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All Music Guide:
As far back as the early '90s, Ricardo Villalobos began building an impressive discography of 12" releases on respected dance labels like Playhouse and Perlon, and around the turn of the decade he was one of the most revered producers and DJs in dance music. In his youth, the Chilean-born Villalobos moved with his family to Germany in order to avoid the military dictatorship of Pinochet, and he eventually fell in with the country's fertile house community. A minimalist at heart, he trotted the globe to study percussion in order to apply his knowledge to his productions, which almost always sound remarkably expansive despite their simplicity. In addition to his own solo material, he has recorded with fellow expatriate Dandy Jack as Ric y Martin and with Luciano as Sense Club; additionally, he has taken part in Markus Nikolai's Hombre Ojo project. Two excellent mixes -- 2002's Love Family Trax and 2003's Taka Taka -- were released as his profile was significantly increasing, but the apex of his career was Alcachofa, a 2003 full-length released on Playhouse. A second full-length, Thé au Harem d'Archimède, arrived on Perlon in 2004 and was nearly as astonishing as its predecessor. Long-form releases that followed include the double 12" Achso (Cadenza, 2006), the two-track/72-minute Fizheuer Zieheuer (Playhouse, 2006), the compilation Salvador (Frisbee Tracks, 2006), the Villalobos-production-centric mix Fabric 36 (Fabric, 2007), and Vasco (Perlon, 2008). In 2011, Villalobos released Re:ECM, in which he and fellow electronic producer Max Loderbauer rework tracks from such artists as Arvo Pärt, Miroslav Vitous, Bennie Maupin, John Abercrombie, and others.
Wikipedia:
Ricardo Villalobos (born 1970) is a Chilean-German electronic music producer and DJ. He is well known for his work in the minimal techno and microhouse genres, and is one of the most significant figures in today's minimal techno scene.
Villalobos was born in Santiago, Chile in 1970. In 1973 he moved to Germany with his family to escape the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who had seized power that year.
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. He began making electronic music in the late 80s. From a very young age he has been a big fan of Depeche Mode, even following their tours around Europe to listen to them.
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.
At the end of 2008 and 2010, he came 1st in Resident Advisor's Top 100 DJs of the year.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
