Playing in Bucharest in front of People’s Palace in 2019

Nico de Transilvania is a DJ, Producer and Creative Director. Bringing together a blend of Global and Balkan Beats with the electronic sounds, native-born Transylvanian, Nico, has carved out her own niche as an international DJ.  She often has live musicians, MC's and dancers performing with her, immersed in forest visual shows. Nico has recently produced her debut album “Be One” which celebrates her heritage, featuring old Romanian folklore, Balkan and Jazz instruments, all composed using the electronic music at the core. The album was released on her record label Muzicã Without Frontiers with live shows performed in Paris, London, Bucharest and Chisinau. She calls the music genre of the album ‘Folkloric Electronic’.

During her DJ sets, Nico takes you on a unique journey exploring an eclectic mix of music genres. Her intention is to showcase the traditional instruments and chants from all around the world, using the electronic music platform to bring them back to life. Expect to be taken on a global musical journey, mixed in with an array of dance music genres like deep-house, techno, liquid drum&bass, combined with heavy baselines, whilst keeping her Balkan roots alive through her sets. Having a life long love affair with dance as a choreographer and with movement as a yoga teacher, Nico’s sets are focused on moving you from the core of your being, body and soul!

EVENTS

Nico has headlined at music, film, and art events from the Secret Garden Party, Big Chill, and Bestival, to the Biennale in India, Art Dubai,  Royal Academy of Arts, V&A Museum, London fashion shows and film festivals in Reykjavik, Transylvania, BFI London, BAFTA and Belfast.  As well as performing, she has curated sell-out multi-media events at some of the UK's top festivals and worked along-side many talented musicians, including Blondie, Leftfield, Apparat, Norman Cook, M.I.A, Telepopmusik, Adam Freeland, Lamb, Nickodemus, The Correspondents, Fanfara Ciocarlia, Mahala Rai Banda and Boban Markovic.

STARTING OUT

Nico began her love affair with music and dance at a very young age. Being brought up in Communist Romania with limited access to new music, she did her research in the local Balkan sounds and introduced to Swing, Blues and Latin in the early teenage years, until she discovered and fell in love with the Electronic Dance music.  She started learning to DJ in 1998 when she moved to the UK and began her more in-depth relationship with dance studying choreography.  She then set out on a journey across Asia with two mini CD players and a mini mixer. By day, a yoga teacher, by night a touring DJ, Nico travelled for months, drawing musical inspiration from the natural beauty and diversity of her culturally rich surroundings.

What started out as Romanian inspired dinner-parties in Brighton — gatherings of friends that would always end up in a Balkan dance and a shot of palinka—led to numerous invites to play at music festivals and clubs around the UK, often combining live tubists, clarinetists, dancers and aerialists in her performances. Nico made her name as a resident DJ at the legendary Balkaneasca where she rapidly became a crowd favourite. She later created her own Super Mishto sell out nights in Brighton. Because of the success of these nights and her rise in popularity, she found herself being invited to play at music, film and arts festivals, as well as clubs, around the world.

MUSIC PRODUCER / MUZICA WITHOUT FRONTIERS

Nico's musical knowledge has found new expression in recent years, as a Music Producer, music supervisor for documentaries and a music curator for art galleries, fashion shows and art installations. She worked as an Associate Producer on a trilogy of films, called Wild Carpathia, focussing on the beautiful, but threatened, mountains and forests of Romania. She also produced and directed the short film about her album ‘Be One’, which launched the charitable initiative Forests Without Frontiers with the aim of planting trees for the future generations with the help of music and arts. The initiative has now planted over 160,000 trees. All donations and sales for ‘Be One’ album went towards this cause and it’s how the first ever 100 oak trees were planted in April 2019.

Her record label 'Muzică Without Frontiers' is aimed to introduce her own music productions, collaboration with other artists, compilations and sound libraries, as well as her latest mixes and radio show on 1BTNFM with the same name. Nico ended up creating her own specific sound. In the beginning, the music she played was influenced by her childhood memories of old, traditional folk, gypsy and fanfare music, but having travelled all around the world and experiencing different landscapes, environments and cultures it was inevitable that this will be reflected in her DJ sets and mixes.

Her dream for Muzică Without Frontiers, is to spread the message of human connection by dissolving barriers through music, dance and performance and to use the power of music to unite all people on the dance floor and beyond!

INTERVIEWS

Here is an interview about her life in UK  in the documentary 13 Shades of Romanian. 

Podcasts interviews: Elemental Journeys with Matt Coldrick , GreenPlanet BluePlanet with Julian Guderley, Moldovan Abroad with Daniela and her talk at the Embodiment conference.