Quantic

A prolific, globe-trotting musician, DJ, and producer, Quantic was born Will Holland near Birmingham, England, in 1980. Over dozens of recordings, his musical explorations have largely involved the funk, jazz, and trance music of the northern hemisphere, in combination with cumbia, salsa, bossa nova, and folkloric styles of the global south. The 5th Exotic, his 2001 debut, established him as a hypnotic virtuoso of sample-heavy laptop concoctions, a profile he immediately upended with the soulful vocals and live instrumentation captured on 2002's Apricot Morning. A move to Cali, Colombia, opened up a new world of rhythms and possibilities unleashed on his 2007 Quantic Soul Orchestra release, Tropidélico. He reimagined salsa with the Colombian band Combo Bárbaro and gave cumbia a modernist overhaul on albums credited to Ondatrópica. Afrobeat met strings on his 2019 album, Atlantic Modulations, which elegantly connected the various strands of the New York-based omnivore's ongoing musical journey and served as prelude to the chamber arrangements and folk rhythms of 2021's Almas Conectadas.