Illyus & Barrientos

The pair have diverse origins – Barrientos has Chilean parents and was born in America, while Illyus grew up in Frankfurt after being born in Govan. They met on Glasgow’s dance floors in 2014, building a friendship over their mutual love of the kind of unashamedly big, floor-filling modern house tunes that have since propelled them to dizzying levels of acclaim.

In many ways, they are an odd couple – while Illyus was growing up in the vibrant local hip-hop scene in Germany then Glasgow, distributing early mixtapes for an enthusiastic audience of friends, Barrientos was still taking classical piano lessons, playing Chopin and Beethoven. In the studio, these diverse influences come together to create some spectacular dance floor alchemy. Raw and funky, their tracks pulse with percussive energy and deep, infectious hooks.

With stellar releases such as ‘Shout’, ‘So Serious’ ‘M.E.A’ and Promise on Toolroom Records, plus releasing some Beatport chart-topping records on Defected Records and now signed to the powerhouse Ultra Music, Illyus & Barrientos have well and truly cemented their status as one of the hottest DJ and production duos in the UK. So much so, that they have featured heavily on Radio 1 (Radio 1 Rave Lounge, guest interview on Danny Howard’s show, guest mix for Annie Nightingale and 2 mini mixes for Annie Mac), and were also asked to record a mix for the prestigious BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix series. 

Having already played at clubs around the world from Moscow and Bangkok, to Los Angeles and Mexico City, their touring schedule for 2019 grew bigger by the minute; with debut tours in Australia, Africa and Asia, with an incredible residency at Eden Ibiza summer 2019. They also featured as guests for Claptone at his infamous Masquerade parties, Calvin Harris event at Ushuaia & Sonny Fodera’s label parties in the UK not forgetting some of the coolest festivals around the world..