Populous conjures landscapes from sound. That instinct was already present in Quipo (2002), the debut by Lecce-born producer Andrea Mangia on Berlin’s Morr Music, where fragile electronics opened into spacious sketches that pointed beyond the label’s indietronica core towards the southern light of his native Salento. Growing up there, he absorbed a different kind of energy: beaches and piazzas shook with reggae, dub and drum’n’bass soundsystems, and that low-frequency weight became part of his musical DNA.

By the 2010s his work had turned toward Latin American rhythms and global currents. Night Safari (2014) wove digital cumbia and tropical bass into his productions, while Azulejos (2017), shaped by time in Lisbon, carried the city’s cultural crossings into his sound and featured guests including Colombian producer Ela Minus and Anglo-Brazilian singer Nina Miranda. Together, these albums placed Populous at the meeting point between European electronica and Latin America’s digital folklore.

He kept moving. W (2019), released on Wonderwheel Recordings, pushed toward a sharper, club-focused edge and became his first openly queer statement, dedicated to feminine musical imagination and built around collaborations with women artists including Sobrenadar, Sotomayor, Kaleema and Emmanuelle. While Stasi (2021), conceived as a soundtrack to a graphic novel, leaned into ambient and cinematic tones. Each project widened his vocabulary without settling on a single identity.

That language crystallises on Isla Diferente, written in Lanzarote during months of wind, lava fields and ocean silence. Released in April on his own Latinambient imprint, the album turns isolation into texture: drone and ambient drift set against fractured Latin rhythms, both intimate and expansive. Now midway through a European tour, Populous brings this world to London’s Jazz Cafe tomorrow night, transforming it into a live A/V environment.

We caught up with him ahead of the London date to talk about two decades of reinvention, the roots of Isla Diferente, and the communities — from Salento to Lisbon to Lanzarote — that continue to shape his music. He has also curated an exclusive playlist for Rhythm Passport, a compass of the sounds currently guiding him, from ambient meditations to late-night club explorations.

You started releasing music over two decades ago. Looking back from Quipo to Isla Diferente, what has changed most in how you approach making a Populous record, from the tools you use to the way you think about rhythm, or even the role music plays in your life?

I still think of music as a privilege rather than a job. Maybe that’s wrong, but this slightly romantic view is what makes me feel young.

There was a time, for better or worse, when Salento was called “Italy’s Jamaica.” Growing up in Lecce during that period, how did reggae and sound system culture shape your sense of rhythm, bass and community? Do you still feel traces of that scene in your work today?

Salento has since become very trendy, where it’s now impossible to imagine organising an illegal dancehall on the beach without being arrested ten minutes later. But I still remember the vibrations of reggae, dub and drum’n’bass records. I like to think my music still carries some of those soundsystem influences.

Alongside albums, you’ve worked as a sound designer for fashion houses. Moving between underground music and high-fashion projects seems like a huge leap. What have you carried from those experiences into the way you produce as Populous?

I’ve always been very honest with brands: “This is who I am, don’t ask me for something else.” To answer your question, I’d say it’s the other way round: I brought a bit of Populous into high fashion, LOL.

The new album was born during your residency in Lanzarote. Can you take us into that environment — the volcanic landscapes, the silence, the island’s nightlife — and describe how those surroundings crept into your writing process?

Lanzarote is a very strange place. Not everyone likes it. It can be harsh in some respects — the desert, the stillness, the wind, the ocean, the lack of drinking water. But it was exactly what I needed to reset my mind from the flood of useless stimuli we face every day. Lanzarote is like a tropical version of Iceland. That matched what I wanted to express in sound: to write an album of new Latin rhythms influenced by isolationist music, drone and ambient.

You chose to release Isla Diferente on your own label, Latinambient. Why was it important to start the imprint now, and what kind of artists or sounds do you imagine carrying the label forward?

In recent years I’ve often asked myself whether and how much a label can still support an artist. Times change so fast. I don’t know how much sense it still makes to work with press offices or independent labels. Maybe all we need is a good TikTok dance. As for Latinambient: I already have several releases lined up. For now it’s friends, people from my own musical family. But the intention is to build a scene.

The record feels darker and more intimate than your earlier work. What choices in instrumentation, mood, or personal headspace led you toward that tone? Was there a particular moment when you realised this album would be different?

I realised it when I found the illustrator who created all the artwork. I thought: I need to write music that can properly soundtrack these works of art.

On Isla Diferente you worked with Rocco Rampino (CongoRock), Sudestudio, and voices including Fuera, Javier Arce, Eva de Marce and Esotérica Tropical. How did each collaboration shape the record, and how do you balance those external inputs with the need to keep the music unmistakably your own?

They’re all friends. Everything happened in a spontaneous and natural way. Usually I send a beat tailored to the artist’s characteristics. Then I explain the album’s concept, the kind of result I’m aiming for. It’s all a matter of vibes.

The live A/V show transforms Isla Diferente into a visual as well as sonic experience. How do you build that environment? Does the music suggest images to you, or do visuals sometimes spark musical ideas?

I like to give total freedom to the artists I collaborate with. That’s what happened with the visual artist Furio Ganz. I want people to feel part of my artistic journey, while at the same time feeling represented in their own personal path.

In a few days you’ll bring Isla Diferente to London. How will the live set differ from the record? Are there particular tracks or passages you plan to expand, improvise, or drive more heavily into a club framework?

I imagined the live show as an immersive experience. You listen, you watch, you sway and let yourself go. There will be parts very close to the album, unreleased beats, and re-edits of artists who inspired me.

In one of your interviews, you said that clubs can rise again as homes of counterculture and free spaces beyond power dynamics. When you bring Isla Diferente into a club, how do you see that idea playing out, and how does the role of the club differ between Italy, Lisbon, Mexico City, and elsewhere you’ve performed?

In clubs I usually prefer to play DJ sets, where I can range widely, play with BPM and genres. I listen to so much different music that sometimes it becomes a problem, and the selection gets too wild. When I perform my own tracks that risk isn’t there, because everything is more focused.

Italy has a growing network of producers engaging with global beats. Where do you see your own work within that wider conversation, and who else from Italy would you encourage listeners to seek out right now?

Every time I try to make predictions about my music I fail miserably. I’m better at recommending names. I really like TSVI, Tamburi Neri, Mondocane, Clap! Clap!, Go Dugong, La Niña. I’m sure I’m forgetting others…

What have you been listening to recently? Whether electronic, folkloric, or outside the field entirely, are there records or artists that feel connected to where you want to take your music after Isla Diferente?

I’ve mainly been listening to ambient music. Of course I also do research for my club DJ sets, but that’s a much more mechanical and less emotional process. I already have two EPs ready that reflect exactly these two scenarios.

Hear Isla Diferente, out now on Latinambient, HERE
Tickets for tomorrow’s Jazz Cafe show with support from Joaquin Cornejo are available HERE

PLAYLIST: POPULOUS X RHYTHM PASSPORT

Photo ©: Martina Loiola