Ikeda was born in Gifu, Japan in 1966 and now lives and works in Paris.
A leading electronic composer and visual artist, his work focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations.
Alongside pure musical activity, Ikeda has been working on a number of long-term projects since 2001. The spectra series is iterations of a large-scale installation employing intense white light as a sculptural material and so transforming public locations in Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Nagoya prior to Artangel's presentation in London.
Ikeda has performed and exhibited internationally including at MIT, Boston; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Sónar Festival Barcelona; Tate Modern, London; Armory Park Avenue, New York and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. His albums +/- (1996), 0°C (1998), matrix (2000), dataplex (2005) and test pattern (2008) - pioneered a new minimal world of electronic music and his work matrix won the Golden Nica Award at Ars Electronica in 2001.