Ekko pres. Optimo (Espacio)

Playing “eclectic” sounds appealing in theory. On a dancefloor, it’s something else entirely. Eclecticism is a high-wire act — it demands precision, awareness, and an intuitive grasp of how a room moves.

Optimo have spent close to three decades refining exactly that: the art of making wildly disparate sounds cohere.

When we booked Optimo in 2011 and 2016, we witnessed the duo in full flight, with JD Twitch and JG Wilkes at the helm. For those who were there, the memory still lingers vividly. Keith McIvor passed away in 2025, but Optimo continues with undiminished spirit — now guided by Jonnie Wilkes.

On Saturday June 12, JG Wilkes brings Optimo (Espacio) to Østre for an all-night set.

Optimo (Espacio) began as a weekly Sunday night at Sub Club in Glasgow in 1997 — a response to a club culture that had grown increasingly uniform. Free from the pressure to conform, they carved out a space to play what they loved, regardless of genre, as long as it worked on the floor.

What started as a Sunday session soon became a point of convergence and reference for generations of dancers and DJs.

Their international breakthrough came with the mix *How to Kill the DJ (Part Two)* in 2004. Since then, releases such as *Psyche Out*, *Walkabout*, *Sleepwalk*, and *Fabric 52* have demonstrated the same rare ability: to bind together vastly different musical languages into something immediate and meaningful.

These mixes are more than documents of a singular DJ style — they offer a window into Optimo’s philosophy. At the core lies a deep love of selection and juxtaposition. Sounds aren’t merely placed side by side; they’re woven into something new. Their sets move fluidly between techno, post-punk, disco, dub, and more obscure territories — always guided by a finely tuned sense of what the room calls for.