Berlin-based French-Canadian producer and DJ Nicolas Bougaïeff combines his love of dance music with a background in electro-acoustic and contemporary classical music, creating intricately designed, sci-fi-influenced techno.
A decades-long love of club music has compelled Bougaïeff to challenge conventional wisdom, delivering genre-busting Berghain sets that expertly blend French-Canadian hip-hop with Tchaikovsky, moody techno and ambient. Launching his debut record as a producer in 2013, the Movements EP with Max Cooper, Bougaïeff has since put out a string of singles on labels including minimal techno imprint Trapez, working with NovaMute on various EPs and parent-label Mute for his 2022 album Begin Within. Outside his music adventure, Bougaïeff co-founded software company Liine with Richie Hawtin and others in 2010 and in 2018 engineered the Lemur app used by astronaut Alexander Gerst on the International Space Station in a live jam with Kraftwerk. From his teaching - he founded the Berlin Academy of Electronic Music - to writing his PhD thesis on minimal techno, Bougaïeff is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of techno.