Satoshi Tomiie

A veteran of house music, Satoshi Tomiie ranked among the earliest producers to introduce club culture throughout Japan and served as the essential third member of the Def Mix Productions team led by David Morales and Frankie Knuckles. Tokyo-born in 1966, he developed a childhood passion for electronics and keyboards that led him to assemble his debut band during the early 1980s. Once American house sounds reached Japanese shores, Tomiie launched his own DJing and production efforts. He first encountered house pioneer Frankie Knuckles while both performed at an event hosted by a Japanese cosmetics firm, which quickly led to his recruitment into New York's Def Mix Productions collective, the base for Knuckles and fellow house hero David Morales.

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s Tomiie contributed to multiple dancefloor smashes such as Underground Solution's "Tears" and Robert Owens's "I'll Be Your Friend." He also handled remixes for numerous club-oriented pop artists including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Mariah Carey, David Bowie, Diana Ross, and U2, among others. Although solo recordings remained infrequent, he released singles under his own name plus the monikers Level 9, Loop 7, and the Black Shells. Signing with Sony in the late 1990s prompted a surge of fresh output highlighted by his debut album Full Lick. In 2005 he issued a pair of mix CDs that captured the range of his DJ performances.