The Spaces Between: il:lo’s Journey to ‘Lucent’

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French electronic duo il:lo reflect on their friendship and creativity, while sharing insight into their long-awaited debut album, Lucent.

After more than a decade of collaboration, French electronic duo il:lo have developed a sound that blends organic textures, deep house, downtempo rhythms, and atmospheric storytelling. Formed by longtime friends, Andreas Schütz and Dejan Dejado, the project has been built across multiple cities and countries, proving their creativity knows no limits. Their debut album Lucent, due out on October 16, showcases the strength of their synergy and evolution as artists through a collection of music that moves between introspection and hope.

Throughout their journey, il:lo has taken their blend of electronica, downtempo, and progressive house to fans across Europe and the United States, supporting artists like Parra for Cuva, CloZee, and Stimming, before going on their own headline tours. What began as a project rooted in abstract hip-hop influences has turned into a catalog that blends melodic house dancefloor energy with emotional depth. Along the way, they began embracing deeper grooves and more sophisticated arrangements, while preserving the introspective quality that first defined their music.

At the heart of il:lo’s dynamic partnership is a creative process that thrives on collaboration and reinvention, but most importantly, trust. Their balance comes from Schütz’s gift for melody and structure, paired with Dejado’s fascination for discovering unexpected sounds that bring their ideas to life, fitting together like a perfectly pieced puzzle.

Looking to gain added insight into the project and what’s to come on Lucent, we sat down for a chat with il:lo. Listen to their exclusive guest mix and read on to learn how they shape their sound and use distance and time to refine their connection and sound.

Stream EDMID Guest Mix 505 || il:lo on SoundCloud:

This project was built between Paris and Berlin, and distance has always been part of your journey. How has creating music across cities and borders influenced your sound and creative process?

Hello, and thank you for having us and for giving us the opportunity to talk about our project and our first album, Lucent. Indeed, this project was initially built from a distance. We met in Prague more than 15 years ago, became friends, and quickly realized that we shared many of the same musical tastes. The musical project itself started in France, between two different cities, Paris and Cherbourg. We then spent a few years both living in Paris, and today Dejan lives in Montpellier, in the south of France, while Andreas is based in Berlin, Germany.

One of the great strengths of creating from a distance is that we each move through different environments. We are exposed to different kinds of music, experiences, and influences, and as a result, we bring different colors and perspectives into our music. This is still the case after all these years.

Also, the fact that we’re not constantly together while creating allows us to take a more critical perspective on our ideas. There’s a certain sense of time and distance that prevents everything from happening too immediately. It gives us the space to make more decisive choices, while still allowing time for reflection and for listening to things again with fresh ears.

Photo Credit: Cahuate Milk

You’ve described your partnership as complementary, with Andreas crafting layered melodies and Dejan spending hours shaping and searching for the perfect sounds. After more than a decade working together, how have those different creative strengths become the foundation of the il:lo sound?

I think this is still very much the case, even though with experience, we are both capable of creating a track from A to Z. There are still certain roles and aspects of the process that excite us more than others.

Dejan has always been interested in digging for strange and unexpected sounds and textures to bring twists and different atmospheres to the tracks. Andreas, on the other hand, has always been drawn to arrangements and song structures, which he sees almost like puzzles to solve.

Over the years, these complementary strengths have naturally become an important part of the il:lo sound. Even when we work independently, we tend to bring these different perspectives into the music, and that balance between sound exploration and structure is something that has remained at the core of our collaboration.

How do you continue to challenge each other after working together for so many years?

The fact that we send each other a lot of demos and work in a way where one of us starts with an idea, and then we remix and reshape that idea through several iterations until we find a consensus, keeps that sense of challenge alive. There’s something adventurous about seeing an idea change form again and again throughout the process.

Sometimes, if you compare the original demo with the final track, almost nothing remains from the initial version. And I think that’s part of the challenge too: accepting that what you bring to the table at the beginning is only a starting point for creating the final dish, with no guarantee that the original elements will still be there in the end.

It forces us to stay open-minded and humble, and not to become too attached to our own ideas. What matters in the end is that feeling of having made a great track that we both love, and that genuinely reflects who we are.

Photo Credit: Cahuate Milk

If someone is discovering il:lo for the first time, which three songs would you choose from your discography to introduce them to your music, and why would you choose those three?

That’s a difficult question because we’ve explored quite a few different worlds over the years, from the very abstract, hip-hop-influenced sounds of our early work to the deeper and more melodic house music we’ve been making in recent years.

I think I would choose “Reine,” for its very instrumental, almost jazzy side; “Biome,” for its enveloping, downtempo atmosphere; and “Naïa,” which represents a more electronic side of our music, with a UK garage influence.

Together, I think these three tracks give a good sense of the different directions we’ve explored and the variety that has always been part of il’s sound.

But perhaps the best way to discover il:lo today is to listen to our upcoming album, Lucent, when it comes out. It brings together many of the things we love about making music, while still exploring a wide range of sounds and atmospheres.

Over the years, you’ve brought live instruments like drums and trumpet into your performances. As you enter this new chapter with Lucent, what can fans expect from the live experience?

The idea of having a live band has actually always been part of the project. That’s what we tried to do during the early years in Paris. Later, as the project evolved towards a more electronic sound, we focused more on a dance-oriented live experience, with the two of us performing as a duo.

With Lucent, the idea of bringing a live band back is definitely something that’s been on our minds. One of the big steps for us will be to develop shows with other musicians, including singers and vocalists. It’s something that is very close to our hearts, and we’re currently working on it. We’ll be able to announce more about this very soon.

Your newest album, Lucent, explores the space between tension and hope. What experiences and emotions in your lives inspired that theme?

We don’t consciously set out to make music about tension, hope, or melancholy, but our music often starts from a more melancholic or introspective place and gradually opens up into something lighter and more hopeful.

That kind of progression is what we find most moving when we compose. We like starting with something more emotionally dense and slowly moving towards something lighter, more open and spacious. It feels natural to us, almost like a release, like being able to breathe again after going somewhere deeper.

With Lucent, this movement became particularly important to us. The world around us feels quite strange and absurd at the moment, whether you look at the climate, politics, or the general sense of uncertainty. We’re sure that, consciously or not, some of that finds its way into the music. Maybe that’s also why we’re drawn to creating moments of resolution, something lighter, more open and hopeful, as a counterpoint to what’s happening around us.

Photo Credit: Cahuate Milk

This album feels like a major milestone for il:lo. What are some dreams that you still haven’t accomplished?

Yes, it definitely feels like an important moment for us. We’re quite slow. It took us more than ten years to finally make a full-length album!

There are still so many things we’d love to do. One of our biggest dreams is to create a complete live show that could include other forms of art, such as visuals, dance, and other elements. We’d also love to play in new parts of the world and collaborate with other musicians and artists.

There are still a lot of things that make us dream, and hopefully Lucent will open the door to some of them.

Finally, just for fun, I know Four Tet has been a dream collaborator for you too; should fans keep hoping for that collaboration someday? And are there any other artists you want to work with in the future?

[Laughs] Four Tet is definitely still on the list! He’s always been a huge inspiration for us, especially in terms of artistic freedom and the way he constantly explores different directions.

Of course, we could easily add Bonobo or Björk to that list, but the truth is that there are so many artists we’d be honored to collaborate with. And maybe it’s even more exciting to work with artists who are further away from our own musical world. Sometimes those unexpected combinations can lead to something completely unique.

So yes, Four Tet is still a dream, fans can keep hoping!