artists

• Where: Barbarella’s Discotheque
• When: Thursday 08.07. at 23:00-04:00

Paris born, Tokyo raised international eclectic french DJ, producer and international co-ordinator.

Having lived in Tokyo more than 20 years since he was a kid, he has developed into one of the strongest crossover DJ's in Tokyo and also became a key person connecting the world and Japan (F Communications Japan representative, Mr.Bongo/Disorient Japan, Bossa Tres Jazz project co-ordinator etc.) From 1992-1995 he participated in the development of the Paris underground club scene with friends DJ Deep and DJ Gregory through their "A Deep Groove" unit and radio show on Paris' Radio FG 98.2 FM.

Now based in New York from 2004. Alex has been playing regularly all around the world in Tokyo, New York and Europe. Alex still travels back to Tokyo every 2 months to continue his 10 year residency at the Sunday afternoon party "Gallery" with DJ Nori, Kenji Hasegawa and Fukuba. He also continues to host his weekly radio show "Tokyo Club Mix Showcase" every Wednesday on Shibuya FM78.4Mhz, now running for 11 years. In April 2006 he joined up with Manu (Supreme records) to begin "Cosmic Boogie" their monthly party at APT in NYC, inviting guests such as DJ Milo, DJ Red Alert and Todd Terje. In Fall 2006 Alex produced a deep house compilation "Suboceania" for Italian tastemakers Slam Jam. Additionally, September 2006 saw the Japanese release of Laurent Garnier's book "Electrochoc", which Alex translated from French to Japanese. Alex has 2 residencies in Japan: his 9 hours legendary DJ set at "Deep Impact" at Dj Bar Dai in Morioka from 2006 and "Timewarp" at Space Lab Yellow and now at Mado Lounge in Tokyo from January 2007. In Fall 2007 Alex began a weekly residency on Fridays at the NYC Lower East Side's 105 Rivington.

Alex has been producing music under the name Tokyo Black Star with partner Isao Kumano, releasing original material on Sonar Kollektiv/Innervisions (Tokyo Black Star "Pysche dance EP" Innervisions 01 and "Beyond the future EP Innervisions 04), on Innervisions (Tokyo Black Star "Still Sequence EP" in 2007 and recently Tokyo Black Star "Bit Commader EP"), as well as on the new joint label Reincarnation by Slam Jam and Neroli (Tokyo Black Star "Reincarnation") and on DJ Deep's deeply rooted house music records label (Tokyo Black Star "Rainbow/Fantastique voyage"). Tokyo Black Star have done remixes for labels such as Flower Records, Yellow Productions, Frikyiwa, Bassmental, Disorient, with new remixes as Kuniyuki "Birds" (mule musiq), nublu orchestra "Sketches of NY" (nublu), Bing Ji ling "Home" (Lovemonk) and Master H and Greg Oreck "Coffee is ecstasy" (komplex de deep). Tokyo Black Star collaborated in summer 2008 on the Great Stuff "Summer Games" Olympic compilation with the track "Japan". Besides the club scene, Alex has been recently doing also some music co-ordination and production work in fashion for brands like Y-3 and Louis Vuitton, and he has been invited to play at the official party of the world famous art fair ART BASEL in June 2007. Alex released in February 2008 his 5th mix CD in Japan for the newly launched DJ mix series "mi mix" on the Octave Lab label in Japan. In February 2009, Reincarnation just released the official label mix CD "Dj Alex from Tokyo presents "Reincarnation" -The Flashback mix-"!

Alex is getting ready to release in April 2009 his first long-awaited Tokyo Black Star debut album "Black Ships" on Innervisions.

Led by New York and Tokyo-based international DJ Alex from Tokyo and Tokyo-based producer and engineer Isao Kumano, Tokyo Black Star are truly 21st century galactic artists. As their ship has advanced through the galaxy, meeting fellow travelers along the way, Tokyo Black Star have absorbed and translated influences from around the solar system and beyond.

They have released so far 4 EPs on the hi-profile Innervisions label in Berlin, various remixes wordwide including recently Kuniyuki "Birds" (mule musiq), nublu orchestra "Sketches of NY" (nublu), Bing Ji ling "Home" (Lovemonk) and Master H and Greg Oreck "Coffee is ecstasy" (komplex de deep), and they have just released in April 2009 their full length debut album "Black Ships" (Innervisions) collaborating with the NYC based japanese painter Tomokazu Matsuyama. "Black Ships" can be described at once as a nonfiction travel diary, and at the same time as a supreme fiction of traveling through the world of imagination.

Visit the artist’s webpage for more info