Kiki aka. Joakim Ija´s was born in Helsinki, but has now found his home in Berlin. Initial forays into making sounds with violins and pianos soon gave hway to the mechanical beats of hip-hop, mixed together with more popular sounds whilst playing at school discos before he was even a teenager. With such an early start it was no surprise that before he was old enough to enter a club, Kiki was holding down a weekly residency at Helsinki’s Tempo club, which was swiftly followed by another at the Smile club. A move to Berlin in 1994 to study Architecture was the catalyst for Kiki to step in to the realms of a serious DJ. Impressing the legendary Masters At Work at a Marlboro DJ competition led to him securing gigs at Berlin’s three cathedrals of techno -Tresor, Pfefferbank and WMF. Gigs in Berlin and Germany were soon followed by a string of international bookings and the release of an infamous three deck mix for Sonnenhaus which led to DE:BUG worrying about the health of his, fingers.
With his profile as a DJ growing it was two short steps to releasing his first record on Ellen Allien’s BPitch Control label in 2001, who through a happy coincidence he had met when the pair were double booked to play the same DJ slot. Since then Kiki has become an integral part of the BPitch family growing into a truly international artist, sharing his love of energetic and hypnotic music across the globe from Mexico, to Tokyo and making a little bit of history along the way. With an output that has been nothing short of prolific, Kiki has released a number of genre defining records both as himself and later with partner in crime Silversurfer. Kiki was the first artist asked to put together a mix for the now legendary Boogy Bytes series, and has been asked to provide remixes and productions for labels as diverse as Bugged Out, Playhouse and Crosstown Rebels where he had the honour of being the first artist releasing on the label. His debut album Run With Me, released on Bpitch Control, was an international success, and led to the video for “Shake Off” (a collaboration with Silversurfer and Captain Comatose) being playlisted by MTV. More recently a collaboration with Sasse and his Moodmusic imprint led to the release of the excellent Grand Cru – a modern club classic already.
However, as he has grown and matured, a yearning to explore deeper and more personal forms of expression in music, has led to Kiki working on his follow up to his debut album. Without forgetting his roots in the club, Kiki has reigned back the short sharp thrill of 12” releases to concentrate on his second album.
And so the next chapter begins. Kiki released Kaiku (which means echo in Finnish) in late spring of 2009. Like a musical calling card it combines all of the elements that can only be learned through a life dedicated to music and musical expression. Where the space between house and techno and electronic music becomes blurred to the point of irrelevance and the feeling and emotions created by the music give you all the labels you will ever need. As the song on Kaiku says – “No Words Necessary”.
After "Kaiku" and especially the huge success of the album single "Good Voodoo" that also saw the first appearance of Visionquest as a remixer, Kiki has put out "Cinema Obscura" & "Morning Maniacs" (with a ridiculously funny video) on BPitch Control, started a well received radioshow on Proton Radio in 2010 in collaboration with Noice!, is producing singles for Anja Schneider and keeps touring all continents. There is also a collaboration with Chaim coming up...
;)