For the twenty-fifth installment of our interview series, we introduce Cosmic Xplorer & JC Laurent.

Cosmic Xplorer is a DJ and producer from Budapest, Hungary. He grew up listening to true school techno pioneers such as Chris Liebing, Speedy J and Jeff Mills – while also appreciating house and progressive – but initially made drum & bass in the late nineties.

By 2015, he started to paint techno-inspired, abstract art as One Man Techno Army, which was an audiovisual live performance where techno sounds met and melted with his own hand crafted and abstract art. The shows took him to Italy, Portugal and Czech Republic before he continued his artistic evolution. By 2019, he was deeply immersed in modern and original electronic music production.

This ageless passion for curating and collecting Techno music since the mid 90’s led him to establish his own record label Hypnosis Mutiplex. 

JC Laurent is a DJ and producer from Nice, France. He held the position of resident at Kwartz Club for seven years, from 2016 to 2023. This experience opened doors for the native of the Côte d’Azur, allowing him to perform in numerous clubs and festivals across Europe and beyond. Notable venues include the legendary Parisian barge “La Concrete,” Suicide Club in Berlin, Plages Electroniques in Cannes, Zodiak in Brussels, DiscotecaNordest in Vicenza, SpaceMonki in Zurich, and Waxbar in Tunis.

On the production front, Hidden Recordings trusted him from the beginning, releasing several vinyl records with well-established remixers in the electronic scene. He also has releases in big labels like Dynamic Reflection, Suara Music, Warok Music to name a few. In early 2023, he launched his own label Cielo Records.

We chatted with them about their recently released collaborative EP ‘Sweet Trap / Symmetry Game‘, plus a few more aspects of their careers. Read the full interview below.

Hi guys, Luis from Living Techno here, it’s a pleasure having you in our interview series, thank you. First of all, how are you and where in the world are you taking this interview?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): I am good Luis, thanks for asking. It is our pleasure to be invited to the Living Techno`s interview series. I live and work in Budapest, Hungary.

JC Laurent: Hi Luis, All good here. Thanks for the interview! I’m in Nice (South of France).

What led you guys to start your career in the electronic music scene, how, when and where did you guys get involved?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): It is a long story, but I try to keep it as short as possible (laughing). It all started in Miskolc, Hungary around 1996! I was browsing through radio channels with my new, portable radio, when I stumbled upon NonStop radio`s (ex. local commercial radio station) electronic music program called HYPERSEBESSÉG (Hyperspeed). It was on schedule every Thursday from 9PM (or sometime even from 8PM) to 10 PM. I still remember the moment of surprise when I first heard this kind of music; I was only 14 years old. In 3-4 years, I became one of the selectors for the radio show. Me and my friends delivered music on CDs to the radio host, so that he could play them… and he played them, sometimes even without pre-listening to the music we wrote on those CDs. Back then we played everything… techno, house, D&B, chill out, trance, minimal…

I was fond of being in the radio studio with like-minded people. I only realized ten years later that it was the golden era of electronic music – for me at least -. I will probably chase those moments, feelings till eternity, although I am very much aware of the fact that it will never ever be the same again; a lot has changed in the music industry since then unfortunately… I will talk about this in a later section.

In 2001 I moved to Budapest, because of my studies and the record stores… ok, I confess, I moved only because of the record stores (laughing). Unfortunately, from this point on, things started to take a bad turn musically speaking. I got less and less involved with promoting/playing music and started to become more of a music consumer, mainly because I moved away from my friends and from the radio.

In 2005 I took an engineering job that took me to different parts of the World. I was still very much hooked to music, visited as much record stores as I could, e.g. the Vinyl Mania and the Turntable Lab in Manhattan or the Rocking Horse store in Brisbane, Australia, but I still felt bad that I could not be involved with music, so in 2010, when I stopped travelling, I started my own online radio show called the “Late Night City Stories”. The show was more focused on house, deep house, but after a year and half I started to play more techno towards the end of each episode. In 2011, I joined a collective for a short period of time, we played house music in Budapest city center. In the same year I was invited to play techno at Rheingold club, Düsseldorf.

Between 2016 and 2019 I was working on an audiovisual project called One Man Techno Army. The AV concept was a fusion of techno music and abstract visuals created from my own paintings. I did tours with this project in Rome and in Prague a couple of times.  

August 2019 was breaking point for me. I did my own retrospective and realized how many things I did wrong (well… almost everything!) in the last two decades, in terms of music promotion, social media, branding, networking, mindset, so I completely re-planned every aspect of the “industry” side and started from scratch.
In 2019 September I started to learn Ableton from the very basics, although I must mention that I did write some D&B and ambient tracks in the end of the 90’s using Cool Edit Pro and later with Cubase. In the summer of 2020, my Cosmic Xplorer alias was born.

JC Laurent: As a true music lover since my young age, I played the electric guitar around the age of 12.

I started going out to Clubs/Festivals at a very young age (around 16) in particular from Nice to Marseille to explore my first techno events.

But it really started on the day of my birthday when I turned 18. I played for the first time on a private beach in Nice. After that I got other gigs in some bars and clubs around the city. Quickly, I installed Ableton Live, started making some beats for my own fun, till to release my first EP on Berlin based Pluseins Records that is now closed and another EP, always in Berlin at Wall Music Records from Mike Wall sadly passed away a few years ago. The next year my music continued to grow up with a first vinyl release on Hidden Recordings based in New York with a very deep remix from New York legend Fred P aka Black Jazz Consortium. From that moment on, I had a lot of support and encouragement from those around me. It was the time to open your first Club in Nice with 3 other friends, The “Minority Club” where i was resident for almost 3 years and got the chance to play with artists such as DVS1, Dasha Rush, Peter Van Hoesen, Truncate, to name a few. When it was over, almost 2 years later, we got another opportunity to open a new club, the “Kwartz Club” where we stayed almost 7 years.   

What’s your view on the current state of the scene in your location… What has changed?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): I only have the visibility of the techno scene here in Hungary, so I cannot really tell how it is for the underground electronic music scene in general, but I would not be surprised if it would be in the same state.

Its state is more or less “OFF” or how I would rather call it nearly “dead”. Some non-profit collectives are trying to poke it’s “dead body”, so maybe it raises from the dead.

Needless to say, I feel lucky enough to be a member of some of these collectives. Of course, there are some for-profit organizers, who deliver parties for the masses, but there is not much in between of the two kinds. It is not a good thing to be involved in the proper electronic music industry in Hungary right now in case you want to be professional artist. Even at its peak time in the mid 90` there were only around a couple of thousands party-goers – interested in underground music – and as of 2024 this number is down to a couple of dozens. If the organizer has a lot of money to burn, then they might get like 300 people in a club, with a high chance of potential financial losses. 

The Hungarian underground scene is (and always have been) a hard nut to crack.

I have seen the difference in the last 20 years between the Hungarian and foreign dance floors. People in Western EU countries are still more receptive to new things than here in Hungary. They enjoy this genre much more. This is probably because of the bad history of Hungary; socialism and then the rampant capitalism spiced with the age-old social norms.

From the “underground” side, a sad phenomenon has started since Covid19, namely the rise of the young, not-so-much talented, new wave Tik-Tok hippies, self-styled star DJs and promoters. They buy streams and fake followers; they do everything to get into power. They act in the exact opposite way, compared to what they say and communicate. They are not open, cocky, cannot really be trusted, unfriendly and show no sign of acceptance.
Music for them is just an undervalued career to show off their “skills” in the DJ booth, which for me is weird, because when I started in the 90s I did it because of the music, I did not know any other “importance” of a DJ, other than the music selection.

Of course, there are exceptions, but they are hard to find since they choose to remain silent.
Because of the above-mentioned reasons, even that small proper techno scene is segmented, since many organizers and DJs want a slice of the night life and the audience.

I am super happy for the people who come to our parties. They are essential for survival of the genre in Hungary, but it is all non-sustainable at the moment. I feel that organizers will soon stop founding even these smaller events, due to lack of interest. Maybe the only reason why these small events still keep on going, is that many tourists from the Netherlands, Spain and Germany turn up to them, thanks to Resident Advisor!

Regarding the future I am optimistic. I have some hopes regarding generation Alpha (people born between 2010-2024). The first wave of these youngsters will start to party 4-5 years and I hope they will behave somewhat the opposite way as the generation Z. Hopefully they will re-discover proper music and they will go out much more.

JC Laurent: To be honest, my perspective leans heavily towards pessimism, although I sincerely hope I’m mistaken. The landscape has shifted dramatically since the onset of the global pandemic.

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer) made a very detailed panorama from the new scene; the last paragraph works strangely but surely everywhere in the new “underground” scene around the world. I can easily recognize some collective in the riviera.

Now the majority want one thing.. Hard techno remixed with commercial music…

But like all styles it will not stay indefinitely.

This mixed with high inflation and more poverty, create a difficult moment for promoters, artists and people who seek to find quality events and clubs in the south of France and probably in general.

How did 2024 begin for you guys and what plans do you have for this year?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): Despite all the difficulties, I cannot really complain. 2024 is going to be full of surprises music wise. Also, I joined the “Rendez-Vous Fusion” artist agency a few weeks ago, JC will share more info about it.

JC Laurent: It starts off pretty well with 2 new releases in February. One on my label Cielo Records with “Nothing But An Illusion” EP with a great remix from Na Nich. The second is the collaboration with Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer) on his own label and also the launch of a new promotion agency “Rendez-Vous Fusion” alongside Aerae to promote emerging artists with podcasts, events and a label in the future. We welcomed Daniel to the agency only a few weeks ago, He is the first one sharing this new project with us.

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer), tell us a bit about Hypnosis Multiplex, what is the story behind the label and what is the main goal?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): The label started in 2021. It provides me a stable platform to release music whenever I want, with whoever I want. It gives me freedom and flexibility. I usually put a lot of effort into every release to reach as many potential listeners, curators, DJs as I can. This is a main differentiator when it comes to other underground labels. I keep pushing the promotion in a proper way, while other labels mostly fail at it, saying that underground music needs no promotion. Well, in the year of 2024 they are – with a few exceptions – all going in the wrong direction.

What do you guys think are some of the highs and lows of running a label?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer):

Lows: Separate social accounts, lots of administrative work, scheduling releases and artist management requires time, promotion…and in the end, you still give away your music for free for hundreds of people, who may or may not help you with the promotion.

Highs: Seeing the label’s music being played in several podcasts is very cool.
Seeing music being played and reported on Aslice by DVS1, Lindsey Herbert or Rene Wise a month before release date is a top moment.

JC Laurent: I’m joining all Daniel’s Lows and Highs.

Aslice is a very big game changer, Bandcamp is also much more honest for all and easy to use than the other big stores, especially for digital release, for the moment… but we know that generally releasing the music on our own is more of an investment than a real full time job.

Congratulations for the release of ‘Sweet Trap / Symmetry Game’… What is the concept, inspiration and meaning of this record, and what can we expect to hear from the EP?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer):  Thanks Luis! My tracks were basically reactions to the demo tracks JC sent me. When I listened to them, I immediately filtered out my ideas which could work with his tracks.

Both “Soft light” and “Symmetry Game” are minimalistic, loopy, dreamy, hypnotic tracks, which are working well in a multi-layered DJ set.

When I first created the two main loops for my “Sweet Trap” remix, the first thing that came to my mind was that this track sounds like a “lovechild” track of Jeroen Search and Gaetano Parisio (laughing).

Tell us the story, how did JC Laurent ended up with two original tracks on this EP?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): It was magical. In the summer of 2023, JC Laurent played and reported one of my track on Aslice and I sent him a thank you message (as I usually do). I also wrote to him that I know his music and played some tracks from him like 4-5 years ago. We started to chat, and at the end of the summer he messaged me, saying that he is coming to Budapest soon and he is looking forward to meeting me. The rest is history.

How long did it take to create this EP, and how was the process of you guys working together on this collaborative release?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): I make many tracks parallel, I do not actually remember, but I can tell that my original tracks were fresh ones, so they did not sit wait on the hard drive for long. I did create 4-5 tracks and I let JC in the end to select the ones he liked.

I remember that the remix was ready very quickly. The whole thing was ready to release in appx. 2-3 months as far I can remember.

JC Laurent: Like Daniel said, it was not long to create this EP. I sent him a few demos and the magic happened. The tracks were made around the summer of 2023 but reworked near the end of year for potentially being released on his label.

Any other upcoming releases (Collaborative or personal) already scheduled that you guys can give us some details about?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): I have at least two other Hypnosis Multiplex releases scheduled for this year with promising music and talents. Besides the HYX releases, two collaboration projects started this year with internationally recognized artists. I cannot really share more details at this point, but it is a very exciting opportunity for me.

JC Laurent: Nothing planned at the moment but working a lot on new materials for my label and maybe sending some demos in the near future and also finalizing an EP with Aerae.

What do you guys think has changed or is changing in the electronic music industry talking about the way music gets to consumers, and if you consider this has changed for the good or bad?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): In my opinion, in the last 25-30 years the way music gets to consumers has completely changed. By now, we can see that the technological evolution had more negative effects than positive, I think. In the 90s, if you wanted to be a DJ, you needed to invest into expensive gear and even more expensive vinyl records and that was just the beginning. It massively filtered out people, who did not think about DJing seriously. Nowadays, all you need is a tablet with cracked DJ software and a couple of thousands of fake Tik Tok and Instagram followers. You can “DJ” while riding the bike, half naked and stream it for free for everyone on multiple platforms.

More focus is put on the number of followers and on the “show”. The depreciation of music started a while ago.

In the 90s you could hear underground electronic music regularly on commercial TVs channels and radios. So, that was one way to discover new music, new styles. Nowadays, magazines, radios and TV stations want to make people believe that there is only pop music out there. The media on a global level decided to ignore (proper) electronic music, which is also making things harder for us. Maybe it has political reasons, I cannot really tell.

There are some for-profit organizations using e.g. YouTube as a platform to showcase electronic music, but their integrity became questionable for me in recent years… and I don’t even want to start the conversation about Spotify and click farms now (laughing).

JC Laurent: I’m uncertain if I can find better words than Daniel’s on this matter. As always, there are both positive and negative aspects to consider. The objective is to strike a harmonious balance between them, but currently, that equilibrium is elusive. We find ourselves in an era where the motto is often “fake it till you make it,” making it challenging to navigate through these complexities. It’s only a matter of time before AI plays a significant role in the industry, a transformation that has already begun.

To this moment, what do you guys would consider your most significant achievement in your career as an artist?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): For me, the first one is something you cannot really measure. In the last few years, I became friends with so many like-minded people that for me it was unimaginable in the last two decades. For a long time I was a lone warrior “One Man Techno Army”… but finally found my tribe… and yes, most of them are located all around the Globe, but we make Zoom calls, we chat and in some cases, we even meet personally, which is a significant achievement for me.

The second one is the by-product of the first. As I mentioned before, I joined Rendez-Vous Fusion agency for which I am so proud of. The agency is operated by Aerae and JC and they plan to deliver high quality music and artists to parties for which I could not be happier! 

JC Laurent: Playing at Concrete in Paris with a big line up in 2017 was a big dream came true. but also to have been a resident for a respected club in South Of France and shared my vision for 7 years between these walls.

Thanks for your time, to close the interview, can you guys tell what the purpose of your music is?

Daniel (Cosmic Xplorer): I like to experiment with sounds, create new unheard ones. Exploration is a key element of my music. Therefore, I do not work with templates, I do not like to repeat what I have to say musically. So, I think the purpose of my music is to show something new, non-standard, with a style.

JC Laurent: My purpose is to explore the music at different BPM with hypnotic sounds and deep basses with no barrier of style. 

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