Nicolas Jaar is one of the least predictable and most experimental dance music producers of the late 2000s and 2010s, composing reflective downtempo numbers indebted to jazz and modern classical as well as minimal techno. After establishing his name throughout the techno scene for his early EPs and singles, he reached a wider audience with the release of his acclaimed debut album, Space Is Only Noise, in 2011. He formed a neo-psychedelic duo called Darkside with multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington; their only full-length, 2013’s Psychic, was also heavily praised. While Jaar’s subsequent work under his own name often moved in a more abstract direction, he continued making dance music under pseudonyms such as A.A.L. (“Against All Logic”), eventually collecting the project’s work on the 2018 full-length 2012-2017.



Jaarwas born in New York but spent much of his early childhood in Santiago de Chile — the birthplace of his father, Alfredo Jaar, an artist and filmmaker — until he moved back to New York before his teens. In 2004, while under the spell of Ethiopian jazz and Erik Satie, Jaar began to feel his way through music production and made something of a breakthrough after his father bought him copies of Ricardo Villalobos’ Thé au Harem d’Archimèdeand Luomo’s Vocal City. While incorporating his obsessions and recent discoveries into his music, he came into contact with Wolf + Lamb’s Gadi Mizrahiand ended up making his debut for the label in 2008. Titled The Student, the five-track digital release made it apparent that Jaar owed something to the roiling, elongated, percussion-heavy productions of Villalobos. Vinyl releases for Wolf + Lamb and Circus Company followed across 2009 and 2010.



Space Is Only Noise, Jaar’s first album, was released on Circus in 2011. The widely eclectic album was a huge critical success, earning Jaar fans from both the dance and indie rock worlds. The original pressing of the album included a song featuring an uncleared sample of Ra...