Le Bon Air 2022

Hailing from Brussels, Le Motel’s world is a vortex of sight and sound that takes in the many and varied corners of the planet.

As a music producer and film composer his versatility has taken him to festivals and clubs in every direction as naturally as he has ventured out to the less accessible areas of the globe as a field recordist. It’s somewhere in between these spaces that Le Motel operates, gathering unique experiences and sounds to channel through his studio. With a background in graphic design it’s not surprising that there’s a visual trace element across all of Le Motel’s music. And it’s perhaps why he’s so readily adapted to composing for film. Whatever the pace of the track, whatever template you might think he’s experimenting with and slowly revealing, the evocative collages that swarm around the rhythm is what marks his productions and sets them aside from the crowd. Blissfully organic elements come up against the hard surfaces of the woozy synth-work that you’ll find across his discography, pulling the listener in close in order to gently blow them away. Stacking up early notable releases on LA’s TAR label with a set of tracks that put his spin on footwork, Le Motel’s breakthrough moment came in the form of an album for New Zealand’s Cosmic Compositions back in 2015. Titled ‘OKA’, the record was picked out by Gilles Peterson for special attention as album of the week on BBC Radio 6. Effortlessly fusing juke, hip hop, techno, and with a jazzy strain throughout, the album deftly captures the wide array of styles and scenes that Le Motel moves between.


The origins of Front de Cadeaux can be traced back to a dating site for bears, some ten years ago. After Maurizio had spotted a Felix Kubin poster on one of Ugo’s pictures, the two started chatting. Very much intrigued, Ugo invited Maurizio, who lives in Brussels, to play at a festival he organised in Rome. Shortly thereafter Maurizio became a resident of Ugo’s Subwoofer night, one of the first bear parties in Europa that existed outside of the mainstream bear realm.

The two bonded over food of course, over their belief that dance culture is rotting from the inside, and even more over slow, heavy electronic music. You have to picture it: a flat in Brussels, a table with empty bowls and bottles, thick smoke and these two daddy dj’s listening to stacks and stacks of UK rave and breakbeat records on 33 instead of 45 rpm. Testing how deep and sexy these garbage records sound at a pace the bears can actually follow without dropping dead – Ugo & Maurizio baptised it ‘supreme rallentato’.

Around 2013 they officially started collaborating as Front de Cadeaux, referring to the Italian way of pronouncing Front 242, the Belgian EBM legends. Naturally, their decade long dj and production experience merged into one, just like their vision that dance culture urgently needs a revolution. That means they play 90 bpm in a club at 3am whilst the promoters are shitting themselves, showing everyone that the body follows the groove, and not the bpm, a capitalist and macho construct that’s making crowds go numb instead of making them dance.

Mika Oki is a visual artist, Dj and producer born in Paris. With a background in sculpture and electro-acoustic music, she explores the notion of intangible spaces and emotional landscapes through AV installations, music and mixes. As a DJ, Mika Oki knows how to surprise the dance floor with a selection ranging from jungle, uk bass and gqom to dark electro, mesmerising trance and heavy EBM. By animating a wide range of voice samples, experimental sounds and electroacoustic music extracts, she plays like a sculptor with a duty to create an unsettling atmosphere.

Belgian producer SKY H1 is the latest addition to Brussels' vibrant electronic music scene and much like the patchwork city she calls home her music is the result of myriad influences and cultures colliding. Having released the EP Fluid on the Berlin label Creamcake in 2015 and working alongside producers such as Bala Club's Uli­ K, SKY H1's music draws upon everything from R&B and instrumental grime to ambient, to produce something both brutal and sublime in equal measure. In 2016 she released the critically acclaimed EP Motion. Read more on Last.fm

Brussels’ dwelling producer, multi-instrumentalist, sound-sculptor and dj Maoupa Mazzocchetti has spent the past few years honing his own brand of surrealistic deranged, industrial leaning electronics. Seemingly drawing influence from early concrète, tape scene and Birmingham school techno.

His productions have found favour among labels such as Mannequin, PRR! PRR!, Knekelhuis, Éditions Gravats, Dark Entries, Bank, Arma Records, The Wire Magazine various and early admirers Unknown Precept.

Whether working alone or working collaboratively, his sonic and avant-garde vision is one which constantly straddles the line between wild experimentation and rythmic compatibility.

Encompassing claustrophobic, noise-induced oscillations, primitive rhythms, electro-accoustic and frantic synth work his sound manages to recall all of the influences above yet retain an individual characteristic.

More recently his productions under his duo Clara! y Maoupa released on Les Disques De La Bretagne, the club-ready sublabel of Editions Gravats have seen him exploring a whole new angle of production’s style. The instrumental translated that oddball experimental’s mentality towards a delectable new take on Caribbean futurism, Reggaeton, Dub and gears it all towards the dancefloor.

His countless high-profile collaborations have seen him working with Beau Wanzer (De-Bons-en-Pierre), Clara! (Clara! y Maoupa), Dj David Gobelin & Dj Cloarec (An Ultimate Dj), Air Liquid, Eindkrak, Nick Klein, celist Leila Bordreuil, Mika Oki and appearances all around Europe at Unsound, Intonal, Cafe Oto, Rewire, Nuits Sonores, Boiler Room and Berghain to mention only a few. On top of his release schedule, Mazzocchetti has appeared frequently on The Word Radio, Rinse, Red Light Radio, NTS and The Lot.