Elderbrook

The alter ego of English electronic producer Alexander Kotz, Elderbrook delivers upbeat synth-forward dance music like his 2017 hit collaboration with CamelPhat, “Cola.”
The London-bred Kotz played in an indie rock band while he was a teenager, pulling double duty as guitarist and singer/songwriter. Later, he dabbled in hip-hop before finally finding his niche as an electronic musician while studying in Bath, England. Combining a little of Alt-J’s weirdness and Disclosure’s groove-hook savvy, he extracted sounds from everyday life (ice cracking, voices, falling objects) and distorted them into the vacuum of his song space, creating a zero-gravity atmosphere cut with deep beats.
Elderbrook scored an underground hit in 2015 with the Andhim remix of “How Many Times” from his first EP, Simmer Down, which was released on Rudimental’s Black Butter Records. His second EP, Travel Slow, was issued in August 2015. He followed with the singles “Closer” and “Sorry” in 2016, while also producing an official remix for Clean Bandit’s hit “Rockabye.” A handful of singles arrived in 2017 (later compiled on the Talking EP), but it was his collaboration with CamelPhat, “Cola,” that became a moderate hit, topping the U.S. club and dance charts while also landing on lists across Europe and Australia. Elderbrook followed the success of “Cola” with his single “Sleepwalking” in 2018. Over the next year, he released a handful of singles, including a collaboration with Rudimental on “Something About You.” He also started work on his debut album, with the first fruits appearing at the beginning of 2020 with the release of “Numb.” The track “My House” followed, before the album, Why Do We Shake in the Cold? dropped toward the end of 2020. ~ Neil Z. Yeung