fLako

Hip-Hop

Since 2007 Dario Rojo Guerra has explored a blend of soulful melody and off-the-grid beats, as Flako. Originally driven by a love of instrumental hip hop, his early MPC sketches were built from a warm, organic sound driven by Latin percussion reflecting his German-Chilean heritage. These productions attracted the attention of Project: Mooncircle, with whom he released two EPs and a compilation in 2011 called The Mesektet, a collection that drew a line under his first steps as an artist. Over the past few years Flako has focused on expanding his sound into new places. No longer concerned with instrumental hip hop and sample-based production, his approach now sees him combine live instrumentation, synthesisers and his own voice into more detailed and intricate compositions. Inspired just as much by the ambient music of Vangelis, the jazz of George Duke and progressive rock of Bo Hansson as he is by the South American soul, folk and cumbia he absorbed from his family growing up in a small town just outside of Frankfurt, Flako’s music transcends genre and regional music forms. In 2012 Flako released the Eclosure EP on London-based label Five Easy Pieces. Its cover, depicting a human figure standing just out of sync of its forest surroundings, mirrored the sense of a natural world being created throughout the record with a kaleidoscopic mixture of digital and acoustic tones. Dirg Gerner’s appearance on the record also demonstrated Flako’s ear for creating a refreshingly un...