by Montserrat Piffaut y Esperanza Mena.
The diversity of Latin America is replicated in Chile and also in its southern lands, specifically in the regions of Los Ríos and Los Lagos. There, electronic music has been building an increasingly vibrant scene. Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt, and Chiloé are some of the cities where the underground has been activated in the sector.
Below, we will mention some of the artists who have shown that there is plenty of talent in the southern landscapes.
Everybody dances in Valdivia
Ojosflojos is the musical project of Nani, based in Valdivia nine years ago. In 2018 he started scratching cds with the mk2 and since then he has played at various parties and important festivals in the south. He even recently shared the stage with Spfdj (Berlin) in Puerto Montt. His track “El cuerpo como dimensión de utilidad”, released by Panal Records, is a perfect techno for the club. A genre he has mastered during his career and without ceasing to experiment.
About the scene, Nani believes that it has been creating organically and highlights the instances that are generated when the right people connect. Despite the difficulties of making music in the region, the Valdivia community chooses to continue and resist with a clear intention. “Here there is no major questioning of why we are doing this, but rather that we do it for the territory and by the territory,” he says.
Ojosflojos
On the other hand, Mau (or Fuga) is the founder of the dissident collectives Amazónicas and Hechiza. With years of experience in the southern scene, in addition to experimenting in photography and visuals, her mixes are a fresh journey through techno and hard. About her future projects she comments that she is working on her next mix made up exclusively by female producers.
“In the south we have other ways of doing the scene: we share knowledge, we teach whoever wants to learn, we are friends, and that makes us connect between cities,” she says. The collaboration has allowed to maintain the electronic culture in the region and to take djs from the area like Galactxtx to Fiesta Dame, one of the biggest electronic parties in Santiago.
Fuga
Osorno, the birthplace of Galactxtx
At 13 he had his first guitar, at 14 a controller, and as a teenager, in addition to playing drums, he used to get together with his friends to create bases; instance in which he discovered production. For some, Galactxtx is one of the most outstanding exponents of the region. Where he keeps mixing in different cities like Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and even in the capital. In this regard, he says: “Being an artist in the south is difficult, it is hard to grow, but you have to try to look outside your city as well”.
According to him, the scene in the south has been evolving towards EBM and techno, which has opened the doors to a diverse public that is gaining more and more strength. He comments that the landscapes there have a particular impact on the public: the gray skies, the humid and opaque evenings, in addition to the dense foliage of the vegetation, could influence the audience to prefer darker, atmospheric sounds that evoke greater introspection and intimacy with the self.
Galactxtx
Puerto Montt: the center of techno
Constanza AKA Weisser resides in Puerto Montt, a city where international artists such as Fiedel, VTSS, Metaraph, and more have played. Weisser, started his career as an instrumentalist thanks to his brother, who incorporated his metal influences. Then, when she found electronica, she started mixing electro pop and deep house, with the support of Elias Deepman. Today she is recognized both in the region and nationally, as she has performed throughout Chile, except for Punta Arenas.
A concern that arises regarding everything that is happening in the south, is that many parties in Santiago are migrating there and somehow colonizing the southern scene with forms of the Chilean capital that are not always consistent with those of the local scene. To improve that, he believes that it is necessary to walk towards unity and stop seeing other artists as rivals.
Weisser
Making scene on the island
Storms, winds, rains, less light during the day, make Chiloé a hostile territory for bohemian nightlife. However, projects such as Homunculus, formed by Marcelo (Akila), Constanza, and Nicole, have found an opportunity on the island and have formed the first artistic collective in the sector. In this regard, Marcelo comments: “Here there are people who do not have the possibility of accessing art and it is sad. Their realities are different and that’s where access to leisure and entertainment is a right: to have time to relax and not be a robot”.
Without a previous scene, they have held parties, workshops, as well as managing an online radio. Homunculus seeks to deliver a quality artistic proposal; showing both local avant-garde and those of the capital. This is why they have prioritized working with djs and producers from the south and have also brought the music of Delia. With whom they recently collaborated for the video clip of “Tekknotrans“, an audiovisual production filmed in the area and that has been a success in different platforms.
Akila. Foto por Esperanza Mena
The southern scene is very diverse. But in addition to the music, the aim of its artists is to work collaboratively so that the art continues to grow and thus confront centralization. A problem that so far has not been an impediment to the cultivation of electronic music in one of the most remote places in the world.
