Quantic

"Quantic" serves as the umbrella identity for the U.K.-born, New York-based musical polymath Will Holland. Renowned worldwide as a DJ who fuses multiple genres, this multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and Enhanced Music label head channels influences spanning EDM, jazz, soul, funk, and global styles that range from cumbia and bossa through salsa, Afrobeat, and dub reggae. Dozens of recordings bear his name, while hundreds of additional composer and producer credits appear across other projects. The 2001 debut album The 5th Exotic, issued on Tru Thoughts, stands as a downtempo landmark. With the Quantic Soul Orchestra, which included vocalist Alice Russell and saxophonist sister Lucy Holland, he delivered Stampede in 2003 and later paired with R&B singer Spanky Wilson for I'm Thankful. Following the 2007 release of QSO's Tropidelico, Holland relocated to Cali, Colombia, to apprentice under local masters. There he assembled Combo Barbaro alongside salsa pianist Alfredo Linares and Colombian singer Nidia Góngora, resulting in Death of a Revolution. The year 2012 brought Ondatrópica, the expansive acoustic Colombian cumbia ensemble he co-established with Mario Galeano, plus the self-titled, roots-oriented Los Miticos del Ritmo set that delved into funky cumbia and sonidero. Holland settled in New York City in 2014, unveiling Magnetica, a vibrant survey of global electronica. His jazz endeavor A Western Transient surfaced with A New Constellation in 2015. In 2017, Quantic and Góngora issued the tropical groover Curao, returning four years later with Almas Conectadas. Holland later applied a modern lens to disco on the exuberant Dancing While Falling, released in 2023. His compositions have appeared in the soundtracks of more than a dozen films and television programs.

Born in 1980 in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, Will Holland performed guitar in rock bands during his teenage years, yet a pivot toward house and broken beat propelled his career forward, particularly once the single "We Got Soul" emerged in 2000. Tru Thoughts presented Quantic's debut full-length The 5th Exotic in 2001, with Apricot Morning arriving the following year. After pausing briefly in 2003 to launch the Quantic Soul Orchestra featuring vocalist Alice Russell and to record Stampede, on which he handled organ, bass, guitar, and saxophone, plus the soul-folk-dance duo the Limp Twins' Tales from Beyond the Groove, Holland resumed solo work with 2004's Mishaps Happening. QSO's Pushin On appeared a year later.

Particularly active in 2006, the prolific artist put out the compilation One Off's, Remixes and B Sides, a reissue of The 5th Exotic, and the Quantic album An Announcement to Answer. Alongside QSO he produced I'm Thankful, a collaboration with American soul singer Spanky Wilson. Holland relocated to Cali, Colombia, on the nation's southern Pacific Coast in 2007 to train with the city's master musicians. The following year he released Death of the Revolution under the Flowering Inferno name, merging dub with 1970s Latin sounds.

Holland immersed himself further in Colombia, establishing an all-analog studio, collaborating with regional players, and studying under masters while organizing intergenerational jams and spinning records at dance parties worldwide. The 2008 single "Mi Swing Es Tropical" featuring Nickodemus soundtracked an Apple television commercial. In 2009 he formed Combo Barbaro with salsa and Latin jazz pianist Alfredo Linares, conguero Freddy Colorado, bassist Fernando Silva, and Heliocentrics drummer Malcolm Catto; their debut Tradition in Transition appeared on Tru Thoughts. That same year he released the Latin groove mixtape Caja y Guacharacha and the looping Ethio-jazz, Afrobeat, and cumbia mixtape Addis to Axum. Flowering Inferno resurfaced in 2011 with Dog with a Rope, while Combo Barbaro delivered Look Around the Corner, recorded with Russell on vocals.

Quantic unveiled the widely praised Ondatrópica on Miles Cleret's Soundway in 2012. Co-founded with musician and academic Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero, the project assembled a cumbia dance orchestra pairing seasoned veterans with emerging talent. Later that year the Los Irreales Mixtape followed. Just prior to his move to New York, Quantic issued Magnetica under his own name, his first solo album in seven years. Its thirteen electro-acoustic, beat-driven tracks wove together the styles he had explored over the prior decade and featured contributions from Russell, Nidia Góngora, Michi Sarmiento, Shinehead, Thalma De Freitas, and pioneering cumbia singer and accordionist Aníbal Velásquez.

Following his emigration to the United States, Quantic co-established the Brooklyn studio and label Selva with partner Aziza Ali. He assembled a contemporary jazz group from six favored New York-based musicians; performing as the Western Transient, they released the influential A New Constellation in July. Holland played guitar, produced, and acted as musical director for the septet that also comprised drummer Wilson Viveros, Sylvester Onyejiaka on flute and tenor sax, Todd Simon on trumpet and flugelhorn, Brandon Coleman on piano and keys, Gabe Boel on bass, and Alan Lightner on steel pan drum and percussion.

Holland revived Flowering Inferno for 2016's 1,000 Watts, a more straightforward excursion into traditional reggae that included the track "A Life Worth Living" with vocalists Russell and legendary Jamaican toaster U-Roy, and for a second hard-driving Ondatrópica album, Baile Bucanero. The next year he released Curao, an eighteen-track collaboration with Afro-Colombian Combo Bárbaro vocalist Nidia Góngora. The set yielded several international dancefloor successes such as "Que Me Duele?," "Amor en Francia," "Ojos Vicheros," and "E Ye Ye."

Working from his Brooklyn Selva studio, Holland convened a large ensemble. The refreshed Quantic tested dance-oriented material and world fusion ideas at New York City's Good Room before capturing and issuing them as Atlantic Oscillations on Tru Thoughts in June 2019. Early in 2020 the group issued the single and video "You Used to Love Me" featuring vocalist Denitia, which became a global dancefloor hit. That year also saw Ondatrópica return with the digital single "Noche de Amor" in partnership with legendary Colombian composer, keyboardist, and bandleader Juancho Vargas. Quantic additionally put out the disco single "Theme from Selva." In 2021 Holland released the dubby breakbeat single "I Won't Fade Away" with Russell, followed by the Heaven or Hell EP for Australia's Aus, which balanced hypnotic disco grooves with warm melodic house anchored by walking basslines and live percussion.

In July, Quantic and Góngora issued the single "Balada Borracha," succeeded by "Macumba de Marea" in August and "Vuelve" in September; these previews preceded their second collaborative album Almas Conectadas in October. Recorded at Holland's Brooklyn studio Selva yet brimming with symphonic flourishes, the set explored Colombia's Pacific Coast traditions. Holland also assembled his next Quantic album, Dancing While Falling, at Selva. Joined by vocalists Andreya Triana, Connie Constance, and Rationale, he infused disco with a contemporary perspective that foregrounded its Latin and Afro-Caribbean roots. The radiant and refined album appeared in 2023.