Dimitri from Paris (born Dimitris Yerasimos
in October 1963) is a French music producer and DJ of Greek
origins. His musical influences are rooted in 1970s funk and
disco sounds that spawned contemporary house music, as well
as original soundtracks from 50s and 60s cult movies such
as Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Party. Dimitri fused these
sounds with electro and block party hip hop he discovered
in the 80s.
Contrary to his musical pseudonym, Dimitri
was born not in Paris but in Istanbul, Turkey. Born in Turkey
to Greek parents, Dimitri grew up in France where he discovered
DJing at home, using whatever he could find to "cut and
paste" samples from disco hits heard on the radio, blending
them together to make tapes. This early experimentation helped
him launch his DJ career.
Early Career
He started out by DJ'ing at the French station Radio 7,
before moving on to Skyrock and finally to Radio NRJ, Europe's
largest FM radio network, in 1986. There, he introduced the
first ever house music show to be broadcast in France, while
simultaneously producing runway soundtracks for fashion houses
such as Chanel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Hermès and Yves
Saint-Laurent. He also released two solo EPs from 1993 to
1994, and contributed to the Yellow Productions compilation
La Yellow 357.
Recording Career
In 1996 Dimitri became world famous with the release of
his first full album, Sacrebleu, released on Yellow Productions.
A blend of diverse influences including jazz, original film
soundtracks, samba, and organic house, Sacrebleu sold 300,000
copies worldwide and was named Album of the Year by UK's Mixmag
magazine.
In 2000, Dimitri followed Sacrebleu up with A Night at the
Playboy Mansion (Virgin) and Disco Forever (BBE), followed
by My Salsoul in 2001, After the Playboy Mansion in 2002.
In 2003, Cruising Attitude was released, to be closely followed
by his first outing on UK's premier dance music label Defected:
Dimitri from Paris In the House.
He has followed a somewhat glamorous musical path by recording
soundtracks and advertising campaigns for fashion houses Chanel,
Jean-Paul Gautier and Yves Saint Laurent and remixing hundreds
of artists as diverse as Björk, The Cardigans, James
Brown, New Order and Quincy Jones. And and mixed the soundtrack
for the French luxury dessin animé Jet Groove produced
by Method Films.
Recent Developments
There was a rumour that he worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
on her third album, as she said she worked with "a French
guy called Dimitri", but this was later proved false.
2005 saw Dimitri go back to his Funk and Disco roots, with
Japanese hip hop producer and über collector DJ Muro
for Super Disco Friends a double CD mixdown. In 2006 he offered
his House of Love outing to Valentine's Day's lovers. Later
on Dimitri produced Los Amigos Invisibles "Super Pop
Venezuela" album which grabbed a nomination for a grammy
award.
2007 saw the release of the Cocktail Disco project with long
time partner BBE, a handful of Disco classics remixes and
other surprises down the line.
2009 saw the release of the Night Dubbin', a post-disco R&B
compilation remix album
