“I DO BELIEVE THIS MUSIC HOLDS SOMETHING DEEPER THAN JUST DANCING. THIS IS WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT WHEN I WAS 17 AND REALIZED I WAS GAY. I FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER IN MY STUFFY HOMETOWN, BUT SUDDENLY THE DISCO WELCOMED ME INTO A COMMUNITY.” - JENNIFER CARDINI

For the last 30 years, French-born Berlin-based Jen Cardini has been welcoming people into the discotheque. Their belief that something more was hidden under the surface of electronic music has put them at the helm of tiny sweaty lesbian bars, flamboyant Ibiza superclubs, and precarious off-the-beaten-path warehouse raves.

The sometimes-gothic always-seductive wave-laced house music they canonized in their mixes, record labels (Correspondant, DISCHI), remixes, and productions helped rephrase the world's understanding of the French dance music scene.

The transformative power of music has been a constant inspiration for Cardini and feeds their creative curiosity. Just as soon as the mainstream thinks they know how to define them, they’re onto something else. It is an essential piece of their status as an underrecognized pioneer. Their party series Nightclubbing is - “a love declaration to club culture and its diversity, everything that made me fall in love with electronic music, and also gave me a sense of community and belonging.” 

The disco may be getting bigger, but Cardini continues to welcome the outsiders in with their selections and curation. Although the mainstream may never catch up to their icon status, the underground has already crowned Cardini, ensuring that if they do, they sure will have a lot of music to sift through.

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