il:lo Detail the Production Mechanics Behind Debut Studio LP Lucent

Dejan Dejado and Andreas Schütz unpack ten years of studio work, sidechain equalization, and low-end engineering on their Nettwerk debut.

il:lo, the French downtempo and electronica production duo comprising Dejan Dejado and Andreas Schütz, have released their debut studio album Lucent via Nettwerk in September 2026. Formed following a 2010 meeting in Prague and operating remotely between Berlin and southern France, the producers spent over a decade filtering fifty studio demos down to a twelve-track LP grounded in high-contrast synthesis. The record relies on dynamic sidechain equalization, pitch-shifted vocal processing, and saturated sub-bass to translate themes of modern pressure into physical audio textures.

il:lo reveal their studio process

The journey towards Lucent reflects a long-term commitment to patience over industry speed. After building an extensive discography across independent outlets with EPs including Distances, Sloh, Myriad, and The Fair, il:lo resisted the urge to prematurely push out a full-length release. Instead, Dejan Dejado and Andreas Schütz accumulated dozens of working ideas while operating remotely across European borders. Dejado worked out of his Berlin studio workspace while Schütz composed from southern France, exchanging digital audio stems and field recordings until a unified aesthetic emerged.

Rather than enforcing rigid technical rules, the producers allowed their studio workflow to remain flexible. Hardware synths like the Sequential Take 5 and Korg Minilogue XD provided key harmonic elements, but the duo remained equally open to processing everyday environmental sounds. This willingness to combine high-end subtractive synthesis with casual acoustic captures formed the core foundation of their LP, framing the visual concept of “electric blue” as a juxtaposition between cold synthetic weight and fragile human expression.

Honestly, it just took us a very long time to get there. More than ten years, apparently! We had around fifty tracks at one point, and slowly realised that twelve of them felt like they belonged to the same world.

Sequencing played a central role in transforming isolated ideas into a continuous narrative. Opening with the delicate ambient prelude ‘Aube’, the record immediately plunges into the heavy low-end tension of ‘Iraya’ before moving through phases of isolation, movement, and eventual calm. The duo intentionally paired aggressive distorted textures directly beside fragile acoustic elements, using extreme dynamic contrast to make heavy sub-bass lines hit with greater weight.

Analogue Synthesis and Dynamic EQ Workflows

Carving out distinct frequency bands was essential during the mixing phase to prevent dense low-end instrumentation from swamping mid-range acoustic detail. On ‘Iraya’, repetitive piano chords and delicate woodwind accents share overlapping frequencies above a rising sub-bass foundation. To keep the woodwinds articulate without weakening the piano, il:lo utilized FabFilter Pro-Q for dynamic sidechain equalization, attenuating specific chord frequencies only when the woodwind signal triggers the equalizer threshold.

For sub-bass synthesis on tracks such as ‘Is This Forever?’ and ‘Haïve’, the duo turned to a deceptively simple software setup. They initialized Native Instruments Monark to generate a single Minimoog-style saw waveform, running the output directly into Soundtoys Decapitator to introduce warm harmonic drive. On ‘Silhouettes’, feature vocalist Laura Wolf was brought to the foreground using an extensive chain comprising compression, de-essing, pitch-shifting, slap delay, dual reverbs, and a substantial equalization boost between 1kHz and 3kHz.

We use sidechain equalization. When the wind instrument plays, the chords are attenuated at that instrument’s specific frequencies. This is a technique we used extensively while mixing the album. To achieve this, we use the FabFilter Pro-Q plug-in.

Acoustic and synthetic elements continue to clash across ‘Besides Everything’, where sampled acoustic drum breaks interact with synthetic low-end weight without sacrificing dynamic headroom. On ‘Haïve’, the duo adopted deep house rhythmic structures and four-on-the-floor kick patterns to drive physical movement, before adding intricate layers of arpeggios, pads, and chopped vocal samples. Track ‘Between Dogs & Wolves’ explores twilight duality (entre chien et loup) by placing overdriven bass and distorted cymbals directly against soft piano lines.

Mastering engineer Julia Borelli managed final peak limiting, applying bus compression to unify distorted peaks while protecting open decay tails on ambient cuts like ‘At Ease’. As il:lo prepare to take Lucent on tour across Europe and North America, the live performance setup is evolving. Andreas Schütz will introduce live electric bass to the stage, while Dejan Dejado manipulates the Sequential Take 5 in real time to inject spontaneous harmonic dissonance into their reworked arrangements.

As with every live show, we are reworking each track to create a new version, punchier and more danceable. Andreas will now occasionally play electric bass. Dejan will keep tweaking his Sequential Take 5 to inject happy accidents, madness, and dissonance.