- A rare interview with one of electronic music's most intriguing figures.
- Ricardo Villalobos is one of modern electronic music's most important and intriguing figures. He's a DJ as renowned for his ability to move a dance floor as he is in confounding it. Born in Chile, Villalobos' family fortuitously moved to Frankfurt when they fled Augusto Pinochet's brutal dictatorship in the early '70s. His new German home was one of the major hubs of electronic music in the '90s, meaning that he naturally formed a tight bond with labels like Playhouse and Perlon. The latter is currently his usual home for electronic music, but recent years have seen Villalobos indulging his experimental side more and more. Just last year he collaborated with Max Loderbauer in reworking portions of the catalogue of ECM, a renowned avant-garde jazz label.
Meanwhile, Villalobos remains firmly in love with dance music. He was the only artist to have a track, a mix and an album in our decade polls, and is a fixture on the international DJ circuit. He'll also be returning to Perlon for his next album later this year. These facts, however, obscure what is so interesting about Villalobos—his unique charisma. There are few artists in house and techno that inspire such interest, yet remain at an arm's length. That's why we're extremely proud to present a rare intimate conversation with him as RA.EX100.