Irakli

Hailing from Georgia, Irakli produces experimental electronic dance music that fuses ambient textures with techno rhythms and IDM structures, drawing inspiration from science fiction and artificial intelligence. Born Irakli Kiziria amid the collapse of Communism, he developed an early fascination with music and began piano lessons at age six, though he never envisioned a professional path in the field. A chance opportunity to perform at parties led him into DJ work almost incidentally. Frustrated by initial experiments with electronic production during his teenage years, he turned his attention to formal education and qualified as an architect and designer. Relocating first to Köln and then to Berlin, he established the studio Design Provocation and generated provocative conceptual artworks, among them bejeweled handguns, holster-shaped handbags, and the widely noted fake Louis Vuitton condoms that reportedly sold for $68 each on World AIDS Day 2017. During his time in Germany he rediscovered his musical inclinations. Resuming DJ activities, he founded the club Raum in 2012, followed by the I/Y label and subsequently the Staub club night, which grew into one of the Berlin scene’s most frequented spots. Intent on preserving the pleasure and unpredictability of music rather than turning it into his “job,” he treated the pursuit strictly as a hobby and recorded only when inspiration arose. A succession of understated, largely collaborative singles on smaller imprints such as Inkblots, Ovunque, and Connwax, starting with 2017’s “Lockheed,” led to the 2021 debut album Major Signals. Assembled from tracks accumulated and meticulously assembled across several years, the record appeared on Dial, one of Irakli’s preferred labels.