As a producer, DJ & label owner Cosmin Nicolae’s dedication to developing a rich and wholly personal artistic landscape provides the driving force behind one of dance music’s most unique & industrious individuals.

Opening the door on Hessle Audio over a decade ago - an outlet that has gone on to become a defining voice within electronic music in the 21st Century, Nicolae’s list of affiliations reads like a who’s who of top tier contemporary dance music record labels. Appearances on Amsterdam’s Rush Hour and Gerd Janson’s Running Back, as well as a brace of singles alongside LP’s Gordian and Simulat on the now defunct 50 Weapons - not to mention work for Semantica and Bleep, have cemented Cosmin TRG deep in the psyche of the ever shifting amoeba that is the dance music zeitgeist.

In many ways, what lies at the heart of Nicolae’s work - beyond the extraordinary pairing of high end sound design and club functionality, is an innate ability to bind his discography - to create a streamlined sonic vision without compromise, one that moves with purpose and vigour outwards to explore in depth structures that exist on the very periphery of House & Techno, Ambient & experimental electronics - but maintain a unique and recognisable finish. Few artists could boast a discography that marries 2016’s ubiquitous In Your Body, an anthemic spoken- word-meets-Tool-Techno leviathan released via Nicolae’s own club-focused Sportiv outlet, with Semnal - a gloriously executed LP of shifting, otherworldly Experimental music delivered under the artist’s given name via the Opal Tapes label.

Cult concept missive Hope This Finds You Well, Nicolae’s 2019 reflection on corporate culture furthers this same dichotomy - a stunning wide-angle Ambient LP on Fizic - the label operated by the artist as a home to more conceptual iterations, that followed hot on the footsteps of a remix for Bpitch founder Ellen Alien & the fourth instalment on Sportiv - both offerings heady club constructions in their own right.

On the road, both DJ sets and live performances mirror this healthy sentiment - with Nicolae as comfortable on main stages showcasing his take on hyper-modern propulsive Techno, as he is presenting the low slung avant-garde preoccupations of his more leftfield alias’. There’s the constant feeling that both these practices feed back into one another, and that from each respective vantage point, Cosmin TRG is able to make the kind of dynamic & intuitive artistic decisions that few can - keeping his work fresh & current without concession - ceding to his own desire to further his vision as a creator of sonic abstraction without losing sight of the dance floor.

noa334 is following