In “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Steven Spielberg imagined music as a transcendental vehicle to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations.
Forty-seven years after the premiere of that masterpiece of cinema, the Argentine Antü Coimbraalso known as Øostiltransports its audience to distant galaxies thanks to dance, music, sound manipulation and the use of technology. A man of Renaissance spirit, sound alchemist, artist, DJ and music producer, he has transformed airplanes into his place of residence, traveling around the world performing before the most diverse audiences that have made him one of the most popular musicians in his discipline. globally today.
Possibly his Rosebud has been forgotten in some of his childhood Tigre boats, while he plans new tours and performances. Almost miraculously, he remained in Argentina for a few hours during the return of Creamfields to Buenos Aires. In that brief period, NEWS found him in the bar of a famous hotel on Avenida Alvear to start this dialogue.
News: How would you define your work for someone who is not so familiar with electronic music?
Øostil: It’s a good question, I think that within entertainment we do just that, entertain people and take them out of their usual daily lives, connect them with the artistic space of communication on a musical level. Now this new tangent is directed towards the audiovisual, this type of sound that I produce, electronic music aimed at melodic techno, connects directly not only with the auditory but also with the visual. In recent years, the inclusion of screens and lighting engineers made everything transform into an outstanding experience of listening to music.
News: Do you define yourself as a musician or as someone who plays music?
Øostil: Clearly I started as a DJ, mixing music from other artists. After five years I started creating my own music and the good thing is that the culmination of that, being able to collaborate with other musical artists, opens up the possibility of getting together in different studios to make music with vocalists, guitarists or percussionists. So I’m a musician, I’m a DJ, but my strength is musical production that goes hand in hand with electronics.
News: He travels the world doing what he likes, playing in the best places. Is the life of the DJ and musician as good as one imagines it from the outside?
Øostil: From the moment I can make a living from what I like and what is my passion, an inexplicable magic is generated. Today I have the opportunity to travel a lot, although logically there is physical wear and tear. In the last fifteen years I have missed all of my mother’s birthdays, I have not been able to be there for Christmas or New Years where I would like to meet the family. But as a counterbalance there is the other thing, which is being able to constantly visit friends all over the world and connect with fans from different cities that I never imagined.
News: Do you feel a little uprooted?
Øostil: Very recently I was in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Bali, places I never dreamed of. Then you return and reconnect with your surroundings, so in the end it is gratifying to be able to be on the move, learning and materializing different visions, because what sounds in Berlin is not the same as what sounds here or in Dubai. I have a residence in Dubai where I go four or five times a year and learn a lot about Middle Eastern culture. Soon I have a three-week tour of India playing in different cities for an audience with very different roots than ours. The feeling of satisfaction that nourishing yourself with other ways of seeing the world gives you is indefinable. It breaks your mind. . It is very interesting to see how music changes and that is a great source of inspiration when returning to the studio.
News: In Argentina we pride ourselves on having the best audience in the world. Who was the most passionate audience you played for?
Øostil: Seriously, the best audience is the Argentinian. I experienced that fervor playing in Chaco, in Córdoba, in Mendoza, in Mar del Plata, in Buenos Aires, the energy that exists throughout Argentina is unmatched. That’s why bands like the Rolling Stones or Metallica choose to come and record their albums live thanks to the effervescence that our people have. The dedication you have with the Argentine public makes you forget about time, you can play for ten hours and you feel like it’s ten minutes.
News: He mentioned a legendary band like the Rolling Stones and very recently another living legend like Paul McCartney was here, who in his eighties played for three hours straight. Could a DJ also play up to that age if he wanted to?
Øostil: I consider that there is a useful life. Suddenly in a band you plan a tour and go out to do your shows, but you also rely on other musicians, being a DJ you are alone, the physical wear and tear of traveling for twenty or thirty years is weighing on you, in the last three years I took five hundred flights, I imagine when I reach McCartney’s age! (laughs). I’m going to want to be in Mendoza resting and having a wine in the vineyards, I doubt I live in an airport. Furthermore, there comes a time when you have to transcend and make way for the new generations. We don’t know the future, we have to work in the long term, but enjoy each date as if it were the last. From Hernán Cattaneo, who is my reference, I learned to have a healthy life and stay away from excesses that have little to do with entertainment, I hope to be able to transmit that to the younger ones.
News: I read somewhere that as a child I lived in Tigre and had to go to school by boat…
Øostil: Yes, at nine in the morning I would pick up the boat and depending on the weather, if it was foggy you would be late for school. In the afternoon, if you wanted to have mate with bills, you would wait for the warehouse boat that passed by the door of your house, it was a very crazy thing, because suddenly while my friends were going out on the weekends I had a much stronger connection with the nature, with the stars, with things that develop the sensitivity that you later need if you dedicate yourself to something creative.
News: After very intense days, how do you unplug?
Øostil: I just try to connect with nature, in Barcelona I live on the outskirts. Now I came to play at Creamfields, but then I’m going to rest for a few days in Mendoza, if I have shows in Dubai when I finish I try to take a little time in the desert. I try to get out of the cities because everything is a very strong whirlwind, life is so fast that maybe in a week I take fifteen flights, from Mexico to Dubai and from there to Hong Kong. Connecting with nature is the brake, I throw away the phone for a while and begin to meet with the basic things that allow me to build my daily life.
Photos: Maxi Patane.
Acknowledgments: General production, Bruna Castagnet; press, BIP (Beat In Press); hair, Pablo Cut.
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