Chilluminati

Between 1998 and 2004, Nicholas Sillitoe & Per Martinsen (aka Illumination) regularly used the artist pseudonym “Chilluminati” as a guise for all their remix productions. A playful portmanteau of “chill”, “chillum”, and of course the ever-present “illuminati”. 

At this particular moment, the chill-out scene seemed to be all the rage. 

Ambient, down-tempo electronic music spread like wildfire from the backrooms of small house and techno clubs into the mainstream, influencing club culture, fashion, and lifestyle for early millennials around the world. Chilluminati, from Norway of all places, were fortunate enough to be a part of this burgeoning movement. 

If we rewind a little further back to London in the early 1990s, chill-out rooms were the kind of haunts that both Nicholas and Per enjoyed frequenting. Without realising it until much later, both had in fact regularly attended many of the same small underground events without actually meeting. Initially there as blissed-out punters, hearing inspired DJ’s like Alex Patterson and Mixmaster Morris spinning long, drawn-out hallucinatory sets, they eventually found themselves playing more and more chill-out DJ sets years later — producing, remixing, and arranging similarly trippy club nights back in Oslo.

The relaxed nature of the chill-out scene allowed a little more freedom and certainly more “air to breathe” within the sometimes suffocating confines of purist house and techno club culture. 

As DJs and producers, chill-out gave Illumination’s Chilluminati the opportunity to explore more varied soundscapes, more eclectic music references, and a chance to journey deeper into the soothing realms of psychedelic electronica.

As well as random DJ sets in Oslo under their Chilluminati moniker (their short-lived Wednesday night residency at the Jazid nightclub was probably Norway’s one and only bona fide chill-out club night), Nicholas and Per — in between work on their own projects such as Illumination and Mental Overdrive — gleefully set the controls for the heart of the chill whenever the opportunity arose to remix other artists.

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Eivind Aarset, one of Norway’s finest exponents of “electronique” jazz guitar, was the first to get the Chilluminati treatment with his blueprint track “Superstrings”, remixed and released on Jazzland Records/Universal in early 1999. 

Instead of delivering just another standard club remix, Nicholas and Per went far beyond the call of duty, producing a totally transcendental, downright melancholy yet uplifting down-tempo rearrangement of Eivind’s track. Sometime later they also returned to Eivind’s musical galaxy with a remix of his gorgeous track “Empathic Guitar”.

During this period, several artists from the Jazzland Records stable (and associated acts) had their key tracks touched by the hand of Chilluminati, thanks to positive feedback and encouragement from label head Sten Nilsen. Bugge Wesseltoft’s “Existence”, “Change” and “Skog”; Sidsel & Bugge’s “Try”; Nils Petter Molvær’s “Vilderness”; and the wonderful “Gula Gula” from Sámi artist Mari Boine were all given the Chilluminati treatment.

Mari Boine was already a much-lauded artist in world music circles. “Gula Gula”, the title track from her stunning international debut album, was originally released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label in 1989. This daringly beautiful song about the oppression of the Sámi people certainly lent itself to a sonic reappraisal. When Universal Music decided to have her back-catalogue remixed by various up-and-coming producers in the chill-out scene, Illumination were thrilled to get first choice on Mari Boine’s crown jewel. 

The Chilluminati mix of “Gula Gula” deftly adapted her original “joik” from a 5/8 time signature into a more traditional 4/4-friendly vocal loop, adding bubbling synths and string stabs over an infectious down-tempo groove. From an exuberant mix session in a shabby top-floor studio in Oslo, the Chilluminati remix soon went global, destined for ubiquitous chill-out sunsets, beach bars, mix CDs and the mainstream market.  

The resulting exposure soon caught the attention of the marketing team at Universal Music’s London office, who quickly jumped on board the Chilluminati express. Having already licensed the Chilluminati mix of Bugge Wesseltoft’s “Existence” on their best-selling compilation Café del Mar 6, by the time Illumination’s own “Cookie Raver”, and Boine’s “Gula Gula” remix both appeared on Café del Mar 8 in the summer of 2001, Nicholas and Per were invited to become official DJ/brand ambassadors for Universal Music’s worldwide launch of the Café del Mar compilation series into emerging markets. This conveniently coincided with the promotion of their own Illumination album This is Illumination (+47/LoveOD), simultaneously released internationally via BMG/RCA.

This took Illumination and their Chilluminati vibe all the way from Buenos Aires to Bangkok, Hamburg to Mexico City, Moscow to Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur to Caracas, Copenhagen to Hong Kong, over a whirlwind two-year period.

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Nicholas and Per suddenly experienced the unusual luxury of first-class air travel and designer hotels, but most of all they were given the rewarding opportunity to play their trademark “anything-goes-as-long-as-it’s-chill” DJ sets to a new generation of globalised chill-out clubbers around the world. 

Back home in Oslo, recovering from jet lag, airport lounges, and a fairly gruelling schedule of meet-and-greet promo activity, more remixes thankfully followed. These included personal projects for Nicholas and Per’s partners, Anne Marie Almedal and Aggie Frost (aka “WAGs”), who both travelled with the duo on some of their globetrotting DJ trips. Society London’s “Desire” (featuring Anne Marie Almedal) and Frost’s “Magika” both received well-deserved Chilluminati remix love, with both tracks released later that year.

Other remixes for international artists also arrived in late 2001. Cirque Du Soleil, the Canadian circus producers, commissioned a couple of Chilluminati remixes for both commercial release and performance at their opulent worldwide shows (“A Tale”). The delightful British electronic duo Lamb also got a fine Chilluminati marinade with Nicholas and Per’s remix of “Gabriel”, another familiar favourite from Café del Mar Vol. 8.

A bootleg remix of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel Love” somehow mysteriously surfaced from the Chilluminati studio haze, as well as a rare remix of Tuxedomoon’s “The Waltz”, commissioned by the Belgian avant-pop label Crammed Discs.

In late 2002, Nicholas and Per lovingly compiled and curated their favourite Chilluminati moments into a seamless DJ mix titled This Is Chilluminati, which first appeared as a +47/LoveOD promo CD, licensed to Universal Music. Due to copyright clearance issues, the mix CD was never commercially released, although some “For Promo Use Only” copies did manage to slip through the net.

By 2004, the album mix was re-edited, re-compiled and finally released as Illumination – The Chilluminati Remixes via Jazzland/Universal Music worldwide, on license from +47/Love OD. 

A final Chilluminati remix rarity to see the light of day was Bugge Wesseltoft’s “Skog”, which eventually appeared on a Jazzland box set release New Conception of Jazz, done during sessions for Illumination’s second album The Poppy Rocks.

Nicholas Sillitoe and Per Martinsen stopped remixing/producing together as Illumination/Chilluminati not long after that point, focusing instead on their individual careers and other music projects. 

Several Chilluminati remixes are currently available for streaming on the original artists’ respective profiles, while others sadly are not. Thankfully the legacy of the Chilluminati output can hopefully live on in the digital age.

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