- Parisian decadence.
- People usually talk about Berlin, London or New York when discussing electronic music hotspots, and Paris doesn't always get its due. Case in point? It produced Jennifer Cardini, one of the most distinctive DJs to ever come out of the city. (She's lived in Germany for a while, but the point stands.) Her sound lands somewhere between disco, house and EBM, rooted in a groovy, post-modern chug. You'll hear nu-disco, industrial, techno and electro too, usually built around big hooks. It's a sound that is not only instantly recognizable, but instantly likeable.
As a producer, Cardini also deserves her flowers. She's been putting out records since the mid-'90s, and with her first label Correspondant, she's built up a rock-solid catalogue from artists like Fort Romeau, Man Power, Cormac and more. More recently she started the Dischi Autunno imprint, a place for more crossover-friendly music that indulges Cardini's tastes for all things melodic (and maybe a little goth).
Cardini's RA Podcast is a beautiful summary of all these ideas and influences. It's hard and banging, sure, but also lithe and athletic. There are plenty of tracks with the surge of EBM or the stab of industrial. Lots of reverb. Decadent melodies undergirded by tough drum patterns. And it's paced as expertly as you'd expect from someone who's been DJing for over 30 years. In the interview below, Cardini says she "loves how the young generation is digesting four decades of club / rave culture," and you can hear that history living and breathing in Cardini's DJing, too.
What are you grateful for these days?
Everything really, after losing my wife to cancer in early 2021 and after two years of Covid, I'm grateful for anything good life brings me. I'm grateful I made it through alive and healthy, and I'm grateful to be able to work again. Last year was busy, full of exchanges, discussions and plans. I'm really grateful for my team and the artists on my labels. We did a lot of cool things last year. We released a limited edition of Curses' album Incarnadine with Yves Saint Laurent on Dischi Autunno and shot two videos for Curses as well, one with Jordan Hemingway, the other with French rising star Nicolas Medy. Correspondant took a small break after a decade in the game and is back for a new chapter.
How and where was the mix recorded? And can you tell us the idea behind it?
I started working on the mix after my last gig at Panorama Bar, I had such an amazing time there. Panorama Bar is where I play best, where I feel at home. I wanted to share that, the energy and the love I experience there every time. Something that can be added to my grateful list. I'm also aware that after so many years of DJing it's sometimes easy to get labeled, so I wanted the mix to be relevant with what I play nowadays and also include some upcoming Correspondant releases. There's also a lot of fresh talent in the mix: Maruwa, Zaatar, Pablo Bozzi, Eden Burns and Spray, and some classics which shaped me, like D.O.P. on Guerilla. It's so much fun to see how the young generation is digesting four decades of club / rave culture, there's so much good music out there.
As I was traveling a lot I worked on the mix in between my home in Berlin, and Paris where I was lucky to be able to use Badaboum's booth. Then I recorded the mix back home.
You have two record labels, Dischi Autunno and Correspondant. What do you see as the difference between them, and why run two labels at the same time?
Musically they're quite different. Correspondant is more house and indie dance leaning, whereas Dischi Autunno is more EBM and Italo. The idea with Correspondant is that it's reactive—I'd play the track(s) out and then release them shortly after, it's 100 percent dance floor driven and the reaction of the crowd is part of the A&R process. For Dischi, we only have a small number of artists since we do a lot of artist development with them. We release albums as well which is not the case with Correspondant. It's two different approaches, but I find that they are quite complementary. Honestly, I don't know why I run two labels at the same time. It did feel like a crazy idea with my touring schedule. Maybe I should get tested for ADHD finally... Working with others and achieving things together has been the best decision ever, I do enjoy it a lot.
You've talked a lot about community and belonging in dance music. Do you feel like representation for and inclusion of queer people has improved (or at least changed) at all over the last decade or so? What do you think is driving that?
Yes it has improved in the last decade, some promoters and festivals have changed the way they curate their program but it's clearly not enough yet. Representation has also improved because there is also a new generation of artists, promoters and clubbers for whom inclusivity is just normal. I also think that some of us got tired of waiting and got organized and independent, forming collectives, starting our own parties or labels and so on.
Honestly this is not a topic for us anymore, I don't think we should be asked questions about inclusivity. I think this question is best suited to be answered by the biggest players in our scene. They should answer and be held responsible for how they want the scene to evolve, and how they want to leave it, because most of them don't care, to be honest. As summer lineups are announced, you see the same male headliners, headlining the same festivals, they have the power and influence to change that. They sell so many tickets. Promoters also need to reflect on this topic more. Some of them struggle with ticket sales, it would be a mistake to put this on Covid only. Young people are smarter, deconstructed and queer and they do not want this anymore. A part of the industry is completely tone deaf to that and I think they need to be asked those questions from now on and they need to answer them. They are the problem, not us and we are not going to fix that for them.
What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?
That's a serious question, I'm not sure how serious you want me to answer but femicide is a subject that is very often discussed among politicians over the years, without any concrete action taken. Germany and France have the highest rates of femicide in Europe. A woman is killed every two and a half days in Germany. Most of the time, the victim has reported previous assaults or shared their fear of being killed by their partners or family members with the authorities. It's heartbreaking to see that no government, mostly run by men, has the courage to take harsh laws to protect women from being killed.
"Globally, an estimated 81,100 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2021. The overall number of female homicides has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. Most killings of women and girls are gender motivated. In 2021, around 45,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members. This means that, on average, more than five women or girls are killed every hour by someone in their own family."
You can read more here.
What are you looking forward to in the near future?
I'm starting a new mix series with Apple Music in April. I'm looking forward to sharing both dance and non danceable music with everyone. I'm also working on a festival project, and on my party series called Nightclubbing which I hope will be up and running towards the end of 2023. Nightclubbing is a love declaration to club culture and to its diversity, everything that made 17 year old me fall in love with electronic music, and also gave me a sense of community and belonging. I'm also starting a new label with multimedia French artist Lou Fauroux called FÆRIES records, home for queers and fairies.?