Billy Denk

Billy Denk is an ambient and electronic composer, guitarist, and synthesist. 

In 2019, after several years performing and recording as a jazz guitarist, Billy made a radical creative shift in his recording career and began exploring his longtime passion for minimalist ambient music. Engaging his talents as a composer and synthesist, he launched a prolific series of recordings, starting with the auspiciously titled Positive Space and Starbound, whose focal single “Solar Wind” has been a top streamer as well as a featured track on Journeyscapes, a popular ambient radio show. Over the next three years, creating a powerful blend of moods via a fusion of ambient guitar, synth, and electro-acoustic and organic sounds, using a combination of the Ableton Live digital audio workstation and a variety of synthesizers and effects pedals, Billy has released a total of five well-received recordings – Soul Immersion (2019), Connection (2020), Introverse (2021), Blue Lotus Dream (2021) and Night Songs (2022).

The artist’s latest collection, the provocatively titled In Praise of Shadows, is inspired by and named after an essay on Japanese aesthetics by author and novelist Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, first published in 1933 and in English in 1977. In the 16 section essay, comparisons of light with darkness are used to contrast Western and Asian cultures. From “The Sun Was Shining” to “Unto This Light” and “Reflections in Darkness,” the eight tracks capture Billy’s various impressions of the theme.