Lucien Nicolet (French pronunciation: [lysjɛ̃ nikɔle]; born 24 February 1978[1] in Montcherand[2]), known mononymously as Luciano, is a Swiss and Chilean DJ and producer.
[3][4] While part of his childhood was spent in Switzerland, musically it would not be as influential as the Chilean and Latin American sounds he would experience upon moving to Santiago, Chile at the age of eleven.
[10] Influenced by the Detroit fathers of techno such as Juan Atkins and Derrick May, Luciano took his dedication to electronic music to the clubs of Santiago de Chile.
The owner at the club La Batuta, a popular rock venue where people would put out their cigarettes on the decks, gave Luciano the break he needed.
When Luciano returned, he continued to promote parties until 1999 when he would ultimately play Santiago's own Love Parade, right before he left for Europe.
[1] He established a residency at Weetamix club in Geneva and released productions on Oliver Ducret's label Mental Groove Records.
A year later, in 2001, Luciano would join the Cocoon team in Ibiza to play at the famous Monday night at Amnesia.
Because of the huge success of their first EP with the track "Orange Mistake," Luciano and Quenum decided to carry on running the label.
The Narod Niki project - which involved few DJs such as Dandy Jack, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Carl Craig, Zip, Maurizio, Basic Channel, and Luciano himself - was a live laptop jam session.
[11] In 2009, after taking four years to complete, Luciano decided to escalate a multi-sensory experience of his own called Æther Live.
The project involved label mates - Reboot, Mirko Loco, Lee Van Dowski, and Digitaline - who each would play sounds using Ableton Live.
The party concept of "Vagabundos," which signifies vagabonds in Spanish, was created in 2010 by Luciano to showcase the artists on Cadenza's booking roster at Ibiza's famous club, Pacha.
The idea originated after a tour in Brazil, where the Brazilians would call Luciano and his label mates "vagabundos sin futuros" or "vagabonds without futures" due to their lifestyle of partying late and constantly traveling.
In February 2013, Luciano joined Richie Hawtin and Skrillex participating in the program "Bridges for Music" in South Africa.
[22] Valentino Barrioseta, who is a long time friend of Luciano's, runs the non-profit organization that helps reach out to underprivileged communities via music.
Luciano participated in the workshop put together in Soweto, as a chance to show that music can be accessible even in remote areas.
"One Coin For Life" supports smaller charities that help struggling communities receive the proper health and nutrition programs they need.
"[7] The Lucien-n-Luciano alias is the softer side of his works, under which his first full-length album "Blind Behaviour" was released on Peacefrog Recordst in 2004.
[7] Martin Schopf (Dandy Jack) had always been a major influence on Luciano, and the two spent many weekends playing and making music together, resulting in the project Carabina 30/30.