Photek, the stage name of Rupert Parkes, stands relentlessly on the edge. A sound scientist who, since 1994, has pushed both his own sonic boundaries and the expectations of his fans to the extreme, he has flooded the footnotes of electronica the way MP3s once filled your hard drive.
He was there when Goldie coined the term drum & bass, though to this day he prefers jungle. His album Modus Operandi (released in 1997), including the track “Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu,” helped define the unmistakable “Photek sound”: atmospheric pieces with cool, highly complex beats, sometimes layered with minimalist synthesizer melodies—yet contrasted with the plucked resonance of an upright bass.
Modus Operandi was a conceptual experiment in time and emotional atmosphere, pushing the drum & bass idea to its limits. Its follow-up albums, Form & Function and Solaris, have also achieved cult status.
Parkes has released music under various pseudonyms such as Special Forces and Studio Pressure on his own label PP, as well as Aquarius and Sentinel on Good Looking Records, with numerous EPs and albums. In 2012, another Photek album appeared as part of the DJ-Kicks series.
His remixes for Björk, Everything But The Girl, and Nine Inch Nails are cult classics within the drum & bass scene. He has also produced various film soundtracks.
In 2025, he released a new drum & bass album as a box set—featuring the track “Breath Control.”
Photek, the stage name of Rupert Parkes, stands relentlessly on the edge. A sound scientist who, since 1994, has pushed both his own sonic boundaries and the expectations of his fans to the extreme, he has flooded the footnotes of electronica the way MP3s once filled your hard drive.
He was there when Goldie coined the term drum & bass, though to this day he prefers jungle. His album Modus Operandi (released in 1997), including the track “Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu,” helped define the unmistakable “Photek sound”: atmospheric pieces with cool, highly complex beats, sometimes layered with minimalist synthesizer melodies—yet contrasted with the plucked resonance of an upright bass.
Modus Operandi was a conceptual experiment in time and emotional atmosphere, pushing the drum & bass idea to its limits. Its follow-up albums, Form & Function and Solaris, have also achieved cult status.
Parkes has released music under various pseudonyms such as Special Forces and Studio Pressure on his own label PP, as well as Aquarius and Sentinel on Good Looking Records, with numerous EPs and albums. In 2012, another Photek album appeared as part of the DJ-Kicks series.
His remixes for Björk, Everything But The Girl, and Nine Inch Nails are cult classics within the drum & bass scene. He has also produced various film soundtracks.
In 2025, he released a new drum & bass album as a box set—featuring the track “Breath Control.”