Russian born Alec Chizhik didn’t have much say in his destiny growing up. Born in Moscow
in 1982, he was raised by a family of musicians, and their collective talent was imbued in his
mind, body and soul by both nature and nurture. There was no escaping the music for this
young talent.
His musical education proper began at the age of 5 in his homeland, before his family
relocated to Germany in 1991 – where his musical studies continued unhampered. He began
his fascination with electronic music around 1994, when he started to join the dots between
his love of Michael Jackson, stripped-down hip-hop, Detroit techno and progressive house
music.
He began producing his own music aged 15, pooling these disparate influences and uniting
them through tribal rhythms, leftfield experimentalism, funk-driven basslines and atmospheric
textures. Indeed, these are all key elements of his sound to this day – a heady, ethereal
and soulful vibe running through his myriad productions. Back to the story though, and soon
Chizhik is meeting like-minded music freaks and playing live keyboards in clubs alongside
other machines and musicians as well as developing a taste for DJing.
Fast-forward to 2003 and Chizhik was applying his keyboard skills to the techno productions
of fellow Munich inhabitants, and it wasn’t long before featuring on releases as a co-producer.
In 2005 he graduated from the University of Munich with an impressive Honours degree, with
producing now his raison d’être.
Alongside his day job - working first for Universal and later Sony - the last few years have
seen him produce official remixes for Kool & The Gang, Amy Winehouse and Jean Claude
Ades, and release on some of Europe’s biggest tech labels like Great Stuff Recordings, Kling
Klong and Electronic Petz. As his DJ career began to blossom in tandem, he landed gigs at all
of his hometown’s best-loved clubs – including Harry Klein – and has made his international
debut in New York too.
His sound is one rich in melody and atmosphere, fusing the age-old principles of machine
techno and human soul, with an intelligence running through his productions that elevates
them above the dreary, brainless glut of releases that fill the download stores of today. There’s
a real sense of the genre’s history in his music, eschewing uber-modern over-technical
showboating for a humanistic, warm and organic feel. Intelligent techno at its best.