Olugbenga Adelekan
Born in Lagos to a Kenyan mother and Nigerian father, OLUGBENGA now resides by the sea in Brighton. His childhood was split between Nigeria and the Netherlands, before moving to the UK where he studied at King's College, Cambridge. These cultures and experiences are a never-ending inspiration for OLUGBENGA and feed his unique ‘epic & blues’ sound.
He has travelled the world working as a bass player and vocalist, lending his talents to groups such as Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, Paloma Faith and La Roux. He is best known for his long-standing association with Metronomy, but OLUGBENGA has also lent his talents as a remixer to the likes of Laura Marling, Janelle Monae, Mew, Alt-J, Depeche Mode and the Scissor Sisters.
September 2016 saw the release of Solange Knowles’ A Seat At The Table, an album OLUGBENGA had been flown out to New Orleans to write music for. His track Don’t You Wait (co-produced by Sampha, Kwes and Adam Bainbridge) garnered positive comments from fans and reviewers alike and the album flew to #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 off the back of 36 million streams in a single week.
OLUGBENGA’s DJ skills have taken him to events and festivals across the UK and worldwide, performing in the USA, Australia, Japan, Russia, Italy, Norway and more. His undoubted ability to work a crowd also caught the attention of the Red Bull Music Academy, who recorded a live session with him at the Rockness Festival in Scotland. He has also scored a much-coveted Boiler Room session and had DJ mixes featured on such prestigious sites as Dummy, i-D, Okayafrica, Clashmusic, XLR8R and many more.
OLUGBENGA’s debut EP Hafiza [INNOCENCE] was released on Pictures Music in May 2013. It saw him creating singular, highly personal electronic music with commercial sensibilities. Support came on BBC 6Music from Lauren Laverne and a selection of BBC Radio 1 presenters including Rob Da Bank and Huw Stephens. The Fader, Noisey, Mixmag and UK newspapers The Metro and Independent have also gotten behind OLUGBENGA’s productions.
The Silver Pixie EP followed and saw OLUGBENGA selected for Diesel’s Studio Africa project and join with Vice Media to produce a video for lead track Silver Pixie, Iyawo Mi in Lagos.
Eku Fantasy is OLUGBENGA’s most recent project. It is a collaboration with South Africa-based producer Jumping Back Slash with whom he makes sleek, sci-fi influenced electronic pop. What was meant to just be a one-song collaboration blossomed into a full-blown group with Ableton sessions going back and forth over the internet and feverish Whatsapp conversations about Kate Bush and Ghost In The Shell. In January, OLUGBENGA travelled to Knysna in South Africa to meet JBS for the first time and work on music.
Debut EP EF1 was released in April 2018 with BBC Introducing declaring, “Totally in love with Eku Fantasy, just want to listen to [them] on repeat forever.” October 2018 saw the release of the song January Is The Cruelest Month as part of Greenpeace’s #ProtectAntarctic campaign. A remix single followed in November 2018 featuring a re-work by South African titan Aero Manyelo and another by Eku Fantasy themselves. After a break for OLUGBENGA to return to Metronomy duties, more Eku Fantasy music is due in Autumn 2020.
Born in Lagos to a Kenyan mother and Nigerian father, OLUGBENGA now resides by the sea in Brighton. His childhood was split between Nigeria and the Netherlands, before moving to the UK where he studied at King's College, Cambridge. These cultures and experiences are a never-ending inspiration for OLUGBENGA and feed his unique ‘epic & blues’ sound.
He has travelled the world working as a bass player and vocalist, lending his talents to groups such as Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, Paloma Faith and La Roux. He is best known for his long-standing association with Metronomy, but OLUGBENGA has also lent his talents as a remixer to the likes of Laura Marling, Janelle Monae, Mew, Alt-J, Depeche Mode and the Scissor Sisters.
September 2016 saw the release of Solange Knowles’ A Seat At The Table, an album OLUGBENGA had been flown out to New Orleans to write music for. His track Don’t You Wait (co-produced by Sampha, Kwes and Adam Bainbridge) garnered positive comments from fans and reviewers alike and the album flew to #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 off the back of 36 million streams in a single week.
OLUGBENGA’s DJ skills have taken him to events and festivals across the UK and worldwide, performing in the USA, Australia, Japan, Russia, Italy, Norway and more. His undoubted ability to work a crowd also caught the attention of the Red Bull Music Academy, who recorded a live session with him at the Rockness Festival in Scotland. He has also scored a much-coveted Boiler Room session and had DJ mixes featured on such prestigious sites as Dummy, i-D, Okayafrica, Clashmusic, XLR8R and many more.
OLUGBENGA’s debut EP Hafiza [INNOCENCE] was released on Pictures Music in May 2013. It saw him creating singular, highly personal electronic music with commercial sensibilities. Support came on BBC 6Music from Lauren Laverne and a selection of BBC Radio 1 presenters including Rob Da Bank and Huw Stephens. The Fader, Noisey, Mixmag and UK newspapers The Metro and Independent have also gotten behind OLUGBENGA’s productions.
The Silver Pixie EP followed and saw OLUGBENGA selected for Diesel’s Studio Africa project and join with Vice Media to produce a video for lead track Silver Pixie, Iyawo Mi in Lagos.
Eku Fantasy is OLUGBENGA’s most recent project. It is a collaboration with South Africa-based producer Jumping Back Slash with whom he makes sleek, sci-fi influenced electronic pop. What was meant to just be a one-song collaboration blossomed into a full-blown group with Ableton sessions going back and forth over the internet and feverish Whatsapp conversations about Kate Bush and Ghost In The Shell. In January, OLUGBENGA travelled to Knysna in South Africa to meet JBS for the first time and work on music.
Debut EP EF1 was released in April 2018 with BBC Introducing declaring, “Totally in love with Eku Fantasy, just want to listen to [them] on repeat forever.” October 2018 saw the release of the song January Is The Cruelest Month as part of Greenpeace’s #ProtectAntarctic campaign. A remix single followed in November 2018 featuring a re-work by South African titan Aero Manyelo and another by Eku Fantasy themselves. After a break for OLUGBENGA to return to Metronomy duties, more Eku Fantasy music is due in Autumn 2020.
Recordings by this composer
Recordings
