Growing up in the south west of England, She is of Ghanaian, Russian and German descent. Smith-Rolla developed an affinity for music at a young age. When she was seven, she would dance along to hits on
Top of the Pops and
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Flight of the Bumblebee. At nine, she was introduced to the West Country
free party scene through an older friend who would bring back cassettes for her to listen to on her Walkman. She soon started to take formal violin lessons, Smith-Rolla briefly lived in London before moving to Manchester at age 24. in 2006, a vintage organ group playing a combination of original music and covers of compositions by the likes of
Rachmaninoff. and The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club, originally formed as a tribute to the late
Sun Ra, as well as synth pop group Silverclub, releasing music on Red Laser Records. Smith-Rolla started to formally make electronic music in 2007, after being introduced to
Underground Resistance’s
Afrogermanic by friends. and that same year she began composing for other people, mostly writing film and theatre scores, taking inspiration from
Bernard Hermann’s work for
Alfred Hitchcock. Of the name, translating as African-German, she has said “I just had this huge connection to it straight away. I never expected to realise myself artistically in this world.” and a “killer debut” by
Bleep. This was soon followed in 2019 with the release of an EP,
RR001, marking the first release on new record label River Rapid, founded by Scottish DJ
Eclair Fifi. Its zappy synths and snake-charming basslines prompted Resident Advisor to recognise Afrodeutsche as "a promising newcomer". Smith-Rolla was invited to attend a five day residency at Brighter Sound with
Beth Orton in March 2019, sharing her creative processes with seven local female artists. Later in 2019, Smith-Rolla composed the score for
Kamali, and qualifying for the 2020
Oscars shortlist. For the soundtrack, Smith-Rolla focused on the piano to create its six minimalist tracks, praised for their poignancy and sensitivity. It was later released on SA Recordings in 2020, complemented by her own sample library on
Spitfire Audio called
Spectrum based on the soundtrack. On composing for film, Smith-Rolla has said “I’ve always had a real love for film and scoring – making sense of visual images with sound.” In August 2021, Smith-Rolla composed a commission for
London Contemporary Orchestra.
Robert Ames orchestrated and conducted the world premiere along with vocal ensemble
Voces8. On working with Ames, Smith-Rolla has said: “I’ve been very blessed… he was orchestrating my work as well as conducting, so there was this connection with the orchestra that was innate, that I couldn’t have engineered.” Later that year, Smith-Rolla collaborated with researcher and PhD student Alex Jovčić-Sas on a project exploring
Gertrud Grunow and
Daphne Oram’s unique contributions to optical sound theory through archival material, the loan of a Mini-Oramics Machine (an image-based sound generator designed by Oram) and modern compositional tools. Smith-Rolla performed at the
Southbank Centre’s
QEH in October 2021 for another world premiere of one of her compositions, 'Promises', alongside the
BBC Concert Orchestra and fellow producers
Daniel Avery and Aïsha Devi. She was commissioned by Elizabeth Alker and the BBC CO for
BBC Radio 3's Unclassified programme. Smith-Rolla's sound is most heavily influenced by
Drexciya,
Dopplereffekt,
Underground Resistance and
Aux 88, as well as a variety of film composers.
Sónar Barcelona, Dimensions, and
Berghain alongside artists such as
Aphex Twin and
Dopplereffekt. She also hosts a quarterly radio show on
NTS called
Black Forest, broadcasting an eclectic selection of electro and techno music. Since 2021 she has been a regular presenter on
BBC Radio 6 Music., with a regular weekend programme from 2026. == Discography ==