Jerome Sydenham

Jerome Sydenham is a Nigerian-born DJ, producer and label founder based in Berlin. Born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, he was schooled in his teens in England before migrating to New York City in the early 1980s.

He moved to New York in 1985 to study at NYU, and it was there that his professional life in music took shape. He embedded himself in the NYC house scene throughout the 1990s, before moving to Berlin in 2007 and pursuing a more techno-focused direction.

As one of the youngest record executives in New York City, Sydenham launched his career in the A&R department for Atlantic Records, moving on to East West Records. He was also label manager at Pallas Records. Disillusioned with major-label culture, he left to set up his own imprint, Ibadan, which he founded in 1995. A turning point in his DJ career came in 1988, when Sydenham secured a residency at Nell's nightclub in New York City, a venue that sat at the heart of the city's house scene throughout that era.

Some of the city's best house artists, including Kerri Chandler, Dennis Ferrer and Joe Claussell, became regulars in the Ibadan discography, while Sydenham's own prodigious work rate, not to mention hits like "Sandcastles" and "Timbuktu" (alongside Ferrer), ensured his own place in the annals of NYC house. "Timbuktu" and "Sandcastles" both won awards, and the techno slammer "Elephant," co-produced with Rune, further cemented his standing.

He is known for establishing a pan-African electro direction within the house and techno genres. The more recent chapter of his story is techno.

After relocating to Berlin around 2007, he found himself increasingly drawn to the sound, formalising his fascination with releases for labels like CLR and Drumcode, and collaborating with Function of Sandwell District. He has made regular appearances at Berlin's Berghain and Panorama Bar. His sound in the DJ booth moves between deep, soulful house and hard-edged, Detroit-influenced techno, and he has been clear about drawing a distinction between that approach and the more generic uses of the tech-house tag.

Today he runs three labels. Ibadan, founded in 1995, was joined by Kraftmatic Records in 2018 and Royal Babylon in 2021. Ibadan celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025. Kraftmatic has become the home for his ongoing Scope series, with Scope 001 in December 2023 drawing in Carl Craig, Fatima Njai and Ron Trent alongside Sydenham's own productions, and Scope003 in May 2024 bringing together Ron Trent, Aybee and Dennis Ferrer. Royal Babylon has taken a harder, more stripped-back direction, with releases like "SOHO1990," described as relentless drums, dark vocal, ghostly percussion and hypnotic swirling synths.

His aliases include Casino J and Downtown Brooklyn Inc, and his group projects span S.A.T. (with Aybee and Ron Trent), Nagano Kitchen, and Jerome Sydenham and Dennis Ferrer, among others.

Recent output also includes a collaboration with Cosmic Soldier on Planet E, placing him in conversation with Carl Craig's long-running Detroit imprint. 2025 also saw him contributing remixes to Ibadan's 30th anniversary release from Da'vae, with vocalist Fatima Njai, a long-standing collaborator, appearing across several of his current projects. His production range covers deep house, tech house and techno, always with Africa in the roots and Berlin in the grain.