Wichy from Vedado He doesn’t remember very well the day he met Ernesto Hidalgo (Tiko Sk8). He knows that it was in one of those electronic music festivals in the Cuban underground that exploded with life, the doors of perception opened and almost everything was possible. But the nebula of memory does not obscure the image of the affections that Wichy has for Tiko. “I don’t remember if I met him in Rotilla or in Havana. For me, the most important thing is that he was a promoter and creator of electronic music events and festivals in Holguín. He was the engine of the East of the country. What we did in Havana he achieved in Holguín”.
Wichy is one of the old guard DJs and producers of the electronic scene. His music grew up in the capital’s underground and his way of understanding the watercolor of electronic rhythms has many points in common with the alternative budgets of the Holguin DJ and producer’s philosophy of artistic life.
“Tiko created an important Stereo G festival to promote DJs from all over the island there. The last time I saw him was on my birthday in August in the midst of a pandemic. I was here in Havana and we were able to share in my house and talk about music and projects. The truth is very strong news. Wichy had a hard time accepting the veracity of the news that confirmed the death of his colleague and friend at sea when he was trying to get from the beaches of Tijuana to the United States. “It is something incomprehensible my brother. I’m still reading the news and didn’t fully understand it.”
Bjoyce is one of the DJs and producers who built a solid universe within Cuban electronic music. She participated as soon as the festival gave shelter to the multiplicity of styles of this genre and her sessions were a tempestuous ode to parties, and to the sensuality of bodies. Bjoyce has lived in the United States for years where she has climbed her career as a DJ and producer and from where she has kept close to the events of the Cuban electronic scene and her colleagues.
I speak with Bjoyce around 3:00 am in the morning of the event that still shocks Cuban electronic music. It takes time to respond from the other side of Facebook. After several minutes of silence, he confesses to me that he lives “a giant sadness.”
“It’s 2:00 am on April 25, and I open FB and I’m speechless. I did not understand the post I read about Tiko Sk8 as he was known, I see that he published it Coocuyo (electronic music magazine) and I already pay more attention to it. A giant sadness takes hold of me, because we lost a great of the Cuban electronic scene. Tiko was Electrozone, and was its founder. He was a dj and producer of the bravos, a native of Holguín, he defended his dreams, who he was and where he came from, that’s why in 2016 he created “Stereo G” an electronic music festival that was held in Holguín for three days and brought together dj/producers from the Island, but more than a festival, his greatest joy was seeing how he brought together a large family”, recalls Bjoyce from New York.
The dj and producer accompanies her message with a photo with Tiko and the producer and rapper Edgaro and with the last image she has of the artist from Holguin. “The last time we shared the stage was in Gibara 2018, a whole week of celebrations and I remember him super smiling walking with his dog.”
Enmanuel Blanco was very close to Tiko during his career. He joined the promotion of his festivals and most of the projects presented by the DJ and producer from Holguin. Enmanuel is the director of the National Electroacoustic Music Laboratory, an institution with which he has maintained the legacy and work of his father, Juan Blanco, one of the pioneers of Cuban musical avant-garde and sound experimentation. But Emmanuel does not speak to me from the category of director, but from the immeasurable region of affections.
“Since I met Tiko I felt his energy, I knew that the passion he felt for electronic music was linked to a spirit of pushing forward. I saw that that boy was going for it all in his land because his impulse delivered him to his Holguín, to the East. He was part of us at the Laboratory not only as a DJ from his group Electrozona, but as the leader of the movement for the eastern region. With the platform of the AHS he turned Holguín into the second capital of Cuban electronic music”, says Enmanuel.
And he adds: “For us, Holguín has always been very special. In his Conservatory he established the first electroacoustic studio outside of Havana. For my father and for us, Holguín was the city of good vibes and Tiko provided that: the best vibes. I am very sad for his loss and day after day many reasons for pain are added.
Dj Ryan is right now going up to the stages that Tiko founded and inhabited in Holguín. Ryan is one of the guests at the Electromerías space that Tiko created during the Romerías de Mayo, which have just started and which, in honor of justice, should be dedicated to Tiko, because the promotion of young artists and less promoted music in the media was one of the greatest purposes of his life.
“Tiko was a great artist and tremendous fighter for electronic music, stubborn for good because he couldn’t tolerate anything going wrong, an exceptional promoter, always active with an inexhaustible desire to work. A visionary who never rested and always defended and helped electronic music and its artists”, says Ryan.
For the DJ and producer, the biggest mark Tiko leaves is his own work. “He was the founder of Electro Romerías and Stereo G, events with a lot of weight at a national and international level. Underground electronic festivals with very good results: new talents emerged, avant-garde artists were consolidated, and great cultural exchanges took place. Undoubtedly, a great artist for which I will propose that the events he created be named after him. ElectroRomerias: «TikoSk8 in Memoriam» Stereo G «TikoSk8 in Memoriam».
The DJ and producer Yonas Alfaro, from the duo Dvazz Brothers, is another of the exponents of Cuban electronics who had a hard time getting up with the news. His words about Tiko coincide with the memories of other colleagues who have emphasized the personal and creative honesty of the DJ from Holguin. “I did not share many times with him but he was a simple, natural man, he did not beat around the bush when it came to talking about anything. I shared at most 5 times with Tiko at Proelectrónica festivals and the occasional party at the clubs in El Vedado. Tiko was very genre-savvy, very old-school.”
Dj Jigüe is one of the DJs located at the forefront of this scene both for his experimentation with various Latin, African Caribbean rhythms and for his promotional work at the head of the independent label Guámpara Music.
“The news is very sad for the entire electronic music scene. I did not have an intimate bond with him but we had a very good friendship. I studied in Holguín and we had that point in common. As a person, he was a very humble, simple guy, one of those people that when you meet you know that you can make friends for all their values,” says Jigüe.
The DJ and producer, born in Santiago de Cuba and currently based in Havana, mentions in detail several of Tiko’s contributions to the culture of electronic music.
“On an artistic level, he is an important name in electronic music in Cuba for everything he did to keep the electronic scene alive outside of Havana. All his achievements as a tireless fighter with the Stereo G festival, which became a fundamental place for the electronic scene in the country. All the djs wanted to participate. The pain is twofold: losing a good guy like Tiko and a high-carat artist with great leadership.”
Jigüe remembers that Tiko submitted his works for a compilation album recorded by Guámpara. “I was lucky and privileged that he was part of the electronic music compilation we made in Guámpara. When I called him he said yes right away. Losing people like Tiko is very strong. All djs still don’t believe it. It’s like a void for me because he invited me to Stereo G, we already had it planned and then COVID came. I have that emptiness for not having shared with him in that already legendary festival. It is a debt for life. Hopefully the festival will continue to be there for him too and dedicate all the music we make to his memory. In your name.”
