Origins: 4000 Hz On Paris Rave Culture, Hardware Obsession And The Rise Of French Nu Trance
- Undrtone Blog
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
For 4000 Hz, the foundations were laid long before the studio became central. His origins sit inside the Paris rave scene, in spaces that felt hidden from ordinary life and charged with a sense of shared purpose.
“I was introduced to it at a very young age. It felt like a sudden, almost brutal discovery, like stumbling into a secret society operating outside the view of ordinary life,” he recalls. What struck him most was the intensity of that collective experience. “Until then, the only thing I had seen unite people so deeply was religion.”
In those rooms, he learned to observe. Different bodies moving in different ways, each person experiencing the same track through their own internal language. “Everyone was beautiful in their own way, each person moving differently, experiencing the music in their own language. Some danced with their eyes closed, smiling, completely immersed; others preferred to dance in groups, feeding off each other’s presence and energy.”
When he began going out more regularly around 2014, the ecosystem was broader, with more venues and visibility, but also a sharper sense of judgment. Even so, the core lesson remained intact. “Those nights spent dancing in clubs taught me that communication goes far beyond words. I learned to read energy, to understand freedom through movement, and to feel how music allows people to express who they truly are.”
Before he ever released a record, music functioned as escape. “Before I started producing music, I experienced it mainly as a form of escape. Not knowing anything about the technical side actually allowed me to connect more easily with the core of what the music was saying.” That early relationship was instinctive rather than analytical, something he now looks back on with a degree of nostalgia. “Today, it’s much harder for me to fully let go. My critical ear often steps in.”
As a teenager, that immersion centred on bass music. “I was completely obsessed with bass music, especially dubstep… I was, and honestly still am, a huge fan of Skrillex.” Skrillex’s ‘Cinema’ remains pivotal. “The idea that emotion and intensity don’t cancel each other out, but actually reinforce one another, was a huge revelation for me. I apply it to all of my own productions.”
The move from listener to maker began with hardware. The first machine that shifted his perspective was the Roland TR-8. “It was also the very first machine I ever bought. Looking back, I find it almost funny because it’s hard to imagine a more limited sound palette than a TR-8. And yet, at the time, my younger self felt like I could reinvent the world with it.” What mattered was not the range of sounds but the autonomy it represented, the ability to recreate the rhythms he loved inside his own space.
That curiosity developed into a broader philosophy. “To truly claim creative freedom, you have to free yourself from the technical constraints that come with it,” he explains. Rather than rejecting structure, he embraces it. “I deliberately choose to respect certain codes and standards specific to the industry I operate in. But it’s precisely those codes that allow me to fully express myself.” For him, abstraction and technical discipline are not opposites but interdependent forces.
In more recent years, trance has entered his world with renewed clarity. “My love for those iconic trance bass lines is actually fairly recent. It probably goes back no more than two years.” The shift began subtly in his DJ sets before influencing his productions. Listening to artists such as Courtesy and Anetha opened a new pathway. “It felt like opening a new door, one that allowed for more emotion and movement without losing the intensity I was looking for.”
That evolution now defines his position within France’s nu trance movement, following releases like ‘GUN FINGERS’ on MOTZ’s VA series and his Teletech debut with ‘Hot Sensation’. Yet even with growing recognition, he resists the idea of a fixed identity. “Producing still feels like experimentation, and that’s exactly what keeps me passionate about it.” What has changed is the fluency. “The bridge between my head, my hands, and the speakers has become more fluid, more instinctive.”
Paris continues to underpin that trajectory. Growing up between 24-hour warehouse parties and institutions like Rex Club taught him the value of contrast. “What that diversity taught me is that it sits at the very core of our scene… diversity of spaces and musical genres, but above all diversity of people.”
We asked 4000 Hz to pick three tracks that best represent his origins; songs that define his journey so far:
Skrillex - Cinema
"This track perfectly captures Skrillex’s ability to blend calm, emotional moments with an extremely violent drop that physically moves you. The idea that emotion and intensity don’t cancel each other out, but actually reinforce one another was a huge revelation for me. I apply it to all of my own productions."
Reece Cox – Emotion 1
"This track showed me that electronic music doesn’t need a kick drum to be powerful. It’s entirely focused on emotion, yet still follows a coherent, accessible arrangement. It taught me a lot about restraint, structure, and how subtlety can be just as impactful as force."
Inna – Hot
"This one might seem unexpected, but it represents my unconscious consumption of electronic music at a very early stage. Trance and techno elements are hidden behind a pop format, and looking back, I realize how much that kind of music shaped my ear long before I was even aware of it."
For 4000 Hz, origins are less about a single turning point and more about accumulated layers. The dancefloor taught him how to read energy. Dubstep taught him that emotion and impact can coexist. Hardware taught him that limits are tools. And Paris, in all its contradiction, taught him that openness is what keeps a scene alive.
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