Ricardo Villalobos

(Cocoon / Cadenza / Perlon)

Ricardo Villalobos is a Chilean electronic music producer and DJ. He is well-known for his work in the minimal techno and microhouse genres.

Villalobos was born in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in the year 1970. However, at the age of three he moved to Germany with his family after General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973.

When Ricardo was around 10 or 11 he started to play conga and bongos. Though he loved music, he could never see himself as a musician. In the late eighties he began to make electronic music. From a very young age he has been a a big fan of Depeche Mode, even following their tours around Europe to listen to them.

Villalobos takes much of his inspiration from Depeche Mode, as well as other artists such as Daniel Miller, Thomas Melchior, Baby Ford, Daniel Bell and Andrew Weatherall. He has also taken inspiration from rhythmic South American music.

Villalobos began to play his music at parties while he was studying at university, but this was only for his own enjoyment. He started a label, Placid Flavour, in 1993 but this was unsuccessful. His first record was released on the German Playhouse label in 1994 and he began DJing as a professional in 1998, and is in present times regarded as one of the most important minimal DJs in Europe, alongside other talented chilean DJs and producers such as Luciano Nicolet (an occasional collaborator) and Dandy Jack.