Twenty-nine-year-old Cesar Merveille recipe for great music involves specialist ingredients. The rapidly rising producer mixes the traditional dance influences of house and minimal techno with his love of art, jazz, wine, and the occasional fishing trip in Brittany. The result is sounds you won’t hear anywhere else. His superb productions include Chocopop Jazz (Remake Music) and Descarga (Cadenza), which has been a staple of Luciano’s recent sets. He also deploys his deft touch on the decks at clubs across Europe, including dates in France, the Netherlands, Italy, England and Ireland.

Seasoning these ingredients is a valuable boyhood lesson involving bread. “I was giving my parents some trouble,” Cesar explains. “So they made me work in a bakery in the countryside for a week. It was a hell. I had to get up at 4AM and ride my bike there. But it taught me I have to work hard for what I want.”

The road to fulfilling his creative ambitions took Cesar from his native Paris to London, where he took did a degree in graphic and media design. Music – a constant companion since he first picked out Hey Jude on the piano at age seven – remained a much-loved hobby. After university Cesar founded his own graphic design company, Hijackstudio but was increasingly drawn to making records. After early releases on the illustrious Safari Electronique label he hit a new high with Chocopop Jazz – “that’s when I knew

I wanted to do this full time,” he says.

Cesar made the decision to put the very successful Hijackstudio on hold and devote himself 100% to music. The results of his decision are clear to see: a burst of creativity that fuelled Descarga and promises a string of exciting releases including another solo project on Cadenza and a collaboration with Ryan Crosson due out on Circus Records. His increasingly busy tour schedule takes in some of the hottest clubs in the UK and the continent, including Cable and T-Bar (London), Kamakama (Pisa) and the Warehouse (Manchester). “Being able to make music full time is my biggest achievement so far,” says Cesar. But with his talent and drive it is only the beginning. There are even bigger achievements to come.

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