Michel Amato has always been comfortable in the shadows. As The Hacker, he’s had an outsized contribution to dance music over the past 30 years - ‘Gratin Dauphinois’, his first big hit with lifelong friend and collaborator (Miss) Kittin, came out in 1996 - but he’s never looked for the spotlight, preferring to let the music do the talking.

Growing up in Grenoble in the 1980s, he devoured pioneering synth groups from Depeche Mode and New Order to Front 242 and Kraftwerk, before graduating to Detroit techno and acid house in the 1990s. Around the turn of the century, working with Kittin, he helped usher in a revolution in club culture: electroclash. Bored by dance music’s drift into dreary, serious minimalism, and inspired by the synth pop and post-punk they’d grown up listening to, the pair spiked their productions with sarcastic humour and punk spirit. In doing so, they blew club culture wide open, creating a blueprint for a whole new generation of club kids. 

Three decades into his career, Amato’s vision is still the same: he’s extremely serious about making and playing music that’s incredibly fun. From electro to EBM, and from acid house to industrial-tinged techno, he does it all. Come witness one of dance music’s most studied selectors - and undersung heroes - give a masterclass at Sónar 2026.