Maceo Plex

Spain-based producer Eric Estornel first set the Maceo Plex name aside for house productions aimed at festivals, only later steering the project toward a moodier and more reflective path. Having already built a presence in techno through his Maetrik output that began in the early 2000s and having examined abstract electro and IDM under the Mariel Ito alias near the middle of that decade, he started issuing some of his most approachable material as Maceo Plex from 2009 onward. Across the next ten years the project shifted from deep, sensual house marked by clear Chicago and Detroit roots, evident on the 2011 debut album Life Index, toward a markedly more cinematic atmosphere, especially on the expansive 2017 release Solar. Alongside singles and albums issued on respected imprints including Crosstown Rebels, Kompakt, and Minus, Maceo Plex has also supplied mixes for the DJ-Kicks and Fabric compilations. Early in the 2020s he worked with Faithless, Liberty City, and Johnny Jewel.

Estornel entered the world in Texas in 1978. Growing up in Dallas, his family relocated to Miami during his teenage years. He took up DJing in 1993, and by the close of the 1990s he had moved into production, putting out techno and electro records under aliases such as Eric Entity and Tali Wackas via the short-lived Illmatic Records. Releases under the Maetrik name commenced in 2001, immediately registering within the tech-house community through EPs and albums on imprints like Treibstoff and Iron Box Music. He introduced the more experimental Mariel Ito project in 2005, delivering the album My Cyborg Depths on SCSI-AV together with the Indexed EP on Modern Love.

Near the end of 2009, Estornel issued the digital EP Clubs under joint credit to Maetrik and Maceo Plex. Following his relocation to Valencia, Spain in 2010, he focused greater attention on the Maceo Plex identity and a warmer house aesthetic. The cover of Stevie Wonder’s “For Your Love,” titled “Vibe Your Love,” came out on Crosstown Rebels in 2010 and soon registered as a club success. That momentum carried into the 2011 album Life Index, which also performed strongly and prompted Estornel to allocate increasing energy to the Maceo Plex project. Later EPs such as 2012’s Space Junk and the various Conjure releases adopted a noticeably darker, sci-fi-tinged character while remaining oriented toward the dance floor.

After contributing his 2013 edition to !K7’s DJ-Kicks series, he turned to the large-scale album Solar. The 2015 12-inch Solar Sampler featured the expansive “Solar Detroit,” which emerged as one of his most prominent tracks. The 2016 EP Journey to Solar prepared the ground for 2017’s Solar, a more inward and vocal-centered album shaped by his experiences with marriage and parenthood. His second commercially issued mix CD, Fabric 98, arrived in 2018. The EPs Mutant 1, Mutant 2, and Mutant Romance all appeared that same year and were later gathered on 2019’s Mutant Series. The solo singles “When the Lights Are Out” and “Lonely Tribe” surfaced in 2019, along with the Josh Wink collaboration “Destination Mars.”

Maceo Plex put out the singles “Nu World” and “Cinemax” in 2020. He followed with “Insomnia 2021,” a reworking of the Faithless classic, and joined forces with Liberty City on “You Know What I Got” and with Program 2 on “Revision.” “Surgery,” recorded with Johnny Jewel and Glüme, appeared in 2022, while “All Night,” made with Oscar and the Wolf, was also released that year.