Destiino, the tormented alter-ego of French electronic artist Yuksek, releases his eagerly anticipated debut album via Chloé's Lumière Noire Records.
Commencing in the dawn of the early 2000s, Yuksek is an artist who has released a remarkable catalog of productions ever since emerging onto the scene. A sound that encompasses everything from disco to pop, dark electronic tones, and more, Yuksek has also composed remixes for and collaborated with the likes of Gorillaz, Phoenix, UGOD, Lana Del Rey, JD Samson, Boston Bun, Moby, Brodinski, The Magician and Alex Metric. Stepping outside of the realms of conventional electronic music production, Yuksek has spent a proportion of his career writing for film, television, and stage including Marguerite et Julien by Valérie Donzelli and Netflix documentary Gregory. One of Yuksek’s most successful recent scores to date, saw him compose the soundtrack for the popular French television series, En thérapie – An adaption of the Israeli series BeTipul which was later released by HBO in the U.S as In Treatment.
Never intent with the comfort of his own creative spectrum or success, the origins of Destiino revert back to 2017, when the Rheims-born electronic producer was invited to take part in a unique experiment – a residence at visual artist Xavier Veilhan’s Studio Venezia. The installation, as part of The 57th Venice Biennale, invited musicians to make use of its instruments in order to compose live in front of an audience.
Inspired by the spontaneity and improvising nature of the experience, Yuksek returned home with a new sonic focus to push the limits of his artistic boundaries, break conventional creative processes and surrender to spontaneity by recording improvised tracks in one sequence on his armada of analog machines.
“Destiino is Yuksek’s alter ego, it came out straight from the synthesizers PCB, without over thinking. It’s the result of lonely recording sessions when I pushed the ‘stop recording button’ when exhausted. It also came out of public recording sessions at Xavier Veilhan exhibition in Venice Biennale. I could hardly describe the style, but I can only say that it’s most of the time one shot recording, nearly no editing, like sur-realist’s automatic writing, like joy in the machine.” – Destiino
Along with label boss Chloé, who shares an equal love and inclination towards shifting away from club formatted sounds and holding a deep appreciation for narrating stories with music, Yuksek created edited versions of his recordings which withhold the desired raw musical feel. As time progressed and ideas between the two artists were exchanged and flourishing, the Destiino project was born.
Across each of the album’s 9 tracks, Destiino explores experimental sounds highlighted on C’est Pas Des Oiseaux, enchanting cinematic-Esque scores on Venezia (Opening) along dramatic melodies best captured on Bald Trip – all bound together by the unmistakable essence of analog hardware. With the album demonstrating a fusion of Destiino’s many influences, O Pato and Rodouard touch upon a more club-focused sound whilst La Vrille is a nod to, and Destiino’s own take on acid house and techno.
Destiino first arrived in February of this year with an opening single and 4-track EP, Afsila, demonstrating the darker atmospheric tones and frantic melodies of Yuksek’s creative psyche. Opening EP tracks Sine, Afsila, La Jungle, and Terreur Nocturne introduced Destiino into the world and in turn sparked great intrigue between industry peers and fans alike. Following the release of the EP, Destiinoreleased two further singles titled Venezia (Opening) and Rodouard in the build-up to the release of today’s album.
Tracklist:
1 – Venezia (Opening)
2 – La Vrille
3 – O Pato
4 – Tropicante
5 – C’est Pas Des Oiseaux
6 – Rodouard
7 – Bald Trip
8 – La Vallée Des Corbeaux
9 – Venezia (Closing)
The self-titled Destiino album is out now via Chloé’s Lumière Noire Records both digitally and on vinyl.
Listen or purchase the track HERE.
