biography

For a long time, Slovenia is known for its great electronic parties, but as the local scene is of boutique dimensions, everyone, who wishes to take the art of mixing and producing to a professional level, has to go out there and enter the worldwide scene. Umek has done this step as early as in the middle of the 90s and so he became one of the most important techno players of the global techno scene, even before the end of the last millennium. Together with people, who shared the same views, he successfully captured the first era of researching and recreating the rules of the dance music in Recycled Loops, Consumer Recreation and Astrodisco platforms, which all put the sound of the Slovenian techno on the world map of electronic music.

In the beginning of the year 2007, Umek started a new 1605 Music Therapy - Sixteenofive, with which he marked the beginning of the second era of his music creation and what an era it is! After 3 years the label is already tagged as a great success, with an exemplary number of hot releases, pounding the Beatport Techno Chart.A huge success of the »Electronics Day ‘10« - the main 1605 techno event in Krizanke (Ljubljana, Slovenia) for the fourth year in a row, a popular summer festival »Disconautica« in 2009 (Koper, Slovenia) featuring 1605 Main Floorand with over 50.000 attending people only further deepened the 1605’s story of success. Furthermore the many astonishing releases and remixes already released in 2010, not to mention the crown jewel – Responding To Dynamic, Umek’a second authorial album (released in March 2010), are the best proof, that Umek stays focused on his primary goal – making high quality productions that stand out from the rest and to bring this music closer to people all around the world.

Nominations on world's prestigious music contests seem to just pour into Umek's pocket – he was voted to first place on Beatport's world Music Awards in techno category, not to mention he was one of the 2009's Best Sellers on Beatport. On last year's DJ Mag Top 100 DJs he was placed on 3rd spot in techno and on 39th spot in overall category.

Even more impressive stuff is cooking in Umek's oven for the summer. He will be a resident at Space, Ibiza on Carl Cox's Tuesdays. Alongside Ibiza residency, Umek will also reside in a popular Croatian club Byblos, with some special guests – Dubfire, Sébastien Léger and Christian Smith being only few of them.