Jen Cardini

French-born Jen Cardini (they/them) has been welcoming people into the discotheque for the last 30 years. Their belief that something more was hidden under the surface of electronic music has put them at the helm of tiny sweaty lesbian bars, flamboyant Ibiza superclubs, and precarious off-the-beaten-path warehouse raves. The sometimes-gothic always-seductive wave-laced house music they canonized in their mixes, record labels (Correspondant, DISCHI), remixes, and productions helped rephrase the world's understanding of the French dance music scene. They continue leaving their trace playing festivals such as Glastonbury, Primavera, Field Day, Sonar, Butik Festival, Mutek, and more. Cardini is a regular at the best clubs in the world, such as Berghain, Outra Cena, Bassiani, Basement or Circoloco. They have also been able to perform at iconic art venues like MoMA PS1 and the Centre Pompidou. Jen has also launched their own party series, Nightclubbing, a platform for queer underground artists. The transformative power of music has been a constant inspiration for Cardini and feeds their creative curiosity. Just as soon as the mainstream thinks they know how to define them, they're onto something else. It is an essential piece of their status as an underrecognized pioneer. Although the mainstream may never catch up to their icon status, the underground has already crowned Cardini, ensuring that if they do, they sure will have a lot of music to sift through.