posted by Mike
June 2018

Some months ago, we witnessed a truly live electronic set by the pair of Parisians named il:lo, who came through Berlin's Noize Fabrik for a show along with French producer Kognitif and Mounika. This duo recently put out their EP Vega, which gives listeners a dreamy soundscape to thoughtfully navigate, as we discovered from tracks like "Jhana". The two put their all into music with their careers involved fully in understanding the effects of sound, which is discovered in their music

Now, we're lucky enough to have the il:lo on the Stereofox mini mix with an eclectic collage of their favorites. Although none of their originals are included, it is highly recommended to check out their latest EP Vega, which will be pressed to wax in the near future. Additionally, we had the opportunity to ask them some questions on how their European tour went, their production methods, and what they're doing next. Check it out below!

Tracklist

Hey guys, great to have you on the Minimix series. Tell us a bit about yourselves!

Hi, we are a french downtempo duo from Paris. We play and produce music together since 2012. Dejan is more into digging samples and Andreas into editing and arrangement.

You recently traveled a bit through Germany with some of your friends Mounika and Kognitif. Tell us more… how was it?

We had a blast there! it was the first time we played in Germany and we got the feeling that the audience was enthusiastic and receptive. In a general way we found german people really welcoming and open minded.

For a young band like us it's a great experience and a chance to play abroad. And that was awesome to share these moments as support of our friends Kognitif and Mounika with whom we already played some gigs in France.

You guys produce a diverse sound in the realm of trip hop. What inspired you guys to make this music?

I think that the choice to produce this kind of music comes from various influences that we had, on the one hand very electronic music like the 90’s IDM, early 2000’s dubstep or liquid Drum & Bass but also the Hip Hop Jazz and the world music. I think it's a small part of all these styles that shapes our universe. Our music is in some way a Melting Pot of our influences. Obviously we cant forget the few artists who made our main inspiration, Bonobo, DJ Shadow and Four Tet, downtempo music creators.

Your latest EP Vega is a seven track journey. Tell us more about this album – what ideas lie behind the music, the song titles, and the overall concept?

To be honest when we compose, we do not necessarily think about a specific concept at the beginning. In general, things are slowly emerging as production progresses. We consider that we have a possible new EP only when we have enough exciting tracks. For Vega things also worked like that, we had a set of potential songs that could fit together and this time in a more electronic way. Then we understood the color that emerged and we reworked the tracks to reinforce this atmosphere specific to the EP. A kind of stellar trip!

Being based in Paris must make being a musician exciting. What makes Paris and France in general amazing for music?

Yes, Paris is generally quite interesting for music and culture. We could attend almost all the artists’ shows we like. We are convinced that the architectural beauty of the city and the special atmosphere are a source of inspiration. We feel good in this city! In our style of music, even the downtempo scene is quite small in Paris but it is very cool because it forces us to travel!

You guys have an intricate live set-up with many components. Tell us more about your live show.

By the time we started working on our live set we quickly realized that playing our tracks in the same way as on the EPs did not make sense. We wanted to play something more lively and try other rhythms and universes. We always start with the main samples that make up our songs but we remix them to bring another dimension. In live, the drums compose the main part of the playback. We play or samples with our MPD and SP555 or bass and synths with keyboards. Next step is to bring more hardware keyboards, we are thinking about the Rolland Juno and the Moog model D kinds of.

Tell us about your studio set-up – what equipment and methods are you using to make music?

We have a basic setup with one computer, two monitors and a midi keyboard. When someone gets a good idea, a long period of to-ing and fro-ing starts between we two. We successively and individually add a new layer at each pass. We never work together, always in solo, sharing the projects in a dropbox.

What kinds of things do you guys do when you are not making music?

Andreas is a sound designer and Dejan is an acoustician. Our hobbies are mostly drinking beers and dancing lindy hop.

What’s next for il:lo?

Our EP Vega will soon be released in Vinyl.We are releasing a two tracks’ single at the beginning of June. The title, “Jade” and the cover are evocating the sea coasts and the summer.To finish we are already producing the next EP and we hope that it will be finished by the end of the year.

Any shout outs or words of wisdom to offer? Now is your chance

Having met you in Berlin is one of the nice things for which we make music and like to travel to play it live. We are pleased to offer to you this minimix that contains a lot of tracks among our favorite ones. We hope Sterofox fans will appreciate it!

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