Postpunk, sci fi, glamrock, avant  garde, ambient.

Jo Hutton is a music writer, sound artist and electroaocustic music composer.

The Minimal Synth Group is for everyone to be heard, community and the love of the genre.  Please submit your tracks via DM to this page that you would like added to the monthly playlist.   Cheers. @l-sedition

Bookings, remixes, re-works: 
ilyasantana@gmail.com

All media access via: 
https://linktr.ee/Ilyasantana

Biography:

Ilya Santana is a name that echoes through the shimmering corridors of electronic music, particularly in the realms of space disco and cosmic funk. Born and raised in the Canary Islands, a place where the Atlantic meets the dust of Africa, Santana found himself drawn to the edges of sound early on—edges where melody could float, and rhythm didn’t have to march. He came up through the analog warmth of the ‘70s and the cold seduction of the ‘80s, and somehow fused both into his own kind of future nostalgia.

His career took root in the early 2000s, not through grand gestures but through consistency—a steady stream of releases that wound their way through labels like Balearic stalwarts Eskimo Recordings and Nang. Each track, a kind of ode to neon dreams and late-night drives, became a testament to Santana’s gift for atmosphere: his music doesn’t just play, it inhabits. There’s a cinematic quality to his work, like he’s scoring the movie of a life that’s never quite real but always feels familiar.

Ilya’s sound is less about chart-topping bravado and more about evocation. It lingers. It hums beneath the surface of memory. Through remix work, original compositions, and DJ sets that feel like journeys, Santana has shaped a career that’s both low-key and influential—an underground luminary lighting the way for those who understand that some of the best music doesn’t demand attention, it earns it.

Ilya is running his own record label "Astrolead recordings" specialized on the most underground side of Disco, Space/Cosmic disco, Retro and Synthwave.
Also started duties as a sound designer crafting sample/loops packages for "Loopmasters"

As a DJ, Sound Artist, and Photographer, Rami's practice reflects a life lived at the crossroads of cultures and places. Subtly confronting and surprising, his works aim to empower imagination as they retell stories through music. They are an invitation to explore themes of memory, time, migration and forced existential exile. 

His first live performance was in Madame Claude’s infamous EXPERIMONTAG nights, one of the strongholds of Berlin’s experimental music scene. From there he appeared at Tresor’s New Faces, Silent Green, OHM, and ELSE and established a presence in Berlin's night culture. Rami has also made a name as radio host through monthly residencies on Radio Alhara, Noods Radio, and Cashmere Radio. 

Insijam, his show on Cashmere Radio focuses on the essence of chances and encounters. In Arabic, Insijam means harmony, and in this show different sounds peacefully coexist and enhance each other. Musique Concrète naturally merges with traditional Lebanese music, spoken words, and improv jazz. In these performances, Rami forms an auditory journey that deeply resonates with feelings of displacement and the eternal quest for belonging. To deliberately bring about this sentiment, Rami is versatile in using media - tapes, recordings and vinyl collected in the fragmented places that influenced him, are puzzled and layered together. They build fluid structures that bring people together and make them belong- through the experience of listening. 

For “love is on my side” on Noods Radio, Rami showcases Cold Wave, Post Punk and Synth tunes with a focus to offer a space for reflection. 

"Layali Insijam" on Radio Alhara, is a continuation of the INSIJAM project by documenting Folk music from Lebanon by highlighting musical plays and instrumental pieces. Radio is an important vessel of self-expression for Rami, and in his words, working with Radio made him a better listener and DJ.  

Moreover, Rami’s sound projects extend to sound art by amplifying chairs and manipulating samples of traditional Lebanese instruments. The Oud, Nay, Qanun, and Tabla intertwine with electro-acoustic elements, field recordings from Beirut and Berlin, and spoken words to evoke a sense of contemplation. 

But his examination of places and spaces and their significance for one’s identity and sense of belonging doesn’t stop here. As a photographer Rami’s current focus is on taking urban pictures. He seeks to find a deeper understanding of boundaries. They either separate or unify public and/or private realms, giving birth to spaces, which Rami coins as a “diasporic field”. Within these newly human-defined spaces, the pictures serve as a mirror. They capture and reveal these for Rami so important themes of remembrance and displacement.

Rami’s pursuit of harmonizing a fusion of influences - may it be via sound or visual art - acts as a reminder to embrace the beauty of chance encounters and form deep contemplations about belonging and the fluidity of cultural identity.

Written by Theresa Baumel -

Followers of St