Mathieu Dantec is a rising Paris-based electronic music artist and producer, who initially developed a reputation across his hometown’s music scene as a sound guy, who has owned his own studio for the past decade. Interestingly, a few years ago, Dantec decided that it was time to finally step out from behind these scenes to pursue a long-held dream of pursuing his own music career. And in October 2018, the rising French electronic music artist and produce released his debut EP under the moniker Dantec, which introduced the listener to his sound, which draws from a variety of his different influences, including heavy rock, 60s-70s rock, world music, reggae, classical music, jazz, techno, trip hop and others. 

Dantec’s sophomore EP will further cement his growing reputation for crafting thoughtful, genre-defying music. The EP’s first and latest single is the shimmering and brooding, Portishead-like “Silence.” Centered around thumping and stuttering beats, looped brass samples, a sinuous bass line, shimmering guitars, DJ scratching and chopped and distorted vocal samples, the trance-inducing track as the French producer and artist explains is an example of some “simple loop-based construction:” the main brass sample was taken from a old take from a recording session at one of his first studios. The musicians were indiscipline and he had to repeatedly shout “Silence!” during the session.  

“I don’t remember how I got to loop this piece of sound, not on purpose I guess,” Dantec adds. “I first gave it a beat and bassline, and a good friend composed for fun the “trip hop” inspired guitar lead. The dark part imposed itself but was just an idea for years. Later when I had become a studio owner I asked professional rock performers to play on the track, and the original idea finally revealed! [The] last element I’ve added was the trancey-acid 303 in the heavy part: I had my serious mix of influences but honestly I’ve never considered this track (and so many others i plan to release) as ‘serious.’ It’s just for fun . . .”