During his residency, Andrea created the perfect dinner playlist. Listen to it here.
Populous, aka Andrea Mangia, is a DJ and producer hailing from Lecce, in Southern Italy, known for his global approach to music-making. With a background in musicology, Populous has always been interested in disparate genres and styles of music, which is reflected in the output from the Populous project and its focus on Latin American sounds refracted through a European lens. In 2003, Mangia made his first jaunt into the music world with the album ‘Quipo’ (via Morr Music), followed by ‘Queue For Love’ in 2005. Influenced by his reggae/hip-hop-infused surroundings (Lecce is known as Italy’s Jamaica, as reggae and dancehall are extremely popular there) he released ‘Drawn in Basic’ in 2008, which was well received by international critics, earning him a spot on the global dance music map. The 2010s have seen Mangia refine the Populous sound with albums like ‘Night Safari’ (Bad Panda Records) and ‘Azulejos’ (Wonderwheel Recordings), while also expanding his role as a sound designer for fashion houses such as Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Isabel Marant, and Elie Saab, among others. In 2020, Populous released his most mature album to date, "W", an anthem to femininity in all its facets. "W" (for Women) is an invitation to accept our female side and a way of giving visibility to the issues that are dear to the artist, such as diversity and inclusion, central parts of his LGBTQ+ activist dialectic. In the same year, Populous collaborated with Christine & The Queens for the remix of "La Vita Nuova", thereby confirming his influence in the queer international underground scene.
New album
I'm currently working on a new album that should be called "Isola futura" (future island in english). The idea came from the first vacation I did in Lanzarote a couple of years ago, when I promised myself to get back to the island and make music. This will be an ambient album but with strong tropical rhythms in the background. That's why I like to describe the whole sound as "latin-ambient".
Listen to Andrea’s music here.