Exium, an electronic music duo of producers and performing artists, consists of Valentín Corujo and Héctor Sandoval. Their musical careers have flowed together from their origins as dj’s back in 1994, playing as resident dj’s in small clubs in Asturias –Spain- to 1999 when they decided to start producing together, forming Exium.

It is not often that electronic music artists venture into projects with other creators, but it is even less often to come across artists whose collaboration becomes a stable and lasting union, accounts for most of the work they do and goes far beyond a mere sporadic partnership. When such a project becomes consolidated and mature and shifts from deejaying to studio production, we can say we’re facing a pretty unique scenario, especially if the artists manage to keep up the rhythm, quality and increasing recognition for over a decade.

This is the case of Valentín Corujo + Héctor Sandoval = Exium. The success formula employed by this duo of deejays and producers from Asturias, Spain, that have yet to experience a setback in their career ever since in 1999 they decided to work together, is one of determined and solid effort.

It is vital to stress that the creation process can be very different for solo artists that can devote to creation as and when inspiration finds them, in a spontaneous and anarchic way, and who can adapt to their changing mood, way of life, etc., from what it is like to create music when you’re part of a team: for each member of the partnership to contribute their best and for them to put it all together is a much more complex process than what we may think. Achieving this and getting results in such quantity and of such quality as Exium have done, is an absolutely unique occurrence.

Their early work attracted the attention of national labels Tsunami and Warm Up, and the fact that twelve years later they are still working side by side, speaks volumes.

In 2000 they released their first 12″ in the English label Zet, which was followed by a long list: Equator, Numb, Audio Assault, Planet Rhythm, Labrynth, Main Out, Rxxistance, Recycled Sound, Reaktor or Infecta have released their creations. Their productions made their way into the sets of the most representative DJs and producers and nowadays feature in the sets of artists such as Dave Clarke, Oscar Mulero, Surgeon, Laurent Garnier, Luke Slater, Aphex Twin, and many more.

From 2001, after they became resident DJs at club Rocamar in Gijón, one of the most important house and tech-house clubs in the north of Spain, and thanks to the success obtained with their first productions, they began to take their live performances to prominent clubs and festivals of the whole peninsula; it wasn’t long before their travels took them around Europe, where they’ve become regulars: Ireland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, etc.

Their career as producers continued to grow and, after releasing several EPs on different labels, 2004 saw the birth of Nheoma, a label for them to give expression to their style with total freedom. Nine records later, amongst the names they have worked with we find artists such as Oscar Mulero, Christian Wünsch, Reeko, Fanon Flowers, Radial or Gayle San.

In 2003 they took part in Oscar Mulero’s Warm Up Tour, and in 2008 they set up a new project called “Selección Natural” together with fellow countrymen Oscar Mulero, Christian Wünsch and Reeko. This laid the foundations for a great relationship between the five, whose work makes up a very important part of the best and purest techno that has been produced in the peninsula over the last decade. This affinity materialised in the creation of the PoleGroup platform, nowadays essential in terms of techno.

Their music and sets have undergone constant evolution. From an outset marked by hard, rough and minimalist sounds, now they aim towards downtempo, minimal, detroit or electro, a shift which has taken them to pursuing solo projects which allow them to give free rein to all their influences. In this facet, their work is signed with the aliases Lasik (Valentín Corujo) and Komatsu or Metazoo (Héctor Sandoval).

Besides deejaying and producing, their artistic zest has also led them towards the arena of visual arts, where they have collaborated with the Fiumfoto collective creating soundtracks for video installations and short films. Exium and Fiumfoto, who together form Exfium_;, give audiovisual concerts that combine experimental music, trip-hop, electro, electropop etc., and where the music is synchronized with several screens where images are shown. Thanks to this project they were awarded the prestigious Villa de Bilbao award, in the New Trends category.

2011 sets a new and important milestone along Exium’s path with the publication of their first LP album: Roots of Time. The record will be released by Nheoma and is a demonstration of their incredible capacity and the degree of maturity they have reached after over a decade of working hard and with patience. Having received passionate critiques and a warm welcome only weeks after its release, this record is proof that Exium have made themselves some space amongst the greatest artists of the Iberian techno and makes sure that a great future lies ahead of them.

Selected discography Exium

Untitled – Preface Records 01
Zet Oviedo – Zet Records 10
Dummies – Tsunami 03 (feat. Christian Wünsch, Erik Krakeroy and Olga+Josef)
Rented Opinion – Warm Up 05 (feat. Christian Wünsch and Groof)
No Name EP – Recycled Sound 01 (feat. Wavesound)
Expect Nothing – Tsunami 08 (feat. Christian Wünsch)
Morphology – Rxxistance 08
Radio EP – Main Out 04
Dark Nation – Recycled Sound 02 (feat. Reeko and Wavesound)
M11M – VV.AA.
Highly Intelligent Units – Warm Up 11
Sick Of Promises – Nheoma 01
Dark Mind – Disclosure 01 (feat. I. Villasante)
Deadly Weapons – Nheoma 02 (feat. Oscar Mulero)
Blocked – Sunn 01
Wilson – Cpu 04 (feat. Dj Pepo)
Unemotional – Sunn 02
Mirror Reflection – Infecta 04 (feat. Grovskopa, Luka Baumann, Wavesound and Event 7)
Connect Correctly – NewRhythmic 02
Kill All Lifeforms – Equator 19
Macabre E.P. – Reaktor 02 (feat. Dj Lock)
Traditional Means Of Communication – Nheoma 03
Andromeda – Nheoma 04
Self Consume – Audio Assault 27
The Sixty – Planet Rhythm 60
Street´s Law – Reaktor 04 (feat. Dj Lock)
Receptor – Code 03
Parasites – Nheoma 05
Cuerpo Celeste – Planet Rhythm 66
Squalo – Planet Rhythm 67 (Feat. Bas Mooy)
Seleccion Natural, Part 2 – Nheoma 06 (feat. Christian Wünsch, Oscar Mulero and Reeko)
The Omega Man – Nheoma 07
Space Time Continuum – Labrynth 13
Labyrinth – Dynamic Reflection 04
Aurea – Injected Poison 02
The Mob – Nheoma 08 (featuring Gayle San)
Nothing To Prove – Warm Up 25
Seleccion Natural 5 – Pole 04 (feat. Christian Wünsch, Oscar Mulero and Reeko)
Machine Language – Planet Rhythm 74
Mantra – Pole 05
Roots Of Time – Nheoma 09 LP
The Supremist EP – Planet Rhythm 081
The Unexpected – Nheoma 10
Complex – Pole 09 (feat. Dj Rolando remix)
Planet Rhythm 083
Roots Of Time – The Remixes – nheoma 011
Pulser – nheoma 012
Aces High – Planet Rhythm 086
Seleccion Natural 6 – Polegroup 013
The Structure – Injected Poison 005
Cloner – Audio Assault 040
Enemies Of The Indestructible – Polegroup 014
A Sensible Alternative To Emotion – Polegroup 015 LP
Fenomen – nheoma 015

REMIXES
Fanon Flowers – Slovakian Night Remixes – Numb 09 (feat. Fanon Flowers, Oscar Mulero and Loktibrada)
Victor Martinez – Northern District – Psychoskunk 03
Grovskopa – Strapped On Luka – Audio Assault 22
Iñaki Villasante – Controlled Transformation – Disclosure 01
Paul Boex & Marco Rane – AZN Killers – NewRhythmic 06
JLG – Bribas – Substance 01
Reeko – Seleccion Natural Part 1 – Mental Disorder 10
Obscurum – Dom – Mechanisms Industries
Dominik Müller – Silesian Boy – Locked Records
Christian Wünsch – Seleccion Natural Part 3 – Tsunami 16
Oscar Mulero – Seleccion Natural Part 4 – WarmUp 23
Michaelangelo – The Thaumaturgist – Subsist 02
Marco Bernardi – Giro – Dirty Planet 03
Agony Forces – The Noir Age – Lycaon 01
Hiroaki Iizuka – VC7 – nheoma 013
Duceney Ada Nexino – Guide – Genesa 001
Groof – Inds 02 (Var) – nheoma 014
Paul Boex – Perfect Love – Counter Pulse 007
Minimum Syndicat – Harfang – Pareto Park 006
Dead Sound – Gravity – DSNT 002

COMPILATIONS (CDMIX)
Dj Pepo – Xpression – Rxxistance Vol.4
Q’Hey – Nippon Youth Sound Organisation Vol. 01 – Yenzo Music
Robert Lamart – References – MainOut
Gayle San – Palazzo CD Vol. 2 – T:Classixx
Code Techno Sessions – Code Records
Advanced Logic Evolution (The Album & Remixes) – Psychoskunk
Audio Assault 5th Anniversary Compilation – Audio Assault
Gayle San – Experience – Zyx
Surgeon – Fabric 53