MIRKO LOKO
Mirko Loko’s passion for music has led him on an upward trajectory ever since he first started DJing in the late 90s clubs of Lausanne. Based at the crossroads of Detroit-inspired techno and the stripped-down, jacked up side of house, his music is that of diversity and subtlety, a hypnotic collage sewn together by his imagination. Regularly hiding complexities: layers, polyrhythms, shifting moods of dark and light, high-class and low-slung.
In the past Mirko’s been involved with an original collaboration with Detroit’s Stacey Pullen and his remixes have ranged from Martina Topley-Bird (Massive Attack) to Layo & Bushwacka. In turn, techno dons such as Carl Craig and Ricardo Villalobos have remixed Mirko’s material. Not bad really when you add those to an impressive discography that spans such labels as Border Community, Wagon Repair, Planet E, Desolat, and Visionquest.
Born in 1979 in Lausanne, Mirko has always loved music. After DJing in clubs, Couleur3 (Swiss national radio) snapped him up as a DJ and programme planner between 1997 and 2001. During this time he continued DJing nationally but also started performing internationally at places like Rex in Paris, Cielo in New York, and at 2001’s Detroit Electronic Music Festival, where he was invited to perform by Carl Craig. In 2003 he moved temporarily to New York and took a residency at Christian Smith’s party, Tronic Treatment. When Mirko returned home he became
From there tracks spilled across other labels, including Mathew Jonson’s Wagon Repair and Carl Craig’s Planet E. There were remixes too, like their reworking of Daniel Bell’s ‘Science Fiction’ and Oliver Lieb’s ‘Isotropy’, and not forgetting the sublime C2 remix of Fat Lazy People’s ‘Pixelgirl’. However, in 2007, at the height of their success, the duo decided to go their separate ways. So Mirko continued remixing for Tania Vulcano and Tato’s IsGud as well as Alexkid’s Imprimé Records.
Between 2007 and 2009 he was also assistant programmer for the electronic side of Montreux Jazz Festival. Yet something else was brewing: it was big. It was the ‘Mousa Big Band’ track, Mirko’s collaboration with Cadenza boss Luciano, included on their Family EP and released on Loco Dice’s Desolat, alongside Mirko’s own productions ‘Liah’ and ‘Serena’. Dice even played ‘Mousa Big Band’ and ‘Liah’ during his 2008 Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1. In 2009 Cadenza released Mirko’s debut solo album – Seventynine. It proved to be both a timely tribute to his inspirations and a testament to his own journey through music. There was a new influx of shows across the globe, from Space Miami to Monegros in Spain, Lowlands in the Netherlands, Summer Sonic in Japan, Creamfields in the UK, and Sonofilia in Mexico. And an innovative new venture with Luciano and the Cadenza family was born: a live ‘visual music’ performance named Æther, which premiered in the summer of 2009.
2010 saw Mirko remix Layo & Bushwacka’s ‘The Longest Day’ on Olmeto, Ghost Dancer’s ‘Home’ on Panorama, and dOP’s ‘Assurance Vie’ on Circus Company. This was the time of his Seventynine Remixes project, with remixes by Carl Craig on ‘Love Harmonic’ and Ricardo Villalobos on ‘Tahktok’. Mirko became a professional ‘Vagabundo’ with Cadenza in Ibiza – a journey that continued in 2011. In 2012 he laid down an original collaboration with Stacey Pullen on the Deux Éléments EP (‘Formulaic Mode’/‘Tronic Illusion’) for Cadenza. He also remixed Martina Topley-Bird’s ‘Baby Blue’. ‘Gloria’ made its way to Seth Troxler’s Visionquest. Various new partnerships including Francesco Tristano and Jow from dOP evolved in 2012 for Mirko.
2013 sees the five-year anniversary of Mirko playing with Circoloco in Ibiza, the 10 years of Cadenza celebrations where it is tipped that Mirko will be releasing some amazing Techno records, aswell as the preparation of his second album and the launch of his new record label.