ARTISTS / OJO DE APOLO

basic soul unit

Stuart Li aka Basic Soul Unit was born in Hong Kong, China and raised in Toronto, Canada. His interest in club music started as a teenager in the late 80's listening to Toronto's independent radio stations and hanging out in the multicultural city's thriving after hours warehouse parties where DJs were playing New York, Chicago and Detroit based house music. Working at Cosmos Records store during the late 90's led Stuart to dig further into disco, jazz, soul, funk, Latin, Brazilian.

During the late 90's, Stuart started Djing various musical styles at various lounges, bars and clubs in Toronto. With this wide spectrum of interest in music, Stuart's strength as a DJ is his versatility. Depending on the night and the crowd, he can throw down Detroit influenced techno, Jacking Chicago style sounds, Soulful NYC house, minimal European tracks, disco, jazz, funk, Latin, Brazilian, broken beat and sometimes even a combination of all these. Currently, Stuart is resident (alongside Patrick Paredes & Jason Ulrich) at the house & techno based Vintage! Saturday nights at TOI Bar in Toronto, as well as a jazz, funk & crossover monthly event called Footprints (with Jason Palma & General Eclectic). His travels have taken him to various spots like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco, Frankfurt and Montreal.

Stuart started producing as Basic Soul Unit in 2003 with his first song Basic Soul on Toronto's Iwanai Music. As with his Djing style, Stuart's music can swing from lush and soulful Detroit inspired numbers to jacking minimal beats (all with hints of above aforementioned influences). Subsequently he has released music on Left Of The Dial (Canada), Versatile Records (France), Mule Electronic (Japan) and his music has been
included on a compilation from Compost Records (Germany). Basic Soul Unit has been getting played and charted across a spectrum of music enthusiasts from the nujazz and broken beat crowd to deep house heads and techno aficionados from the likes of Ame, Deetron, The Get Physical camp (M.a.n.d.y. included 'Ascend
Into The Night' on a BBC Essential Mix), Fabrice Lig to Jazzanova.

There's much more yet to come from Basic Soul Unit. Stuart (along with good friend and DJ cohort Jason Ulrich) will be heading the re-launch of Left Of The Dial Recordings (a sub label of John Kong's Do Right! imprint) in charge of A&R and Creative direction. Besides being a base for his own releases, the label will also feature local and international talent known and unknown (with the first release coming from Detroit Stalwart Alton Miller). Stuart has also completed new music for Hieroglyphic Being's Mathematics, Still Music, Third Ear, more music for Mule & of course, LOTD.

bern

Bern works 5 or 6 days a week in a foundry. Exposed to the highest temperatures, he is juggling some melted and poured metals into molds. Appart from this world, Bern puts his child, Loann, and his family, at the first place in his life.

His daily life could make the man playing the blues. Playing with his friends. Reaching the right sound. Risking the unexpected technical riff. This is the way, Laurent Bernonville (his civil name) lives his passion for music. An opportunity to meet people, a chance to travel around.With the tools of today, he shows an obsession for the perfect loop. He feeds the minimal genre with his personnal dj approach. Small details tell the story. Tracing the line. Bern catches your attention without you notice it.

Bern released music on various labels like Traum, Trapez, Labo Music, Toys for Boys, Sentrall and Underline. As a talented remixer, he reworked tracks from Jonas Bering, Anders Ilar, Steve Barnes aka Process and the mexican Fax. Overall, his duet Molair formed with Thierry M'Baye recalls Bern to his priority of having fun making music with a beloved friend. Final words to end this biography would be said about Bern's interest for netlabels and his respect for people at Synergy Network, Indigo magenta, Redevice, Minlove, Thinner and so. Sharing music is it.

chicago skyway

Sean Hernandez grew up on Chicago’s North Side to a perfect storm of musical influences: While his father was a rock/punk musician, his mother loved disco and throughout the neighborhood, Puerto Rican music played around the clock.

As he grew older, Sean was electrified by the legendary WBMX radio mixes, which were cultivating an entire generation of Chicago DJs, producers and dance music fans. It wasn’t long before he found his way to fabled nightclub Medusa’s and signed his name on the dotted line.

Obsessed with the house sound, Sean studied how it was made, first buying turntables, then a TR-909 drum machine, then skipping meals in order to buy more gear. He recalls spending hours attempting to recreate Ron Trent’s Altered States, Larry Heard’s Beyond the Clouds and Adonis’s No Way Back, trying to figure out “what made these songs funk.”

He quickly became a regular fixture on the DJ scene, blending deep house with disco and Detroit techno. In the mid-‘90s, he organized the hugely popular night Kream. Cajmere appeared frequently, often debuting the latest Relief Records releases, along with Gene Farris and Spencer Kinsey (aka – Gemini). In the late ‘90s, Sean formed the crew Krush Productions to revitalize the underground scene with a slew of well-received events.

He has since retired from event promotion in favor of producing tracks under the name Chicago Skyway. In 2009, he released two albums including Bells on Eargasmic Recordings and Heavens on M>O>S Recordings and most recently his Wolfgang Hair EP on Uzuri Recordings.

dieb

Til Kerlen is a Berlin based musician who produced also music for movies, ballet and is involved in comporary art by his many collaborations with performance- and video-artists (for example: Tomi Paasonen, Eleonora Chiesa, Ron908, Tom Neubauer). Under the name of Dieb he produces his most ornate and most dancefloor-friendly material, characterized by an elegant experimental style of techno with an ambient edge to it.

His debut ep Unit Injector Drive for the Italian label Citymorb Music has been acclaimed and substained by names like Anthony Shake Shakir, Magda and the record shop Hardwax. He participated on several compilations on the labels Ojodeapolo, Antmanuv_Micro and Transition Music. In 2006 he released a Concept EP for the Amsterdam netlabel Redevice. His recent release is a split-album together with Chilenian artist Receptor on the label Ojodeapolo. He remixed tracks by arists like Bern, Receptor, Gui.tar, Bo or Tiemu and co-operated with the singer Lisa Bassenge.

dj sprinkles

Terre Thaemlitz es un productor multimedia, escritor, orador público, educador, remezclador de audio, DJ y propietario de la discográfica Comatonse Recordings, que ha ganado varios premios. Su obra combina de forma crítica temas de política de identidad - incluidos temas de género, sexualidad, clase, lingüística, etnicidad y raza- con una crítica continua de la socioeconomía de la producción de media comerciales.

Esa diversidad de temas se ve correspondida por la amplia gama de estilos de producción de Thaemlitz, en la que se incluyen música electroacústica por ordenador, deep house orientado a los clubes, jazz digital, ambient, y solos de piano neo-expresionistas compuestos por ordenador.

Ha publicado doce álbumes, así como numerosos EPs de doce pulgadas, singles de siete pulgadas, álbumes en colaboración, remezclas y obras de vídeo. Sus escritos sobre música y cultura han sido publicados a nivel internacional en una serie de libros y revistas académicas. Como orador y educador en temas de transgénero no esencialista y teoría queer, Thaemlitz ha participado en mesas redondas por todo Europa y Japón, y también ha montado numerosos talleres de sensibilidad transcultural en la Uplink Factory de Tokyo, cerca de su actual residencia en Kawasaki, Japón.

fantasna

Sebastián Mella nació en Santiago de Chile, es músico y arquitecto de la Universidad de Chile. Comenzó su trabajo musical formando parte de una banda de rock en el año 1999 (CCS). Después de dos años el proyecto se diluye e inicia la búsqueda de nuevos sonidos a partir del uso de softwares con el fin de estructurar su propio proyecto y así poder componer libremente. Es de esta manera como nace “Fantasna”, proyecto que se caracteriza por el uso de samples, texturas y patrones rítmicos propios de la pista de baile cercanos al microhouse y al minimal funk. En el año 2005 se une al colectivo y netlabel chileno Nomucho, lo cual le permite compartir los mismos intereses musicales con los integrantes del sello, en especial con Jefferson Family, banda con la cual ha desarrollado un sinfín de sesiones de improvisación en vivo en distintos clubes de Santiago. Al mismo tiempo esta plataforma le otorga la posibilidad de exponer sus producciones y poder tocar en vivo en distintos clubes de santiago. Gracias a la constante actividad de nomucho.com, Fantasna ha podido compartir escenarios con destacados artistas nacionales e internacionales, tales como Cabanne (Minibar, Perlon) Jacek Sienkiewicz (Recognition, Cocoon), Yoshihiro Hanno (Op.Disc, Telegraph), Receptor (Sushitec), etc. Además de poder participar del festival Quinto sol realizado en el muelle Barón en Valparaíso junto a Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Argenis Brito y Andrés Bucci. Es precisamente en las presentaciones en vivo donde se puede apreciar de mejor forma su trabajo musical, caracterizado principalmente por adoptar la improvisación como hilo conductor del set, y el uso de muestras de sonido como estética fundamental de su sonoridad.

A partir del impulso proporcionado por nomucho, en julio del 2007, es escogido por vodka Absolut para participar en el proyecto “Absolut Lomo”. Así mismo en Octubre de ese mismo año es invitado a participar del festival de cultura digital MicroMutek realizado en Santiago, el cual reunió a artistas tales como Marc Leclair (Akufen) y Taylor Deupree. Actualmente se encuentra trabajando como arquitecto y preparando materiales para Fueradeserie! Y Ojo de Apolo.

hauke freer

Hauke has an old-school production approach, working with contemporary software but using a palette of mainly vinyl samples to give a loose, effortless, raw-sounding edge. MY BEAT is a dirty, gritty, House work-out featuring deep, filtered chords, lo-fi percussion and roughly chopped vocal pieces. Old-fashioned in a good way - just the way we like it! WE MUST FACE OUR FEARS is a smoother, minimal track with a delicate, beautifully measured mesh of percussive knocks, slides & bleeps driven by a pulsing sine wave bass. As the track builds, a classic Detroit-flavoured chord wash brings it all together. Bliss… BIOGRAPHY Hauke Freer grew up in a small town near Hamburg and moved to Berlin in 2000 to work for the Techno label Kanzleramt. After spending a year in Australia DJing and working for the label Future Classic, Hauke returned to Berlin to work for the Resopal Schallware label.

jorge c

Jorge Cortés comes from Santiago de Chile, where he has been running the local label Ojo de Apolo. His work as Receptor , from 2002 onwards, is geared towards a more minimal-deep-sound in net and vinyl labels,such as: Sushitech; Winsome-music;Plong!; Adjunct; Citymorb;Them, etc. Since 2008 re-inventing himself with his new aka. "Jorge C." he started focusing into the house grooves, this new proyect was released by Matrix Recordings from Detroit, and the chilean label Ojodeapolo.cl

kai

Japanese artist kai (a.k.a kaitaro-nakajima) was born in 1977 currently base in Tokyo, Dj career was started from 17 years old. The first career started from hiphop. Gradually got into minimal house music around 2003, and from 2004 and started to create minimal house music since 2005.

kai alce

Atlanta-based Dj and producer Kai Alcé was born in New York in 1971 and spent his early years on the caribbean island St. Croix. His parents moved back to NY just in time for young Kai to experience the birth of hip-hop. After moving to Detroit in 1980 Kai began listening to 'Electrifying Mojo', as well as The Wizard AKA Jeff Mills.

When the 'Music Institute' opened in Detroit in 1987, it quickly became the city's premier underground dance music location. Kai began working there at the age of 16 and subsequently witnessed the evolution of house alongside it's most formidable DJ's; Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, D. Wynn, Alton Miller and Chez Damier. After completing high school, Kai moved to Atlanta. He began Djing at Club Velvet while still attending college and for several years was the main resident at DEEP.

At the same venue Kai developed a direct link between the South and his Detroit roots by creating "Deep Detroit House Sessions.", featuring the likes of: Chez Damier, Alton Miller, Brett Dancer, Moodymann, Mike Huckaby and Theo Parrish. As a producer Kai has releases on Track Mode (in collaboration with Ron trent), Late Night essentials, Divine Recordings and Mahogani music.

mical revves & pevanu

Mical Rhebess and Pevanu joined forces in the magical summer of 2007. DDS was giving memorable partys at the IJssel and this is where the two musical minds met.

Peter is known for his houzey input and respected remixes. An artist who plays very limited, he rather creates than performs.

Mical on the other hand plays house in long dj sets all over the world and in the future you can expect him preforming live as well. Based in the west of Europe and the east of Holland. First release was on Quagmire03.

receptor

Jorge Cortés comes from Santiago de Chile, where he has been running the local label Ojo de Apolo. His work as Receptor , from 2002 onwards, is geared towards a more deep-house sound in net and vinyl labels,such as: Sushitech; Winsome-music, Plong!, Adjunct, Citymorb, Them, etc.

reggie dokes

Reggie Dokes has been considered by some of his fans as one of detroit's most underrated and overlooked producers/ Djs in electronic music (house / techno). However ,this hat not stopped him from contributing music that is undefinable, ecletic, spiritual and soulful.

Reggie has always been about the music, never searching for the spotlight. His contributions to music have been out of love for house and techno, which he was nurtured on since the age of 14 in Detroit. House records coming from Chicago, New York and specially Europe, ultimately influenced him to become a Dj and eventually a producer. Under the mentoring eye of Mr. Derrick May the "Innovator" of Detroit Techno, his friendship with him became the launching ground and inspiration for reggie Dokes' professional Djing career, exposing him to some of the best dance floors in North America and Europe.

In 2001 he decided to start his own label called 2Psychostasia Records" which has released several twelve inch records and three full lenght albums to date. In addition, he has managed to release with other independent labels based on North America: Women On Wax (Dj Minx), Forward Thought (Louis Haiman), Transmat (Derrick May), Sound Signature (Theo Parrish). Also some european based labels :Third Ear Records (UK), Deep Explorer (Spain), Prime Numbers (UK), Rhythmic Deep (UK), Philpot Records (Germany), We Play House (Belgium); Clone Records (Netherlands), Cismo Music (Japan). Lastly, a 12 inch release on Offering Recordings, (Central Republic Africa/ Belgium) featuring a remix by rising star Dj/producer: Culoe De Song, which has created a huge buzz on the dancefloors of South Africa. His new fan base in South Africa, has allowed him to tap one of many: Mandla Mindlo.