KRAAK FEST 2025 HIGHLIGHTS: DJ Hyppocampo

Hey Eve! Tell us about yourself and all the projects you’re involved in?

Hello Kraak team ! I'm involved in several projects:

Since 2023, I've been hosting Karaofées (fairy karaoke) with Charlotte Gunther.

Since 2022, I've been music coordinator at atelier210, a venue in Brussels.

I'm a musician in two projects, keyboardist in the duo Capelo since 2015 and producer for my solo project Elfo Van de Velde. With Capelo, we have a slot on Kiosk Radio.

I'm also co-founder of the collective Poxcat, which has been in operation since 2017. Poxcat is Cristina Lauro (Froe Char), Ludi Loiseau (Lundi), Marouchka Payen (Mar꩜uchka), Robert Miss (Nur/Se) and me (Hyppocampo).

With Poxcat we support FINTA DJs and musicians by organizing parties, recording radio shows first on The Word and then on Vacarme Radio, and networking artists who want to get started and surround themselves. We'll be giving a Djing workshop at Superfourchette in April.

As a true Brusseleir that’s also a musician and promoter, how do you feel about the evolution of its music scene since you’ve been involved in it?

It's a complex question, because in Brussels, as in many other territories, there isn't just one music scene. I'm interested and involved in electronic music in the broadest sense of the term. Of course, I can see that the cards have been reshuffled between 2020 and 2022, the public has changed, some venues have closed and others have appeared.

For the live concerts, I have the impression that part of the public is more cautious about new discoveries, and goes to see projects they already know, or for configurations more geared towards clubbing. Maybe, in a way, we need to get people used to trusting organizations and supporting emerging projects.

But the desire to organize events and stay connected to each other remains. What I can see is that projects complement and intertwine, and that there's little competition in the independent electronic scene. What I like to see is that people seem much more aware of societal issues and much more politicized. Or maybe I'm more politicized and generalizing 😊

What is the process - if there is any! - when you create your DJ sets?

My ears are sharp and always hungry. As soon as I hear music that intrigues me, I ask for the reference, whether it's in a store, a bar, or on a playlist at a friend's apartment. When I worked at the Médiathèque, I spent a lot of time listening to anything that intrigued me, whatever the style. I ripped a lot of CDs from the collection. When I go to concerts, I also like to buy the artists' releases at their merch tables.

Like most DJs, I compile everything in a big database. To prepare a set, I base myself on the atmosphere I imagine for the venue, the people present, and if I know that people I love will be there, I slip in some musical winks for them. In general, I prepare a sequence of the first 5 tracks and then improvise with what I've put in my bag for the evening, depending on how the audience reacts. I like to start my sets with a very epic, atmospheric, medieval intro.

Also, in my DJ sets, I like to create breaks and breaths by decelerating, to add relief. I recently had a conversation with my colleague Poxcat, the excellent DJ Nur/Se (Roberta Miss), who told me that she saw the crescendo of BPM in certain mixes as an allegory of capitalism, where everything accelerates. The break and the change of rhythm are the moments when we stop and think.

What are some of your favorite songs that you just can’t skip when you DJ?

I'm a real pop culture fan and can rarely resist putting on Céline Dion's “On ne change pas”. I also find it hard not to put on Errorsmith's “Superlative Fatigue” as well as Nkisi's “Parched Lips” or DJ Busi's “Warcraft 2”. It's also hard to resist putting on some Eurodance. I have many other favorite toys that I never tire of sharing. In any case, it's clear that I'm a bar DJ at the service of my public.

In any case, no holds barred if in the end the audience creates a « chenille » (dancing in single line)!

What’s next for you, as Hyppocampo or any other alias?

For the moment, I'm concentrating on Capelo. Lately we've been lucky enough to work on the original music for Nagib Chtaib's latest film, Tangos. At the moment, we're recording new tracks with Roman Hiele, who is in charge of mixing and helping us with aesthetic choices to find the best way to make our tracks sound good once recorded.

We've also been working on a brand-new live show, and are preparing for a tour in June!