ARTISTS

Suzanne Kraft

Los Angeles (US)
dj

Despite having such a laid-back and organic sound more informed by musical beauty than muscular groove, Suzanne Kraft has been one of the most prominent stars of the last few of years. Born Diego Herrera and raised in Los Angeles, the humidity and sun of that state looms large over his DJ and studio output.

Formally trained on saxophone, guitar, bass and keys but hypnotised by the one-man-band possibilities of producing on a computer, Herrera’s work has been at the heart of a blissed out and slow motion revolution that has brought real beauty to the dance floor.

It comes in both LP and EP format on labels like Running Back, Melody as Truth and Animals Dancing, and effortlessly ranges from absorbing ambient to deep house via colourful disco. As a DJ, he tells equally compelling tales.

Melody always colours what Herrera does, and for that reason his sounds tread a fine line between proper listening music as well as stuff that works in a club. What’s more, his knack for roomy grooves and spacious sounds separates him from the crowd and means that whether he is making music for sleeping or music for dancing, there is always a common and coherent thread running through it.

Aside from all this, Herrera can also jam in the live arena and has done with the likes of Johnny Nash, had a long running and musically widescreen show on dublab - the not for profit radio station where he was creative director for years - and is starting his own label, P&D Records, with best mate and dublab host P Relief. Though he himself is never in a rush to go anywhere, then, the music of Suzanne Kraft always manages to transport you to somewhere else entirely.