Artist of the Month: Luciano

Don’t call Luciano a techno DJ.

Sure, he may have been a core part of the group of forward-thinking Chilean DJs (along with his friends Ricardo Villalobos and Dandy Jack) that spread techno, namely the then-emergent minimal sound, to his home country and beyond, but he's never wanted to be confined by genre.

"Rule number one: expect to be unexpected," Luciano says about his music.

In large part due to his ongoing musical exploration, 30 years into his illustrious, documentary-worthy DJ career, the Swiss-Chilean musical provocateur is still excited to be making and sharing music. Lately, he's been focusing on finding balance to keep his career sustainable. For him, that means ample family time (he's a proud dad to seven kids) and leaning into quality over quantity when it comes to DJ gigs. He also clearly sees his role as a musical father figure, to both inspire and celebrate younger generations.

"I'm coming back to my roots, to the most important thing that I always wanted to do, which is composing music. I've always been more fascinated by composing music than DJing actually, but we all know that if you want to live off music, you have to [perform it], you have to have contact with people. So, I always balance both sides," he tells us.

Beatportal recently caught up with the legendary DJ/producer born Lucien Nicolet — who took a pause from his family holiday to call in from a cruise ship docked in Athens — to look back on and celebrate his momentous career in dance music. He reminisces on his pivotal early years helping establish the Santiago electronic scene, his lifelong love affair with Ibiza, how Cadenza Records got its groove back, and much more.

His latest release is an EP featuring two 10-minute tracks: the pulsing, frantic-yet-controlled "Minute Plan Orchestra" and the delightfully glitchy and jangly "El Alma de Al Ula." As the name implies, the B-side was sparked by a visit to the stunning AlUla desert in Saudi Arabia. Luciano is constantly making music, transmuting inspirations — often from his travels or nature — into groovy sonic ideas at his home studio. (He even went on a 10-day expedition to the North Pole to capture field recordings, which will be released as an album.) He explains that this new music would’ve died on his hard drive — where he has tons more unreleased music stored—if it weren't for the recent relaunch of his iconic Cadenza label.

"I wanted to come back to the beginning; releasing a side A and B and inspiring younger generations," the "Rise Of Angel" artist reflected. "I've always made music to be shared with people. That was the intention from my first days, and I'm feeling I'm back at it."

Running a label had become too demanding, so he put a pause on signing new artists for nearly eight years. He wanted to close it — he even made a book on its history to literally close that chapter — but every time he announced its end, the younger generation protested. This humbled him deeply.

He's reconnected with the joy and inspiration of Cadenza, particularly in its mission to spotlight emerging artists with a fresh sound. His enthusiasm is palpable as he discusses it. As for what kind of music he's looking to release, his approach has remained the same since day one. "I always sign people that have found a relationship with music and their soul has an ability to express something," he says.

Launching the label in 2003 was a happy accident, marked by two captivating, otherworldly minimal tunes from Luciano and Quenum, whose A-side was serendipitously called "Orange Mistake." His sister Amélie Nicolet was studying graphic design in college and needed to turn in a final, physical project to graduate. He suggested they release a record and she design the cover—a simple yet memorable scrawling "N" reminiscent of a soundwave. The record resonated; Luciano began receiving calls from Germany about the label. He and Quenum made Cadenza official with three or so releases a year, including exciting four-trackers from Ricardo Villalobos and Loco Dice; 2005's Ichso and 2006's Harissa, respectively.

Luciano has Cadenza releases from a rash of young, rising artists slated into next year, dropping every two weeks. He shares his excitement for Holchin out of Moldova — they released his debut album, an epic 22-track winding sonic tapestry, in July. (Holchin made his Ibiza debut in July at Luciano's four-party Cadenza residency at Club Chinois.)

Luciano is also enthused about a new live show he's been working on, which will tap into the treasure chest of unreleased material he's been sitting on. He hired a powerhouse team of specialists that includes Gravity — who've worked with The Chemical Brothers — on the rigs and hardware, Dave Ross — who's worked with Skrillex and Aphex Twin — on lights, Jamie Harley — the live sound engineer for Aphex, Hot Chip and many others, and L'Acoustics.

"We got that team together and everybody got super excited…We feel it's the right moment to do something special and super creative. The only goal is to keep inspiring the younger generation with sounds, lights and perception; the beauty of sound and art and music," he shares.

They've been working for over a year to make something creative, adaptable, portable and truly live—it's vital to Luciano that the images are not time-coded and that he can jam out with his music, making each set unique to its space and time constraints. It will debut in 2025 and feature local guests in each city.

"Boredom is probably the biggest enemy of the performer because you start to repeat yourself and you're not connected," he says of the new live show. "I wanted to feel free and reconnect with everything music gave me."

Luciano's top tune on Beatport, 2023's "Travieza," exemplifies the range of his sound and openness of his musical taste, along with his dedicated support of younger artists. It's a sultry, techy Latin house number with Stigmaz, a young Miami-based duo with Colombia and Dominican roots. It's the duo's first-ever release and the second on their From The South imprint — the first also came from Luciano, featuring three young Latinx artists. Luciano describes "Travieza" as "reaching out" to a younger crowd, with a bit more commercial and danceable sound, yet one he's still interested in. "I'm always open for anything that is musical," he asserts.

"Stigmaz are absolutely brilliant young cats from South America. I have my responsibility to help my continent in any way I can. My continent is funky, flavory, percussion[-filled], and is great source of inspiration."

It's a rather spiritual experience when Luciano lets the musical inspiration move him. "It's this incredible form of communication that is elevating my soul to something I've never experienced with anything else. For me, how music should be. I don't control it; the music controls me 100 percent. I feel like I'm touched by an angel," he explains poetically.

He's typically quite fast—sometimes less than a minute—at getting a musical idea out, which always surprises his friends. He then lets it simmer by playing in the background as he goes about his day, popping in here and there to season it. Later, he'll spend quality time on the sound design and mastering of the track, something he's always been fascinated by and loves doing. "I'm an architect of sounds," he states. "Sound mixing is an art form."

Luciano professes his love for his huge 48-channel SSL Duality mixer. His home studio looks like a spaceship, with walls of modular synthesizers and other analog gear. Not too long ago, his beloved studio was flooded, meaning he didn't make music for a whole year. It was tough not having that creative release, and he's grateful to have it back up and running.

He affirms that his many aliases and collab projects over the years — Luciæn, Lucien–N–Luciano, and various one-offs, duos, and a live DJ orchestra of sorts called Æther — were "a little bit of rebellion" from the pressure to stick to a certain sound. He also appreciates the anonymity that a new alias can provide. As a teen, coming from playing in bands and living in Chile, a very rock-oriented country, discovering electronic music and the flexibility it provided —that he could be "a one-man orchestra"— felt revolutionary.

It was influential German Krautrock artist Manuel Göttsching's seminal ambient / minimal 1984 masterpiece E2-E4 that first opened him up to this possibility. Hearing it made him simultaneously fall in love with electronic music and see music itself in a whole new light. "[It's] the one record that really changed my perception of music—because I was a guitar player and I was always trying to put things together. It's an absolutely stunning record," he explains.

Not long after — still a teenager — he learned to DJ and set out on his mission to spread the gospel of techno. He and his friends hosted the first electronic parties in Chile in the '90s, starting off in apartments. Soon after, he was DJing 20-minute sets between bands at rock shows for unenthused patrons, finding more welcome ears at a new wave bar called Blondie. By January 2005, the rave was in full-force — he and Villalobos played Santiago's first Love Parade to 100,000 amped revelers, and the subsequent one a doubled crowd.

"We literally lived the birth of the movement," he reflects. "We were so convinced of what we were doing."

Back when Luciano was growing up in Switzerland, his father repaired jukeboxes and had tons of records. He wasn't interested in the music, yet he was fascinated with tape machines and the buttons of the equipment his dad would bring home. After his parents divorced, Luciano and his mother returned to her native Chile. There, she gave Luciano a guitar, prompting his musical awakening. She also brought him to concerts, where he became fascinated with the communication inherent in performance. He set out on his path as a musician and "never asked myself if I have to do something else."

But it was difficult in Chile. The country was still reeling from Pinochet's bloody 17-year dictatorship — and harsh neoliberal economics — that ended in 1990. Records were expensive and hard to come across — Luciano explains a vinyl cost about a month's salary. Each local DJ each had about 20 records and would meticulously trade them to keep their crates fresh. Villalobos would also bring records from Germany every time he visited.

The "Arsenne" producer left for Europe at 22 to make a name for himself abroad in hopes the Santiago DJs would be acknowledged back home. Determined, he went around Geneva knocking on clubs’ doors asking to DJ. Eventually, Dimitri Stransky gave him a chance at his legendary Weetamix (which he's still running to this day, since 1994) with his first-ever residency there in 2000. Stransky, who DJs as DIMI3, saw Luciano's star power and also managed his burgeoning international DJ career for some time.

Of all the cities Luciano has called home, Ibiza remains the most significant. After years of urging by Villalobos, Luciano visited Ibiza in 1997. Yet even with all the freedom and infamous debauchery of the early Ibiza scene, there was limited openness towards genre. Progressive trance was the sound of Ibiza until Sven Väth's Cocoon party provided something new at Amnesia in 1999. Instrumentally, Väth invited Ricardo and Luciano to play their first of many Cocoon sets in 2000. In 2006, Luciano got his own three-year Ibiza residency at DC-10's Circoloco, later launching a host of other parties and residencies around the island.

"At the beginning, [when played] big clubs, we would play two records, security would come [and say], 'Pack your records, get the fuck out. That's not the sound of this island.' 24 years later, it's the music that rules the island," he reflects with a laugh.

Listen to Luciano's 'Artist of the Month' chat below, or check it out on Beatport.