Half Dutch, Half Egyptian, and based in Geneva, Hendrik van Boetzelaer has established himself as a key player of the Swiss scene. He is known for his passion for warm and forward thinking music for the body regardless of the genre. Following years of activism as Opuswerk, his first work under his real name, the “Mémoire Du Présent EP”, on François X’s Dement3dXXX, reveals an artist’s coming of age in continuity of his past work.
Trained as an architect, and passionate by the concept of “the club”, he thrives for what triggers raw emotions. Maturing from years of self-education, spawned with dub and drum and bass sound systems, he plays and makes music that is both adventurous and inventive with a defined futuristic aesthetic and firmly grounded in the experience of one’s body on the dancefloor. It’s as if he found his sound as much as it found him, delving inspirations from the wide spectrum of what dance music has to offer: House, Techno, EBM, Electro, IDM, Balearics, old and new.
His approach to producing, both visceral and highly technical have gotten him to team with artists like François X for the HISS:1292 project or Ripperton for the Aelectricitae Live project. As Hendrik van Boetzelear his work has reached a new plateau of explorations where he channels his many cultural origins into freeform experimentations. As a testimony to his never ending hunger for knowledge, and representative of his research process, his previous work using the Opuswerk pseudonym, came out on labels such as Bleed Music, Semantica, ARTS or Dement3d. As Hendrik van Boetzelaer, he has shed his skin and dropped the moniker.
His style is always forward thinking and finds adventurous ways of transporting the dancers beyond the boundaries of the club all the while challenging them. His musical consistency, brings him to play, in the best clubs and festivals from Concrete to Tresor or Mute, CTM Festival and Montreux Jazz or Paleo.
