Ricardo Tobar hails from the seaside town of Viña del Mar in Chile, but he began to make waves across the world with his unique brand of intensely melodic electronic music. His work sails across different creative industries and has traveled all over the world, making him dip his toes in the independent music industry, the fashion world and the advertising campaigns.
His first vinyl calling card was his James Holden’s supported debut 12” 'El Sunset' on Border Community in 2007. The haunting, spine-tingling 'El Sunset' came backed with the equally striking 'Made' and the cascading melodies of 'Tickets', a neat snapshot of Ricardo's musical diversity. After that, a series of acclaimed EPs followed: “Boy Love Girl EP” (Border Community 2008), “With You” (Traum Schallplatten 2008) and “Mi Pieza Está Llena De Cosas” (Traum Schallplatten 2009) dominated the alternative clubs where the heady live show from Ricardo was known. Touring the world for the following years ended up with a full residency in Paris where the complete French connection arrived in 2012 with the release on French label In Paradisum of the highly addictive single “Esoteric/Carnaval”.
Enviably unfettered by the current trends of the world's dancefloors, Ricardo's own influences come from a less predictable place, joining the dots between trance and shoegaze, jazz and punk, new age and noise. Identifying a common atmospheric feel in the seemingly disparate genres and combining this with his own overriding love of melody has given birth to Ricardo's own sound: sometimes warm and fuzzy, sometimes devastating on the dancefloor, eclectic and always musical.
Ricardo released “Treillis”, his long-awaited 1st album, in 2013 on established French label Desire (Ike Yard, Monotone, etc.). With great reception -Resident Advisor gave it a 4/5- two singles from the album surfaced: “If I Love You” and “Hundreds/Garden”. The full trilogy was completed with remixes from Daniel Avery, Bass Clef, D’Marc Cantu, Samuel Kerridge and Low Jack. His second album came out in 2015 on Cocoon Recordings after Sven Väth’s direct call to collaborate with him. Simple titled as “Collection”, it compiled unreleased songs from 2007 to 2014. Not compromising his own style, it won him a « masterpiece » by Les Inrocks and gained him features on Dj Mag, Tsugi, The Ransom Note, DummyMag, XLR8R, RA and Groove. Releases continued on Jennifer Cardini’s Correspondant Records (“Red Sea”, 2017), Musar Recordings (“La Condamine”, 2017), which turned out to be a beloved anthem for the Ibiza sunsets, and Lovefingers ESP Institute (“Liturgia”, 2017). This last collaboration made way for Ricardo’s 3rd album, “Continuidad” (2019): definitely his darkest album yet, it combined meticulous sound design with intricate beats. It was the perfect mixture of Ricardo’s influences.
Besides working with the independent music industry, Ricardo’s influence expanded to the fashion and advertising worlds. Synching his music with high profile brands like H&M or establishing a creative relationship with art agency M&M Paris, his music has featured in brands like Alexander McQueen, Miu Miu, Parco and Givenchy. He also collaborated with production music labels like Ultraphonics and Artlist, further expanding his artistic horizons.
Having toured all over Europe, North and South America and Japan, remixed by artists like Plaid, Daniel Avery or Ulrich Schnauss and with releases already scheduled for 2023, we are sure Ricardo will continue to put the hitherto little-known Viña del Mar on the musical map with his extraordinary homebrewed production finesse.
Residency project:
Sound Landscape Project: "Studio Music
The "Studio Music" project proposes a music album that attempts to observe the possible intersections between heterogeneous sound sources such as analogue and digital through a reflection on climate change and new technologies such as artificial intelligence. The album aims to raise awareness of these two issues, offering spaces for meditation through music and the link between analogue and digital production.