Some journeys unfold in a straight line. Others drift like smoke, following instinct rather than direction.
For his debut appearance on the Magician On Duty Journey Series, Calatrava (@calatravaa) offers a recording that lives somewhere between sunrise and the final moments of the night. It is a patient conversation between pulse and silence, where each transition feels less like a DJ mix and more like the turning of a page. Time stretches, rhythms breathe, and melodies arrive quietly, leaving room for the listener to wander.
Calatrava's story begins in Moscow, where intimate underground gatherings became the laboratory for a sound shaped by restraint instead of excess. Drawn to the subtle tension of minimal techno, deep house, and downtempo, he learned to build momentum through detail rather than spectacle, allowing every record to reveal itself slowly.
Everything shifted with his move to Tulum in 2022. Surrounded by a community searching for new musical languages, he co-founded EXO, a gathering dedicated to slower frequencies and open-minded selectors. What began as a local event series soon grew into one of the region's most respected platforms, welcoming artists including Magician On Duty, Kyong Sono, DPAZ, NADA, RoMo, MoM, YOU&I, and many others. The vision naturally expanded into EXO Records, a home for music that favors feeling over formula.
Today, Calatrava continues to shape his own path through original productions and performances across Mexico, guided by curiosity rather than convention. His sets refuse obvious climaxes, choosing instead to dissolve the boundaries between genres, cultures, and states of mind.
That philosophy flows effortlessly through this Journey Series episode. Across eighteen carefully chosen selections, delicate arpeggios dissolve into earthy percussion, forgotten melodies reappear in unexpected forms, and hypnotic grooves give way to moments of quiet reflection before finding their pulse once again. Music from Arutani, Iorie, Madmotormiquel, NADA, Mira & Christopher Schwarzwälder, Juliano Gomez, gázel, O_Y and others becomes part of a single, unbroken narrative—less a collection of tracks than a landscape slowly revealing itself with every step.
This is a mix for long roads, hidden beaches, empty dance floors at dawn, and those rare moments when music says more than words ever could.
Tracklist:
1. Soble – Some Arps
2. Yassen – To Break (Exei Remix)
3. Arutani – Láska (Original Mix)
4. Arutani, AVEM – The Mermaid Girl (Original Mix)
5. Noema – Twilight (O_Y Remix)
6. Laaar – Easy Morning (Original Mix)
7. luçïd (Paris) – Serenade (Original Mix)
8. gázel – Wide Open Space (Original Mix)
9. Iorie, bawab – Constant Red (Original Mix)
10. Onix, Kutus – Liulchina (Nada Remix)
11. Metatext, Karhua – Thousand Lights (Original Mix)
12. Nada – Café (Original Mix)
13. Alinakini – Eternity (Juliano Gomez Remix)
14. mytripismytrip, Nixe – Lotti (Arutani Remix)
15. Arutani, AVEM – Trance is Psy (Original Mix)
16. mytripismytrip, Nixe – Great Moss (Original Mix)
17. Herr Lüdeke (Mira & Christopher Schwarzwälder Remix)
18. Iorie & Madmotormiquel – MCB
Follow Calatrava:
Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/_calatrava]
SoundCloud: [https://soundcloud.com/calatravaa]
EXO Records: [https://soundcloud.com/exolabel]
