Luciano

Luciano is a Chilean-Swiss DJ and music producer whose story is one of a kind. He started from playing in rock clubs in Chile, helping to promote the underground electronic music here, became more than once a point of reference in Ibiza with his residency in Circoloco as well as his Vagabundos parties, until he stepped on some of the biggest stages of the industry as those of Time Warp, Kappa Futur Festival and Sonus. His initial type of minimal techno over the years evolved into a distinctive fusion between house and techno, and his DJ sets have always been strongly influenced by Latin American music. Bringing his sound to Europe and thanks to his own label Cadenza Records, he was able to change the rules of the industry, becoming over the past decade one of the most influential DJ and producers of the electronic music scene. His total devotion to music which merges perfectly with his charisma and attitude on stage have made of Luciano one of the biggest stars of electronic music.

Luciano, originally Lucien Nicolet, was born on the 24th of February 1978 in Montecherand, Switzerland, from Swiss father and Chilean mother. At the age of 11, he moved to Santiago and was influenced by Chilean and Latin American sounds. His love for music started when, at the age of 12, he received a guitar as a gift from his mother. He was in a punk rock band at school until the age of 16 and, after discovering the French band Bérurier Noir and seeing how they used drum machines, he started being interested in electronic music. After coming across and falling in love with the music of techno heroes such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Model 500, Luciano tried to bring his passion for electronic music to the Santiago clubs. He got into proper djing thanks to his friendship with Dandy Jack (Martin Schopf) and his brother Adrian Schopf. Although at the time he was too young to play in most of the clubs, so he was playing in rock venues as La Batula, in Chile, where the public didn’t really appreciate his sound. But despite this, Luciano continued pushing his passion for techno and slowly started to gain more and more followers. Soon, many found themselves converted to techno. He started playing really young, but he got into production in 1997, at the age of 19. Being in a quite small circle, he got to know closely Ricardo Villalobos, who was playing at his “Encuentro con la Technocultura” parties and with whom he worked at the project “Sense Club”. After visiting him in Ibiza for the first time, Luciano began his intrigue with the White Island. He was only 21 years old when he played at Santiago’s Love Parade before moving to Europe to study sound engineering. He established his residency at Weetamix club in Geneva and released productions on Mental Groove Records of Oliver Ducret. In 2001, he joined the Cocoon family in Ibiza and played at the notorious Monday nights in Amnesia. The following year, Luciano and the Swiss DJ and producer Philippe Quenum launched Cadenza Records. It was supposed to be a platform for releasing just a few tracks they had made, but the enormous success of their first EP, which featured “Orange Mistake”, convinced Luciano and Quenum to continue running the label. Today, it’s recognized as one of the most remarkable labels of the scene thanks to which artists such as Andrea Oliva, Michel Cleis, Reboot and Argy kicked off their careers. Being in Europe, he tried to find his own space proposing a type of techno combined with hot Latin rhythms and the proposal was perfect for the time. Very big releases on labels such as M_nus, Desolat, Cocoon, Perlon and Poker Flat started making his name become really big. It was 2006 when Luciano formed a partnership with Circoloco, becoming the resident of the club for 3 years. 2009 was the debut year of “Aether Live”, his futuristic multimedia show, which involved fellows from Cadenza – Reboot, Mirko Loco, Lee Van Dowski and Digitaline – who performed using Ableton live. After this success, Luciano claimed his name once again in the Ibiza’s scene by launching a free event at the Ushuaïa beach bar, which soon became the biggest party of the island. In 2010 the concept of Vagabundos came to life and became the Sunday residency of Pacha. His colorful gang, inspired by gipsy travellers, became another point of reference in Ibiza. “Vagabundos sin futuro”, vagabonds without future, was the way Luciano and the label artists had been called after a tour in Brazil, due to their sleepless and party lifestyle. Approaching different music genres, in 2012 Luciano collaborated with Lenny Kraviz on a pop rock project, and the two performed together at the Ibiza Rocktronic Festival. Between the summers of 2012 and 2013, the Luciano & Friends festivals set the pace at the new Ushuaïa Hotel. From a small party in a beach bar to a massive club which was selling 4500 tickets every week thanks to Luciano’s name. The summer of 2014 instead, was that of the Origins party at Amnesia. The following year, Vagabundos returned to Pacha for some selected Fridays, while Luciano & Friends found its home at Destino. 2014 was also the year in which Cadenza Lab and his second label Basaec were launched, showcasing his first productions as Luciæn, back in his teenage days. Luciano, as many multi-faceted artists, has had also other aliases: Monne Automne, with Argenix Brito and Pier Bucci, and Lucien-n-Luciano as a softer version of himself and under which his first album ‘Blind Behaviour’ was released, in 2004, via Peacefrog Records. Both his second album ‘No Model No Tool’ and his last one ‘Tribute To The Sun’ were released on Cadenza, respectively in 2007 and 2009. To remember among his productions is surely “Rise of Angel”, which became even more famous with the remix of Andrea Oliva.

Luciano not only is one of the biggest artists of the electronic scene, he is also a person with big humanity and an even bigger heart. He demonstrated it by openly speaking about his personal issues with substance abuse - which also brought him to a one-year stop in 2017 - in order to create awareness in the industry. Together with his wife Francisca and his sister Amélie they run the charity “One Coin For Life” with which they focus on raising cultural awareness and collecting funds to help preserve culture and tradition of communities around the globe. Moreover, he took part in the “Bridges For Music” project in South Africa, together with Richie Hawtin and Skrillex, as a chance to show how music can be accessible even in remote areas and how it can be a point in common between cultures, as his Latin and electronic mixture prove. Several years have passed since the beginning of his career, as a teenager, but he carries on being without any doubt one of the most influential artists of the scene.