Hailing from Scotland’s largest city, Illyus & Barrientos have been blazing a trail in the Dance Music scene. The pair consistently channel their varied influences into all of their records, consistently offering something truly unique with each record and performance. Barrientos has Chilean parents and was born in America, while Illyus grew up in Frankfurt after being born in Scotland.
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 informed their own music and propelled them to the forefront of the UK Dance Music scene. In many ways, they are an odd couple – while Illyus was growing up in the vibrant local hip-hop scene in Germany, and then in Glasgow distributing early mixtapes for an enthusiastic audience of friends, Barrientos was still taking classical piano lessons, playing Chopin and Beethoven. The culmination of their diverse ascensions to this point continues to produce anthem after anthem.
With a collection of releases on labels such as Toolroom, Defected, and Armada, as well as remixes for the likes of Calvin Harris, Purple Disco Machine, Armand Van Helden, Sonny Fodera, Kylie Minogue, A-Trak, and Gorgon City, Illyus & Barrientos have established themselves as one of the most prolific and in-demand DJ-producer duos in the UK. They’ve performed at standout venues such as London’s iconic Printworks, CRSSD (USA), Ushuaia (Ibiza), and supported the likes of Calvin Harris, and Rudimental. Furthermore, they’ve already released a wealth of records of the years with their most notable single ‘Promise’ picking up overwhelming support and smashing it’s way through 6.5M+ streams to date. Furthermore, Illyus & Barrientos have graced the playlists of internationally recognised radio stations Kiss FM UK,Capital Dance and BBC Radio 1 as well as hosting a number of shows on Kiss FM UK.
