Frenchman Charles Siegling says he owes the success to time living in Hong Kong
Techno star Charles Siegling is returning to the city where he first found fame, writes Oliver Clasper
Hong Kong isn't the first city that springs to mind when it comes to electronic music. The city's nightlife and clubbing scene is vibrant, having grown in diversity and reputation during the past few years, but to date it has produced only one internationally recognised name.
The techno duo Technasia - made up of Parisian Charles Siegling and Hong Kong native Amil Khan - met in the French capital in the mid-1990s, but won global acclaim in electronic music circles after relocating to Hong Kong. Both were studying in Paris - with Siegling pursuing a degree in film studies - and both had fallen hard for the vibrant and hedonistic world of house and techno, genres which were still in their early stages. This was the tail end of the acid house boom, which had exploded in Britain, and a good 10 years before the ascent of megastar DJs.
Music, both the making and playing of it, has to be a full-time thing, and if you can't commit fully then it gets very hard
"I was initially interested in working in sound design for films, but I soon realised that clubbing and electronic music resonated with me in such a way that it was all I wanted to be involved in," Siegling says over the phone from Ibiza, where he has been playing gigs over the summer. "My family had given me a synthesiser when I was eight, and as the years went by I added a drum machine and other equipment. From there I started making music, inspired by Depeche Mode and that kind of sound."
By 1994 Siegling was DJing at clubs in Paris and forging a reputation of his own, inspired by the heavyweight underground DJs from the US such as Detroit luminaries Jeff Mills and Derrick May, as well as "the best French DJ of all time", Laurent Garnier.
After meeting Khan in Paris, Siegling visited him in Hong Kong, and once he saw the city he knew he had to relocate and focus on Technasia full time. "I've always said Hong Kong is a vertical city. It's also the most futuristic city in the world. It's made up of islands, and in a way isn't supposed to have all these buildings, which makes it so unique. I was born in Paris, but my family live in the south, so I was used to the countryside: fields, sky, animals, cheese, baguettes - you know, the traditional French picture."
As the new millennium drew near, Technasia released a slew of singles on their own label, Sino, including Force, which became an anthem in techno circles worldwide and shone a spotlight on these producers operating out of Hong Kong. It's a pulsating, driving, dancefloor track that manages to be uplifting without losing any of its weight; the accompanying video (which can be seen on YouTube) is the perfect testament to a city that throbs and heaves at a million miles an hour. In 2001, the duo released their debut LP, Future Mix; by then, they were virtually unstoppable.