James Cook is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer based in Berlin. Originally from London, Cook is a musical wonder, whose talent shines through the whole embodiment of his work. With a musical career spanning over three decades, Cook is a prolific artist forming part of the Indie-Electro band NEMO between 1999-2009 (albums 2004, 2006, 2008), then his collaborative chamber music project Dollhouse (with Strings) 2010 and then onwards taking his solo career in a new and exciting direction with albums between 2012-2024. Having been working on his fifth solo album “Inside Out” due for release later in 2024, with the first single, “Atlas Cloud” released in the Summer, Cook‘s career has gone from strength to strength, whilst expanding his creative horizons.
A hardworking artist, Cook has toured the UK, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, USA, Argentina, and Uruguay, attracting a legion of fans on a local and global scale. A majestic live performer, Cook has caught the eye of many including the new wave legend Lene Lovich, who was so impressed she invited him to support her this year. Other support slots this year will also include Sebastian Lee Philipp who is best known for his avant-garde project “Die Wilde Jagd”.
As an artist, Cook is the real deal, a powerhouse of vision, finesse and individualism whose passion and enthusiasm seeps through every dynamic and pensive pore. Cinematic, diverse and contemporary, Cook is a master of audio adventures, time-travelling through the parallel universes of fact, fiction and fantasy. He’s a troubadour, a poet, a collage of cabaret, vaudeville and celestial steampunk pieced together to form the cultural soundscape of new wave romanticism. Through his pristine vocals and theatrical demeanour, Cook delivers with an effortless cool, an introspective showmanship that dances with the musical deities and masked alter-egos of the subconscious underworld. Think Kraftwerk, Bowie, The Velvet Underground, meets Interpol, Marc Almond, Divine Comedy, Maximo Park, Nick Cave and Richard Hawley spinning in a vortex of melodramatics and side walking in noir suspense, then you get an idea of where Cook’s ancestral alliance and lineage originates from.
What’s great about Cook is his continuous surge of creativity that explodes, elevates and dissipates across a multitude of genres and sub-genres. Like many of the greats, Cook commands his audiences with a playful confidence, that ignites the embers of nostalgia ,whilst rising from the ashes of Art Rock. He is a class act, with a vivid imagination that ebbs and flows from the seabed of synth-pop, whilst drifting towards the shores of Baroque-rock. Listening to Cook, you hear the ripples of those seismic shifts, that echo in a cavern of chamber-pop and vibrate on the currents of Krautrock.
A true professional, Cook is a meticulous and polished performer who leaves no musical stone unturned, navigating between the nocturnal realms of darkwave, whilst levitating on the sonic stars of ethereal-pop. An accomplished songwriter, with a quirky sense of humour, Cook is a purveyor of sentiment, societal observations and dark romanticism. Opulent and progressive, Cook’s songs are a colourful mix of classically crafted compositions and contemporary innovation. His oeuvre of delights are as melancholic as the moon and as inflamed as the sun, which places Cook centre stage as a bona-fide artist. Not often do you come across an artist whose multi-faceted incarnations are all equally impressive, and whose songs stand tall in supremacy and blend impeccably into a collective consciousness of post-punk.