Meet the 2024 Judges: Jordan Rakei
Welcoming Jordan Rakei to the 2024 Music Photography Awards judging panel!
Meet the 2024 Judges: Jordan Rakei
Welcoming Jordan Rakei to the 2024 Music Photography Awards judging panel!
New Zealand-born, Australia-raised, Jordan Rakei has just released his fifth studio album, The Loop.
The album is his first on Decca (and Verve Forecast in the US) and marks a new career chapter for the GRAMMY nominated Rakei that coincides with a number of profound changes in his personal life. Along with his typically bold production style, come spectacular orchestral arrangements and haunting choirs, hypnotic beats and an Odyssean-style narrative that charts a course through times of darkness and hope.
Self-produced and mixed by Ben Baptie, Rakei has stepped away from the DIY sound he was once known for (and still loves). He grew up listening to artists such as Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield and D’Angelo and having returned to immersing himself with their music recently, he knew he didn’t want this new album to sound like it was made in a bedroom. Inspired by a Bill Withers documentary in which his hero ignored the contempt of his peers and dared to reach higher, Rakei set about assembling a crack team of musicians to fulfill his own crystal clear ambitions for this album.
After making waves in the soul, jazz and electronic scenes on his arrival in London from Australia in 2015, Jordan self-released his debut Cloak a year later, before signing to influential indie label Ninja Tune ahead of his second album Wallflower (2017). Jordan went on to release his third and fourth albums Origin and What We Call Life in 2019 and 2021 respectively. He has recorded live sessions for COLORS, NPR’s Tiny Desk and BBC 6 Music, sold out Brixton Academy, amassed over one billion streams across his catalog, and, crucially, continued to showcase his versatility as an artist capable of blending subtle electronic elements with his signature, soulful sound.
Jordan heads out on a headline tour in the Autumn, culminating in two shows at the Royal Albert Hall in October and he recently performed at the BBC 6 Music Festival in Manchester, alongside The Smile, Young Fathers and many more.