As a detached European, the first things I still think of upon mention of Colombia are sadly predictable… cocaine, Pablo Escobar, kidnap.   I’d brazen that I’m not fully to blame, though, given that news reports and current affairs programmes which do venture to South America rarely report on anything other than drug wars, narco-cartels or the hippos Escobar left behind after his unwitting exit from this mortal coil back in 1993. Away from the headlines, then, what’s it really like?

Who better to ask than dynamic design duo Rubén Antorveza (the graphic designer) and Nicolas Cuestas (the digital artist) who have, over the last 12 months, established themselves and their collective, Bastardo, as the go-to agency for everyone from Hugo Boss to Dazed and Confused via Adidas.

There’s a politeness to the way David Terranova talks that belies the dark, trippy and tortured films he makes for Crosstown Rebels, the shorts he does for Minus, Ghostly Wonderland Magazine or anyone else.  Wrongly apologising for his in fact eloquent English, the Italian born visual artist talks growing up between Rome and London and of being the nephew of the first Italian lawyer to seriously investigate the Mafia, and the financial operations of Cosa Nostra, before being shot in 1979. Though shooting comes up lots more in the conversation, it’s shooting of a different sort…

“I first came here to film a Wolf +Lamb episode of the Rebel Rave video series” remembers David. “It was the end of spring; I went to shoot the party at the Marcy and had such a great time.  Zev and Gadi are such cool guys, the night was amazing, I loved the city and in fact even met my girlfriend at the party – she’s in the RebelRave videos a lot and I really used the camera to chat her up… in fact all the people in the video I made of that night are now all my friends.  Anyway, when I returned to London I just thought “what am I doing?” so six months later I packed my bags and crossed the Atlantic to move in with my girl’.”

Tim Xavier is a hero – he’s like the Superman of Techno. Internationally renowned DJ, established producer of over forty five releases, co-founder of the techno collective, Clink Recordings and owner of the Manmade Mastering vinyl cutting studio, Xavier is a star protagonist at the forefront of this musical movement. Over the years, his diehard dedication and vast contributions to electronic music and turntable culture have placed Xavier on a pedestal, receiving nods of approval, admiration and respect from professionals and fans alike.

Finally, after a decade working 24/7 as “the man with five jobs,” he’s received his biggest break yet: he was recently signed to the reputed Clandestine Booking Agency and Berlin-based Wilde Agency (both considered top-tier talent managements within the global techno-house empire). And to top off all this good news, Xavier’s mastering studio was personally asked by techno legend, Richie Hawtin to re-master the artist’s Plastikman archives, making this endeavor one of the biggest projects known to electronic music.