Jon DeRosa (b. 21 December, 1978) is a guitarist, composer and singer/songwriter currently residing in Los Angeles. Raised in the small shore town of Manasquan, NJ, DeRosa grew up studying classical and flamenco guitar. Influenced by a wide range of music, from Andres Segovia to Glenn Danzig, his musical vision began to come together upon discovering the more darkly atmospheric sounds of 4AD and Projekt Records. It was around this time in his early teens that DeRosa began writing and recording music.

DeRosa had been involved with several musical projects by the time he turned eighteen, but it was his dark folk/goth band Dead Leaves Rising that became the first of his endeavors to draw national attention and continued to garner acclaim until it was disbanded in 2002.

In 1998, DeRosa lost nearly all hearing in his right ear. The accompanying aural hallucinations inspired DeRosa to start Aarktica, a mostly instrumental, guitar-based atmospheric project that still remains active to date. Aarktica’s debut release No Solace In Sleep (Silber Records, 2000) was described by George Parsons of Dream Magazine as “…songlike as a sedated Durutti Column, or as ectoplasmic as Flying Saucer Attack sleepwalking through Windy & Carl’s home movies of their trip to Iceland.”

In the difficult years following his hearing loss, DeRosa began studying Indian classical vocal music with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. His studies with them (and later, Michael Harrison) would be particularly influential to DeRosa and affect all of his musical output from that time forward.

Around the time of Aarktica’s 2003 release Pure Tone Audiometry, Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote, “Aarktica’s songs are extended reveries, built on loops of guitars and drums and occasional voices. The musical elements hover and circle, float by or bristle with distortion as the songs drift through serenity and trouble.”

Throughout the 2000’s, DeRosa continued performing and releasing music as Aarktica, in addition to playing guitar with New York City chamber pop ensemble Flare. DeRosa also briefly recorded under the name Pale Horse and Rider, releasing two albums of urban country songs during this time. Rob O’Connor at CMJ remarked “DeRosa’s not unlike the downcast end of Springsteen. ‘Jersey Coast Line’ [from 2002’s These Are The New Good Times] could very well be Nebraska‘s 11th track.”

In 2006, DeRosa lent his voice to Stephin Merritt’s opera “The Peach Blossom Fan”, as the role of Hou Fang Yu. Some of his contributions were first featured on Merritt’s Showtunes album (Nonesuch, 2006). “The Peach Blossom Fan” became available in its entirety in 2008 (Nonesuch).

In 2011, DeRosa unveiled his first eponymous release, the Anchored EP. Novelist Ed Park said of it: “At first, Jon DeRosa’s Anchored EP, a quartet of gorgeously layered chamber-pop shanties, seems leagues away from the voluptuous Lovecraftian drift he perfected under his moniker Aarktica. But there are dark spaces here, too, room to brood in the sweet gravel of his voice, in Julia Kent’s penetrating cello lines, and in the quiet violence of the lyrics. With a depth that belies its brief running time, Anchored is so perfect that it literally gives you the chills.”

In 2012, DeRosa released his first full-length solo album A Wolf In Preacher’s Clothes, in both the US (Mother West Records) and the UK (Rocket Girl Records).

In early 2013, DeRosa contributed a track as Aarktica to Lucy Walker’s film "The Crash Reel." The soundtrack also included Stars of the Lid, Grizzly Bear, DJ Shadow, Chemical Brothers, Moby, Lykki Li, M83 and many others. Later in 2013, DeRosa embarked on his first European tour in support of punk/no-wave icon Lydia Lunch.

DeRosa moved to Los Angeles shortly after this and released his next full-length album Black Halo (Mother West Records) in 2014.

In recent years, DeRosa has devoted much of his time to somatic healing and shamanic apprenticeship and facilitation in both Peru and the US. His album Mareación released in 2019 (as Aarktica) reflects some of these influences.

As of 2021, DeRosa had joined Black Tape For A Blue Girl as vocalist on their album The Cleft Serpent (Projekt Records).