Joakim

If you ask various people who Joakim is you will most likely get different answers as the French outsider, now NY based, has spent his whole career exploring multiple aspects of being a musician, carefully avoiding being categorized. Who is Joakim? A musician, classically trained pianist, with multiple solo albums under his belt including the latest critically acclaimed “Samurai”. A label founder and manager (the influential Tigersushi Records and the vinyl-only Crowdspacer imprint distributed by Rush Hour). An outstanding DJ with a personal approach to blending genres and connecting dots in a seamless and unexpected way making him equally at home at Panorama Bar, a festival stage or an art opening. A high-profile remixer (Robyn, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air, Goldfrapp, Antena, Cut Copy…) who has a special talent for transforming pop songs into crossover club hits. A producer and mixer (!!!, DJ Tennis, Poni Hoax, Juveniles, Zombie Zombie, Montevideo...) with his own recording studio based in Brooklyn (www.crowdspacer.nyc). A visual artist: Joakim’s solo works have been shown at Gwangju Biennale, Centro pecci... his music installations, soundtracks and performances in collaboration with other artists (Camille Henrot, Xavier Veilhan) have been shown in all the most prestigious institutions (MOMA, Palais de Tokyo, Hammer Museum…). A self-taught graphic designer (he designs his record covers and most of Tigersushi and Crowdspacer’s artworks). A sound designer for catwalks (Chanel, Balenciaga, Valentino, Margiela...). Musically, if you have to put Joakim in a category, which he would probably disapprove, it would be the one of great experimental artists who had one foot in the Avant Garde and another in the Pop world : Arthur Russell, David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brian Eno, those are the names who come to mind when listening to Joakim’s productions, from “Fantômes” deviant electronica debut in 2003, to “Nothing Gold”’s sunny melancholic Pop in 2011, from “Monsters & Silly Songs” cerebral post punk in 2006, to 2017 “Samurai”s dreamy atmosphere, impeccable song writing and lush textures. Joakim has definitely left his fingerprints on current electronic music, modernizing and hybridizing it, tracing his very own path, with no concern for schools and genres, be it techno, krautrock, noise, ambient, R&B, post punk or everything “proto”. Joakim also contributed to various prestigious labels like Versatile, Life & Death, Permanent Vacation, Vinyl Factory…