Released on 14 August via Ninja Tune, ‘Expander’ cuts a slice of unmistakable Bonobo, deftly weaving organic vocals and instrumentation with peak-time dance-floor sensibilities that set it up to become one of the songs of the summer. Following his recent roadblock set on Glastonbury’s LEVELS stage, numerous clips of the unreleased track begin circulating online, with fans clamouring for an ID.
The track is already a staple at his legendary OUTLIER sets, an event series curated by Bonobo which shows his continued influence as a DJ and also the reverence a new generation of artists hold for his own releases. Joining him on DJ line ups over the last year have included Barry Can’t Swim, DJ Koze, Sofia Kourtesis, salute, Kelly Lee Owens, Mall Grab, DJ Tennis, Dixon, TSHA, SG Lewis, Young Marco, Kerri Chandler, Carlita, Elkka, HAAi, John Talabot, Paula Tape amongst others. The 15,000 capacity event at Drumsheds in London was the fastest selling event of the season. Bonobo also recently played ‘Expander’ when going b2b with Disclosure at their Friends & Family pop-up in LA.
Periods between album releases (of which he has north of 900,000 total sales to date) can be quieter for many artists, but not for Bonobo. He has recently announced a huge OUTLIER curated show at Colorado’s infamous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which features supporting slots from label mates Barry Can’t Swim and Sofia Kourtesis, as well as Vancouver-based electronic artist Yu Su. He also returns to Amsterdam for an OUTLIER takeover of this year’s DGTL @ ADE, with a huge lineup that includes TSHA, DJ Tennis, Jennifer Loveless, John Talabot, Josey Rebelle and many more, and will play the opening night of this year’s Warehouse Project in Manchester as a co-headline with Jungle joined by the likes of Honey Dijon and Major League DJz. See below for full global touring dates.
‘Expander’ sees Bonobo continue his stellar run of heavier, club-inspired tracks released in between albums. Following, as it does, his 2022 singles ‘Defender’ and ‘ATK’, the subsequent single ‘Fold’ – a collaboration with Jacques Greene – and 2020’s anthemic NYC disco-inspired ‘Heartbreak’ 12’ with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
About Bonobo:
Since the release of his 2023 album Fragments, Bonobo, AKA Simon Green, also surprise released three dancefloor singles on his OUTLIER imprint with Ninja Tune in ‘Defender’, ‘ATK’ and ‘Fold’ which was alongside Jacques Greene and also curated multiple global OUTLIER DJ events. The collective spirit that Bonobo has created with OUTLIER shows his continued influence as a DJ and also the reverence a new generation of artists hold for his own releases. DJ line ups over the last year have included Barry Can’t Swim, DJ Koze, Sofia Kourtesis, salute, Kelly Lee Owens, Mall Grab, DJ Tennis, Dixon, TSHA, SG Lewis, Young Marco, Kerri Chandler, Carlita, Elkka, HAAi, John Talabot, Paula Tape amongst others. The 15,000 capacity event at Drumsheds in London was the fastest selling event of the season.. Bonobo also went b2b with Disclosure at their inaugural Friends & Family pop-up in LA.
The Fragments album live band tour was seen by an audience of over 750,000 across four continents between headline shows and festival appearances such as Glastonbury, Sonar and Fuji Rock. Bonobo also co-headlined Field Day alongside Aphex Twin in London in 2023 as well as topping two separate Printworks sets. To celebrate the one year anniversary of Bonobo’s 5-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall, an official film of the performance, which has over 1.4 million views so far, was released. The residency at the Royal Albert Hall became the longest continuous run of performances for a solo musician, and the longest run ever for an electronic artist. The last night of the residency included a viral moment with the organist Anna Lapwood during “Otomo” which has over 6.5M views on TikTok alone. Another huge moment in 2024 was his hyped b2b set with Barry Can’t Swim at Coachella and a total stage shutdown of LEVELS at Glastonbury where a consistent 2000 people were queuing just to get in.
Bonobo now shares the record for the most nominations, Seven, in the Dance/Electronic Recording category at the GRAMMY’s with The Chemical Brothers and Madonna. Fragments was also nominated for his first BRITs Award for Best Dance Act in 2023. Fragments hit #3 on Billboard’s Top Dance / Electronic Albums chart and #5 on the Official UK Albums Chart amongst other worldwide chart entries, follow up on his previous album ‘Migration’ also hitting the UK Top 5. He performed Fragments album highlights on his debut NPR Tiny Desk and additional coverage came from Pitchfork, SPIN, Zane Lowe, The FADER, Billboard, and print magazine cover stories with DJ Mag and Electronic Musician. The album led NPR Music to rave, “the grooves cut so deep…it has so much life in it, it makes you want to move.” The Observer deemed it a “brilliant, wondrous work,” giving it 5 out of 5 stars.
Over his career Bonobo has worked with a wide range of artists including Erykah Badu and Jon Hopkins, as well as remixing Gorillaz and Michael Kiwanuka, with his catalogue accumulating over 2.7 billion plays on streaming services and selling north of 900,000 albums. In early 2024 Bonobo also spent a week in Mexico making music with Damon Albarn and his Africa Express project which also included Ezra Collective and worked on the score for Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichirō Watanabe’s forthcoming series, Lazarus (TBC 2024 release).
Bonobo Upcoming Tour Dates:
Sat 24 Aug – Rainbow Disco Club – Yangyang-gun, Seoul, KR
Sun 01 Sep – Fingers CRSSD x Soap Factory – San Diego, CA, US
Fri 13 Sep – Outlier @ Circolo Magnolia – Milan, Lombardy, IT
Sat 14 Sep – Repercussion @ WHP, Depot Mayfield – Manchester, UK
Sat 21 Sep – Boiler Room @ El Pueblo Historical Monument – Los Angeles, CA, US
Wed 25 Sep – Outlier @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO, US
Sat 05 Oct – FORM Festival – Arcosanti, AZ, US
Fri 11 Oct – *CORE STAGE* Tomorrowland Brazil – São Paulo, BR
Fri 18 Oct – Outlier @ ADE – DGTL, NDSM – Amsterdam, NL
Sat 19 Oct – Outlier @ The Prospect Building – Bristol, UK
Tue 22 Oct – Avkárium Klub – Budapest, HU
Fri 25 Oct – Outlier @ Poolen – Copenhagen, DK
Sat 26 Oct – Outlier @ Fållan – Stockholm, SE
Thu 31 Oct – Foundation @ Vancouver Convention Center – Vancouver, BC, CA
Sat 02 Nov – Palace Theatre – Calgary, AB, CA
Follow Bonobo:
Spotify – Apple Music – Amazon Music – YouTube – Bandcamp – Soundcloud – Instagram – TikTok – Facebook – X
