John Carroll Kirby

Based in Los Angeles, John Carroll Kirby since the 2010s has pursued a path at the crossroads of jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and instrumental music with ambient and new age inflections. A pianist, composer and producer trained in jazz in California, notably at the University of Southern California, he first established himself as a studio and live collaborator before releasing his own records. His name appears alongside artists from various worlds, from Solange to Frank Ocean, from Blood Orange to Harry Styles, including Connan Mockasin, Eddie Chacon, Bat for Lashes or Remi Wolf, which highlights the flexibility of his playing and writing. Solo, John Carroll Kirby has built a discography where keyboards, short melodic motifs, soft textures and a marked taste for open instrumental forms prevail: Travel in 2017, Meditations in Music in 2018, Tuscany in 2019, Conflict and My Garden in 2020, then Septet in 2021, Dance Ancestral in 2022 and Blowout in 2023. His music moves between a hushed groove, restrained improvisation, subtle exotica and clear arrangements, with a sense of rhythm that draws on jazz as much as psychedelic music and contemporary pop. John Carroll Kirby also composes for the moving image, notably with the soundtrack for Cryptozoo in 2021.