as lead vocalist for their new album "The Cleft Serpent." It is a beautiful collection of songs, dark and lush, full of transcendent strings and wonderful melodies.
The album is entirely recorded and set for a Fall release on Projekt Records. If you would like to contribute to the Kickstarter to secure a (very limited) vinyl copy or simply to support the release, the link is here. There are some really fabulous incentives that Sam (Black Tape) is offering.
High & Lonely David Sisko Remix
12 Mar, 2021
This song is one that is very special to me. The original appeared on my album Black Halo in 2015. Given new life here by the fantastic David Sisko. Ethereal, deep... and grooving. Featuring the exquisite backing vocals of Carina Round (Puscifer).
Now available on Spotify, Apple Music and all digital platforms. Or download direct for free (or name-your-price) at jonderosa.bandcamp.com
Eating Rose Petals
24 Nov, 2020
Eating Rose Petals marks the first collaboration between synthesist Sam Rosenthal (aka Black Tape for a Blue Girl) and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jon DeRosa (aka Aarktica), merging their respective darkwave, dreamwave, ethereal styles into a floating cosmic requiem for deep reflection and introspective journeying. Veterans in their genres, they’ve created music for a combined 65 years. While this 38-minute release may be their first musical collaboration, Sam and Jon’s relationship began nearly 30 years ago when Jon’s earliest musical projects — the dark folk-oriented Fade and Dead Leaves Rising — opened for Projekt bands making their first East Coast appearances.
Now, in a new time and place, they reconnect to create a tender and melancholically uplifting opus.
Available for download (name your price) at aarktica.bandcamp.com. Available on all digital streaming platforms December 4th.
Blossoming
10 Dec, 2019
Blossoming is the third video from Aarktica's 8th studio album Mareación.
Music by Aarktica
Visuals and direction by Brian Griffith
Dusted Magazine: Listed
26 Sept, 2019
Dusted Magazine recently featured a list of influences that helped guide Jon DeRosa (Aarktica) creatively over the years.
Video Release: Golden City
19 Sept, 2019
"Golden City (All Is Love)" is the second video from Aarktica's 8th studio album Mareación. Guest vocals by Nicole LaLiberte.
Music & Lyrics by Jon DeRosa.
Visuals and direction by Brian Griffith of Electric Sound Bath
Mareación Review: Dusted Magazine
19 Sept, 2019
Aarktica featured in Dusted Magazine.
"Anyone who’s ever appreciated the way good ambient and/or drone music can feel like a state of altered consciousness is basically going down the same path as DeRosa."
Mareación Record Release
23 Aug, 2019
Mareación is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and all digital platforms. Support the artist and download directly here
Video Release: Her Divine Light
12 Aug, 2019
The first video (of three) from Aarktica's soon-to-be-released album Mareación. Jon DeRosa (Aarktica) says:
I wrote and recorded this song in one afternoon a couple of years ago after returning from medicine work in Peru. Just as the icaros sometimes come fluidly in a ceremony, this composition came without effort or struggle. What it felt like to me then, and now, was the gentle, nurturing and loving spirit of Ayahuasca manifesting in musical form. This song has been my post-ceremony listening (on repeat) for the past year or so. I hope it will be yours now too...
Visuals and direction by the incredible Brian Griffith.
Mareación
25 July, 2019
Aarktica's 8th full-length studio album Mareación will be released 8/23/19 on HanaqPacha Music. It is the first full-length release in ten years from Aarktica (aka Jon DeRosa), following up 2009's In Sea and its companion release In Sea remixes.
“The word ‘mareación’ refers to an energy in shamanic ceremony where the spirit of the plant medicine arrives at its most intense, its most majestic, and in this all-encompassing state of its energetic presence, a profound level of healing becomes possible," says DeRosa.
The album features guest vocals by Nicole Laliberte (Twin Peaks). The release of Mareación will be accompanied by a video trilogy of tracks from the album by video artist and fellow ambient musician Brian Griffith (Electric Sound Bath). The first video for the track “Her Divine Light” will coincide with the album release.