At 6:30 p.m., the Jardin stage was taken over by the mesmerizing beats of Cult Member. In the soft light of early evening, his set transported the audience on an urban and ethereal journey, carried by expansive house music with vaporwave roots, featuring lo-fi textures and sounds inspired by the internet imagination.
Liam Hayden, alias Cult Member, n’est pas un DJ comme les autres. Figure discrète mais influente de la scène outsider house canadienne, il s’est fait connaître par son album culte Ethernet, avant de se réinventer dans des territoires plus techno et trance. Samedi soir à Palomosa, il a donné un aperçu de ce parcours singulier, ouvrant son set avec une réinterprétation planante de U Weren’t Here I Really Missed You.
His deeply atmospheric mix vibrated with lo-fi textures and futuristic echoes, like a patchwork of melancholy and urban pulsation. While some passages recalled the misty atmospheres of Ethernet, others shifted towards the frontal effectiveness of Club Tools Vol. 1, where heavy bass and fast rhythms galvanized the crowd. As the sun slowly set, the music grew in intensity, transforming the Garden into a hypnotic dance floor.
Not very expressive behind his machines, Hayden occasionally flashed a discreet smile in response to the cheers. But everything about his set invited introspection: his ambient layers and melodic lines seemed to come from a late-night jam session in the privacy of his studio. Yet as soon as the beats picked up speed, the entire crowd synchronized to his tempo, breathing and moving in unison.
Between solitary reverie and collective communion, Cult Member offered a suspended moment, both cold and incandescent, which perfectly summed up the alchemy of his sound universe.
