088 VENUE
CIELO Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Cielo, which fi nds its home in the uber-chic Meat Packing district of New York, remains the benchmark for small boutique nightclubs around the world. The man behind the legendry nightclub, internationally renowned house DJ Nicolas Matar, has been DJ-ing since he was just 15-years-old and it is his love of music that has remained the driving force behind the club and its success. Featured in mondo*dr (issue 13.4) in 2003, ever since Cielo fi rst opened its doors, the nightclub has taken a different approach to the multitude of venues that line the streets of New York City and are ‘of the moment’. With a capacity of just 300, it is an intimate space molded on the old school disco design with a centrally located dancefl oor, seating around the perimeter and a disco ball. Its offering is unpretentious, real, all encompassing and above all else, about the music. “We’ve had a music driven program since day one and this has allowed us to have longevity in the market,” Nicolas told mondo*dr. “Cielo is a club that anyone can come to, we are inclusive of music lovers from all walks of life. There is no door policy, no bottle service - we are about the music. There is no longevity in the clubs that are all about celebrity status, their audience isn’t loyal - they go there for a year and then move on to ‘the next big thing’. We chose a completely different path from the outset, a path, which in the beginning wasn’t as lucrative, but a path that has enabled us to build a consistent
brand over time and we are still here 10 years later - we are constantly reinventing ourselves but always with a focus on EDM.” While Cielo has constantly been worked on over the past 10 years, with the audio system tweaked as and when necessary, to coincide with its anniversary celebrations Nicolas has invested in two new Funktion One F315 loudspeakers working with Dan Agne and his team at Sound Investment on the installation. “Every year we tweak the club and the audio system but we did a pretty signifi cant redesign for the anniversary,” said Nicolas. “The bar is completely new and the dancefl oor has been changed from two steps down to one, which sounds like a small change but for a room this size there wasn’t really the need for two steps and this change has worked really well for us as the dancefl oor seems bigger. It has also been raised and built up to the fi rst step and we’ve changed the structural pillars - they are now slimmer and have a different fi nish, which enhances the lines of sight in the room, and the DJ booth is also different.” “The Funktion One F315’s have changed the environment in Cielo tremendously,” said Dan. “It was awe-inspiring - they brought an entirely new element to the system, we have so much mid bass now.” As well as DJs, Cielo often has live acts performing, this used to need a stage to be brought into the venue, but as part of the redesign an elevated section has been built into the club, which acts as a stage when needed, a platform for patrons to hang out on, or on occasion a small VIP area if someone wants to hire it out as a private area. Nicolas’ relationship with Dan and Funktion One dates back to Cielo’s beginnings, as Dan explained: “Nicolas came to me early on in my relationship with Funktion One as he intended to do something with Cielo that was out of the ordinary and on another level and he was seeking something unknown in the industry that was using cutting edge technology. In the beginning he took some convincing that Funktion One was the system for him and we would go back and forth for weeks, discussing all the different options. “At the time, my relationship with Funktion One was in its very early stages and we were looking for something like Cielo to introduce the product into the US market - we benefi tted massively from Nicolas’ operations.” For Nicolas, his reasons for choosing Funktion One are linked to his relationship with New York and its rich history of nightclub culture, telling mondo*dr: “I always felt like the old school sound systems in New York, that date back to the days of Richard Long and Paradise Garage, never had the clarity in the mids and highs that I imagined
www.mondodr.com
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