Since its start, some 25 years ago, Belgium’s Eskimo Recordings has always championed the spacier end of club music and, via key releases from the likes of Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, played a pivotal role in the 00s disco revival. Two of the label’s compilations in particular, Cosmic Balearic Beats Vol. 1 & 2, helped define that era’s sound and 17 years later Eskimo returns to the series with the long awaited Volume 3, featuring 18 otherworldly tracks selected by Izhevsk-based producer Antenna.
As you’d expect the Scandinavian scene is well represented on this stellar journey through the label’s catalogue and, appropriately enough, it’s Norway’s Atella who kick things off with the stunning Transition. A dreamy near ten minute long homage to the likes of Vangelis and Kraftwerk, it’s the perfect number to open the compilation, ease us out of our everyday life and prepare us for a voyage of cosmic exploration. From there on in whilst the tempo remains low, track after track propels up to heady new heights.
Sticking for the moment with our friends in the north, Norwegian producer Cavego’s looping Dovregubben brings to mind vast open spaces, whether that’s the suburbs of Oslo or the far reaches of space is for you to decide. Bergen duo Made In Sane meanwhile contribute Flying Circuits, a track whose effervescent melody and vintage sounds bring to mind all that we love about the nordic disco scene.
Completing our Nordic tour Denmark’s Kasper Bjørke applies a soft gauze to Belgian-Japanese artist Aili’s Fashion, her vocals floating into the heavens on the wings of Kasper’s sublime disco beats. Finally Sweden’s Paresse sees his Journey to the Heart remixed by Gent’s own Guy Tallo, who pairs a chugging disco beat with the warmest of bass lines and crystalline notes that spiral up into the night time sky.
Whilst Scandinavia may have dominated the outer limits of the disco scene the past twenty years, Eskimo has always had a wide ranging eye, working with artists from all corners of the globe, artists such as this compilation’s curator Antenna. Hailing from the Udmurtia capital Izhevsk, he provides two of his own retro-futurist disco tracks here, Song For Udmurtia and Love 66, neither of which would have sounded out of place played in an alien disco from the original 1960’s Star Trek.
Heading back to Western Europe we get close encounters with several more luminaries of the nu-disco and house scene who have called Eskimo home over the years. Dutch producers Kraak & Smaak’s glacial, piano led Ghostnote would make the perfect accompaniment to any stargazing night, whilst from the UK we have Max Essa’s Your Cathedrals Reimagined, a delightful piece of silvery space-funk, and Man Power’s Skattejag, the kind of track that effortlessly achieves escape velocity hurtling into the cosmos and dragging us along with it.
As you’d expect several of the label’s best known names from the past two decades make an appearance too, showing just why Eskimo has been a byword for indie-disco this millennium. Satin Jackets’ balmy Coffee and Feels is a typically sophisticated, laidback number from the German producer, Belgium’s own Aeroplane provides a beautiful, sun kissed remix of Low Motion Disco’s Love Love Love, whilst Athenian producer NTEIBINT’s glorious Colours shimmers like the Aurora Borealis.
Elsewhere the swirling melodies of Transistorcake’s Future Plan I conjure up visions of something both ancient and modern, like an alien monolith on an otherwise deserted planet. Get It Together by Melbourne’s The Oddness delivers playfully psychedelic, dub flavoured electronica, French duo Blue Motel deliver the kind of divine House music that the French do so well, and Mexican producer Rigopolar remixes You Man’s classic Birdcage, creating a hypnotically emotional track, the perfect soundtrack to watching an alien sun rise on some distant beach.
A lot has changed in clubland since those first two Cosmic Balearic Beats compilations dropped but Vol. 3 shows that good disco, whether cosmic, balearic or both, remains timeless and there will always be a space for the kind of music that can elevate our minds and lift our spirits, whilst never forgetting to keep our feet dancing.
Antenna - Izhevsk, May 2026
TRACKLIST
1. Atella - Transition
2. Transistorcake - Future Plan I
3. Satin Jackets - Coffee and Feels
4. Antenna - Song For Udmurtia
5. You Man - Birdcage (Rigopolar Version)
6. Made In Sane - Flying Circuits
7. Low Motion Disco - Love Love Love (Aeroplane mix)
8. Blue Motel - LWTK (Lunch With The King)
9. Antenna - Love 66
10. Man Power - Skattejag
11. Kraak & Smaak - Ghostnote
12. Aili - Fashion (Kasper Bjørke Remix)
13. Max Essa - Your Cathedrals Re-Imagined
14. The Oddness - Get It Together
15. Ichisan - Jugoton
16. Cavego - Dovregubben
17. Paresse - Journey of the Heart (Guy Tallo Remix)
18. NTEIBINT - Colours