Do you remember that perfect moment on holiday, when you lay on the deserted beach with your lover, both nicely high, and you watched the sun slowly rise, its golden orange glow dappling the sea? You remember thinking, after a while, “This is beautiful and everything, and I’m really happy to be here, but I wish we had some music. I’m bored of crickets now.” And then you got back home and rummaged through your records but the moment had passed and anyway, nothing could possibly enhance that sublime experience.
Well you were wrong. Up in the Swiss Alps, in a village called Arzier, near Geneva, there lives a 25 year-old Swiss-Chilean genius named Lucien Nicolet. As Luciano, he makes enchanting effervescent folk music that nestles somewhere between house and electronica, electro and tango. Kissed by the sweetest melodies, his tracks flutter and shimmer, led on an irresistible dance by gentle Latin rhythms and sculpted laptop grooves. If God and Mother Nature threw a party in the Garden of Eden, Luciano would perform there forever and no one would complain.
“Everyone is always saying I make music for girls,” he says, his newborn son gurgling in the background.He and his photographer girlfriend also have an 18 month-old daughter,Lilou. “Maybe that’s because it is more sensible music, more naïve. For me South American music is a really big inspiration, it’s always so positive and full of feelings, like a little travel. You put a track on and you go somewhere.”
In the mornings Luciano snowboards down mountains. Then he beavers away in his studio, creating tracks for a growing number of labels desperate to have this gifted musician on their roster. He’s already released must-have singles for hip beat farms Klang Elektronik, Bruchstuecke, Perlon, Transmat and Mental Groove, while his Live At Weetamix CD on Max Ernst is a vital after-hours tonic. Oh, and you must check his serene on-the-sly reworking of the Amelie theme.
Look, we know we just mentioned all these obscure German record labels like we expect you to know what we’re on about, like you give a shit. Trust us: Luciano’s music is so special that it’ll come to you in the end. One day you’ll hear it and you’ll think, “Ah, now I know what they mean. This is amazing.”
THEYDON BOIS
Luciano’s new single La Limonada de Pepe Bombilla
is out now on Mental Groove. www.mentalgroove.ch
