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Amsterdam-born producer Luigi Vittorio Vromen draws on childhood memories for a debut rooted in wonder, discovery and family.
Artis is the debut album from BSS, the musical alias of producer, DJ and audiovisual live artist Luigi Vittorio Vromen, forthcoming on Safe Trip. Named after the zoo in his hometown of Amsterdam, the record takes its inspiration from childhood visits with his grandmother and brother—experiences that offered an early glimpse of a world beyond home.
“On certain days, my grandmother would take my brother and me there, a quiet gift to two kids growing up in a little grey country,” Luigi recalls. “Inside those gates were animals I had never seen and corners of nature I didn't know existed. As a child, it was proof that the world was far bigger than home.”
Informed by a deep knowledge of music history, BSS’s musical language moves between 80s minimalism, synth percussion, electro and hypnotic techno. A fascination with modular synthesis brings depth and unpredictability to his work, allowing carefully shaped ideas to meet spontaneous discoveries.
Following releases on Dekmantel and Hivern Discs, alongside a growing body of work on his own imprint, AMS, Artis brings his instinct for musical storytelling into a deeply personal setting. The record draws on the wonder of encountering something unfamiliar, the reassurance of being taken by the hand, and the lasting influence of the people who shape how we see the world.
“This album is nostalgia in sound,” he explains. “It's a love letter to a place, and to the person who showed me it was possible to look beyond the horizon.”
BSS’s DJ sets and live performances have taken him across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Beyond the club, his practice extends into film, visual art and haute couture. With Artis, that expansive outlook finds its starting point in simple childlike curiosity: stepping through a set of gates and discovering how much more there was to see.
