Cielo presents the cd release of SEVENTH HEAVEN
Mixed by Nicolas Matar & Willie Graff
Available everywhere March 27

Featured DJ:
Nicolas Matar

and resident
DJ Miki

Doors open 9pm

Link:
www.cieloclub.com

Nicholas Matar:

If it takes fifteen years to make an overnight hit, then NICOLAS MATAR has truly come of age. The story of House music has run from the New York underground via Ibiza to London and back around again many times over the past fifteen years - and as the chapters have unfolded, our man has been there to turn the page. Significantly, he made his mark with his award winning nightclub, Cielo, his 8 year Pacha residency, and with his two highly acclaimed compilation albums for Journeys By DJ: “Latitude 40” and “Sun Dance”.

NICOLAS has been DJing since the age of 15. He got an early head-start from his father, an original member of Studio 54 and a denizen of the 70’s New York club scene. "Dad had an incredible collection of Disco, Funk and Soul records," says NICOLAS. "I grew up with a mini club in my basement. My parents used it to entertain their friends. It had one of the better sound systems in the city." Before long he was sneaking out to legendary clubs like Zanzibar, Shelter, Save the Robots and Sound Factory. "I was that kid who sat on the speaker all night, totally lost in the music."

NICOLAS has subsequently played in every contemporary NYC club worth mentioning, from Limelight, Twilo, and Soundfactory Bar to Discotheque and Centro-Fly. But it is also through traveling that he stretched the boundaries of his DJing prowess. Born in Beirut in 1971, NICOLAS spent much of his youth in NYC, London, France and Spain. His style can best be described as an eclectic mix of jazzy, deep and funky House music with heavy Disco, African, and Latin influences.

Like most globetrotting djs, he spins regularly in the US, UK, Spain, Brazil, France, Mexico, Peru, Netherlands, Italy, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland. It is perhaps his greatest accolade that from 1993-2001, NICOLAS was the resident DJ of the world-renowned Pacha in Ibiza. NICOLAS credits those years at Pacha as the inspiration for his eventual return to New York to build a proper house club. “Pacha is the Harvard Business School of the club/DJ world. I learned everything from A to Z about the nightclub business in those years,” says NICOLAS.

With the opening of his own nightclub in New York – Cielo – NICOLAS is in a commanding position to introduce his special taste for quality music back to where it matters most – the birthplace of club culture: New York City. Cielo has been awarded a total on six awards in its first two and a half years of operations. For a boutique-scale venue such as Cielo to have won so many awards from the dance music community in the face of heavy corporate competition from large superclubs, represents an extraordinary achievement.

NICOLAS is the co-owner and resident DJ of Cielo and handles all music programming. Roger Sanchez, Francois K., Louie Vega, Tedd Patterson, Miguel Migs, Deep Dish, Danny Tenaglia, and Frankie Knuckles are just a few of the Djs who play alongside NICOLAS on a regular basis. Check out www.cieloclub.com to see Cielo’s award winning music programming.

NICOLAS MATAR has just completed Cielo’s much anticipated first compilation entitled, “Cloud 9”. The compilation includes special remixes of tracks commissioned by NICOLAS MATAR by Blaze, Dubtribe Soundsystem, Soldiers of Twilight, and Osunlade. The compilation will be released at the beginning of July with a world tour planned for the summer to promote the release.

Cielo Awards:
Winner, “Best Venue USA”, Urb Magazine 2005
Winner, “Best Club”, Clubworld Awards 2005
Winner, “Best Resident DJ”, Francois K. For his Deep Space @ Cielo, Clubworld 2005
Winner, “Best Club”, Dancestar USA 2004
Winner, “Best Interior Design Club/Lounge”, Clubworld 2004
Finalist, “Best Design Bar/lounge”, Gold Key Awards 2004

DJ Miki:

Deejaying began as a hobby for Miki, who grew up in Nis, in southeastern Serbia. But in 1991, when he opened Zombie, one of Serbia's more forward-looking dance clubs, he found himself on the forefront of the scene-maybe too far ahead. While Zombie, a small space with modern design, was "pretty successful for Serbia," the crowd was select. "Now it's a big audience over there," Miki says. "You can bring a DJ and have 10,000 people over there because they are crazy about house music and everything." Things changed in January 1995 as regional conflict intensified. "In the early'90s, everybody was about war; they didn't care so much about dance music then.

"Because of the war, I closed the club and left for Italy," he says. Miki, who had already spent time in Ibiza, found that Milan was ripe for new rhythms. At the urging of a friend, he began spinning again.

He became the resident DJ for weekends at Siam Society, spinning loungey stuff. Miki's rep flourished, and he scored gigs playing fashion shows for casual lines such as Anna Molinari and DSquared, and at Nicola Giducci's club Plastic.

Drawn to the music-oriented lifestyle of Ibiza, Miki split his time between the island and Italy. From 1999 to 2000 in Ibiza, he ran Bar 22, where he deejayed chill-out and soulful house, and got on the bill at superclub Pacha. There, his style changed. "From Ibiza, I take something more deep, more ambient, " he says. "You have to live in Ibiza for a couple of months to understand what's going on there. Actually, it's a hippy island. It's quiet; people are nice."

In 2002, he and his wife, Anna (who can be found working the door at popular locales such as rednofive and RiNo), traveled around the U.S. for six months before settling in Chicago. Miki promoted and spun at Gramercy's House Blend nights. "It was kind of successful - 150 to 200 people - but the area was really disgusting," he recalls.

- John Dugan: Time Out Chicago

DJ Miki recently held a residency at the Victor Hotel in Chicago.