In what is something of a golden era for electronic artists, one of the most consistently interesting is a former footballer called Darren Cunningham, who performs and records under the alias Actress.

Since his debut almost 20 years ago with a six-track EP called No Tricks, he has juggled a diverse array of inspirations, from early-1980s funk and electro and art rock to house and noise to decayed, disorienting effect.

His productions – he once called his style “R&B concrète” – are always interesting, always experimental, playing with the boundaries of house, techno and dubstep. He’s even recorded an album with an orchestra.

Cunningham played clarinet as a youth in his native Wolverhampton but put the instrument down to focus on football and was on West Brom’s books as a striker until injury ended his career prematurely.

Turning to his second love, music, he then got a place on one of the first recording arts degree courses – just the sort of thing the Tories are now shutting down – with a grant obtained through the Professional Footballers Association.

After graduation he worked as a DJ, starting his own London club night and label – Werk Discs – and made his solo debut in 2004 with an EP called No Tricks, working in parallel as a producer, creating remixes for the likes of Kode9 and Joy Orbison.

He first made a mark in 2010 with his album Splazsh and since then his music has become more abstract, starting with his third Actress album, R.I.P., and a collaboration with visual artist Yayoi Kasuma at Tate Moder, while also remixing John Cale and Kasabian.

In 2014, in a Bowie-like move, he announced that his bleak fourth album Ghettovile would be “the bleached-out and black-tinted conclusion of the Actress image” – only to return with a conceptual Actress album called AZD and a bunch of new aliases: Levantis and GNESIS, Dial 666 8100 and (my two favourites) That Knightsbridge OG and Bank Of England.

Cunningham’s activity picked up again in 2020, working with vocalists including Sampha, before dropping the mesmerising 19-minute masterpiece Dummy Corporation last year.

New single Push Power ( A1 ) is a similarly avant-garde-influenced affair that mirrors an intricate game of chess in its textured and delicate layers, a beautiful piano melody floating over the beat, with minimal lyrics and vocals by Jonnine Standish of HTRK, and a finale of sweeping strings.

Actress will be doing one of his biggest live shows at Field Day next week, showing a film called Grey Interiors he made with experimental creative studio Actual Objects and showed at Berlin Art Week in 2021.

And for anyone in Australia at the end of August, he’s performing there with Autechre and Max Cooper, which should be amazing.