Back in the early 1980s, young Kirk Degiorgio was DJing in youth clubs, collecting disco, soul, funk, jazz funk, electro and hip hop records, and he enthusiastically embraced the emergent Detroit techno sound in the middle of the decade. The UK DJ, producer, composer and label boss (A.R.T. Records and Op-Art Records) has carried these influences with him ever since, releasing music on some of electronic music’s most well-respected labels, recording under names including As One, Offworld, Blue Binary, Elegy, Korrupt Data and Esoterik.
Degiorgio’s been responsible for a series of classic releases over the years, and while Detroit techno has often been an inspiration, he’s never really been a copyist. Rather, he’s drawn on all his musical loves and influences to create a rich, sophisticated and influential back catalogue that blurs and sometimes transcends the boundaries between techno and jazz, and which also includes finely crafted jazz funk, ambient, deep house, broken beat, spiritual jazz, library music, neoclassical, fusion, electro, and synth-funk, along with a pair of albums as one half of soul/pop band The Beauty Room.
Three decades in, Degiorgio continues to forge ahead with his distinctive musical journey, expanding his high-quality discography of distinctive electronic genre-fusions. In summer 2023 he had to retire from DJing and live shows due to post-Covid health issues, but his studio and composition work shows no sign of similar curtailment. Thankfully, the five albums Degiorgio’s released in the 18 months since he announced his live retirement continue to demonstrate the quality, attention to detail and sheer range — from contemporary, spiritual and modal jazz, to ambient, jazz-funk, techno and more — that have characterised his previous work.