Paul Woolford

About Paul Woolford

Through his work as DJ, producer, dancefloor experimentalist, remixer, collaborator and label owner, Paul Woolford has succeeded in bringing a rare level of artistry to the world of modern dance music and in doing so, made an enduring global impact. His name is synonymous with high-quality.

As we enter 2009, the projects through Woolford's Intimacy studio include Morgan Geist "The Shore" for Environ (for which Beatportal awarded a 'Bomb Alert' and DJ Mag included in their 'Killers'), remixes on the Ewan Pearson-produced band Delphic for R&S, The Juan Maclean "Happy House" for New York's DFA, DJ Hell feat P.Diddy "The DJ" for Gigolo in Berlin, and Chelonis R. Jones "The Cockpit" for Systematic, also in Germany. On top of these remixes, there is a fierce release schedule for Woolford's own singles of which there will be one-per-month on his Intimacy imprint, starting in April with "Pandemonium", followed in May with "Timebomb" and then in June with a James Zabiela re-working of "Knives". Aside from this he is also working on production and remixes for the Mercury Music Prize-nominated act Maps for Mute Records. The quality of each of these projects speaks for itself.

Initially inspired by the constant throb of the radio throughout his childhood, the seeds of his future direction were sewn by the time a record-collecting addiction kicked in properly during his teenage years. This insatiable appetite for musical stimulation has driven Woolford to explore far beyond the cutting- edge house and techno that is his stock-in-trade, and led him down more experimental paths, embracing aspects of improvised jazz through his collaborative work with Paul Hession, and taking huge inspiration from the modern composition of Steve Reich. All this is distilled within the techno dynamic that Woolford has made second-nature.

As a DJ, Woolford tours the world constantly as a guest of the finest clubs and festivals (such as... Tokyo's Womb, Madrid's Goa, Berlin's Panaramabar, Venice's Il Muretto, Chicago's Smartbar, Paris' The Mix, Manchester's Sankeys & The Electric Chair, Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo's Pacha, Riccione's Cocorico, Dusseldorf's Tribehouse, LA's Avalon, Las Vegas' Jet, Milan's Amnesia, Zurich's Q Club, a career-defining performance in 2007 at Serbia's Exit Festival, Buenos Aires' Creamfields, Global Gathering, The Glade Festival, Glastonbury ) and has a frequently exhausting schedule that runs into overdrive in the summer when his main weekly residency at WeLoveSpace on Sundays in Ibiza starts. He was awarded 'Best Newcomer' in Ibiza's DJ Awards in 2006. In addition to this, he now holds a monthly UK residency at Matter London at which he can approach things in a different manner more appropriate for this worldwide hub of dance music.

It is with this highly personal and chameleon-like ability that Woolford makes his mark, creating bespoke re-edits built purposefully for each environment, ensuring that you KNOW it is Woolford and Woolford-only in the booth when you hear them.

Many know Paul Woolford's name through the 2005 slow-burning hit "Erotic Discourse", released on 2020 Vision, the Leeds label with which he made his name initially. The success of this proved he has the ability to create a genre-defining sound and led to sales of over 15,000, capturing the imagination of DJs across the board from The Chemical Brothers, Richie Hawtin and DJ Hell to Francois Kevorkian, Laurent Garnier, Trevor Jackson and Erol Alkan. It was Erol Alkan that described the track as "a modern day psyche record" and the track became a classic.

Magazine Covers have included DJ Mag August 2006 (with Nic Fanciulli), One Week To Live October 2006, IDJ in January 2008 with a photo shoot from Tate Modern's Doris Salcedo installation "Shibboleth" (after a personal email from Woolford, Salcedo gave her express permission) and an exhaustive 5 page feature to mark the release of his "The Truth" album on 2020 Vision.

Irrespective of your position on the dancefloor or listening at home, Paul Woolford's tropes and idiosyncrasies are unmistakable and he has become a force to be reckoned with in modern dance music.

Paul Woolford website