Diego Flores (Contact) Presents Tessellate: An Album That Captures a Lifetime of Music
With 14 years of experience, three countries shaping his creative identity, more than 100 releases, and a sixth studio album on the horizon, Diego Flores enters a new chapter with Tessellate—a project that encapsulates years of artistic exploration, growth, and musical evolution.
With the first single already released, a second arriving soon, and the full album scheduled for August 7, Diego Flores opens an exciting new chapter in his career.
Career
Talking about Diego Flores means talking about an artist who refuses to be confined to a single label. Producer, DJ, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator, his career has been defined by a constant search for new ways of understanding music. With 14 years of experience, a journey spanning three countries, and a catalog of more than 100 released tracks, Flores is preparing to unveil his sixth studio album, Tessellate—a project that represents a new milestone in a career driven by curiosity, experimentation, and continuous artistic growth.
The release schedule is already set. The first single arrived on July 10, the second will be released on July 24, and the full album will officially debut on August 7. More than a sequence of release dates, the rollout reflects a carefully crafted strategy to introduce a project that distills more than a decade of musical experiences.
Every career has a defining moment. For Diego Flores, that moment came when he was just eleven years old.
"Hearing Skrillex for the first time felt like the moment Dorothy steps into Oz and everything suddenly changes from black and white to Technicolor."
The comparison perfectly captures the impact of discovering Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. Until then, music had simply been part of everyday life. At home, artists such as Rocío Dúrcal, Luciano Pavarotti, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, and The Police filled the soundtrack of his childhood, naturally shaping his musical environment.
Then everything changed.
«It was music, but at the same time it sounded like Transformers were fighting. There was this incredible energy—a wall of sound that literally grabbed you by the neck.»
Since that day, Flores explains, much of his career has been devoted to chasing that same feeling of surprise, excitement, and sonic excellence that first inspired him.
Three Countries, Three Different Ways of Understanding Music
How do you build an artistic identity when your life unfolds across different cultures?
For Diego Flores, the answer lies between New York, Panama, and Guatemala—three places that shaped distinct aspects of his musical personality.
After spending nearly a decade in New York, he developed a deep passion for electronic music. Labels such as Firepower Records, Circus Records, and OWSLA, alongside influential platforms like UKF and MrSuicideSheep, continually expanded his musical perspective.
Ironically, he admits he was never an outstanding student in the traditional academic sense.
«I graduated high school by a single point… and that extra point came from class participation.»
While most students attended their regular classes, Flores preferred spending countless hours inside the school’s multimedia lab learning Ableton Live and producing music. His teachers knew the routine well: they would often give him a few extra minutes before personally coming to escort him back to the classroom.
Those afternoons in front of a computer would ultimately become one of the most valuable investments in his future.
Jazz
Although electronic music was Diego Flores’ first great love, another entirely different universe soon entered his life.
He initially chose the clarinet simply because, as he jokes, «it looked shiny and had lots of buttons.» What began as a spontaneous decision soon became an essential tool for developing his musical ear.
Later, discovering Snarky Puppy sparked a second artistic revolution.
«Listening to Lingus and Cory Henry’s solo completely redefined my understanding of what music could be.»
For nearly a year, he listened almost exclusively to the American band, studying every arrangement and instrumental solo. That curiosity eventually led him into the world of bebop, exploring the legacies of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie while participating in Carnegie Hall’s ensemble program, where he developed his skills in group performance, musicianship, improvisation, and artistic discipline.
That experience would prove invaluable in the years that followed.
Panama
In 2018, Diego Flores moved to Panama—a decision that would become one of the defining chapters of his career.
After growing up away from Guatemala, he found in Panama the perfect balance between his Latin American roots and the international environment that had shaped him in New York.
«It was the perfect middle ground between the Latin American culture I had missed so much and the international diversity I grew up around.»
During this period, he was accepted as a scholarship recipient at the Danilo Pérez Foundation, where he deepened his understanding of jazz history, refined his improvisational skills, and gained extensive live performance experience alongside some of Panama’s most accomplished musicians.
By combining his jazz education with his background in electronic music production, Flores began shaping an artistic identity that felt entirely his own.
More Than 100 Releases Born From A Constant Pursuit Of Growth
Throughout the past 14 years, Diego Flores has built a catalog of more than 100 released songs, along with numerous collaborations that reflect his ongoing desire to experiment with new musical languages.
Rather than settling into a formula, his career has been driven by a recurring question:
How far can a musical idea evolve when different cultures, genres, and influences intersect?
That same spirit of exploration extends to his work as an educator—a role that complements his career as a producer and instrumentalist while demonstrating his passion for sharing knowledge with the next generation of musicians.
Instead of chasing a signature sound, Flores explains that his greatest interest has always been building complete sonic worlds.
Although artists such as Skrillex, Snarky Puppy, Noisia, and Flume have profoundly influenced his artistic development, his goal has never been to imitate them. Instead, he has focused on understanding how they transform a musical concept into a fully immersive experience.
«I don’t feel like I have a defined sound. Maybe that’s for the people who listen to my music to decide… or maybe I’ll need another six albums before I figure it out,» he says with a laugh.
Following five previous studio albums, Tessellate arrives as the newest chapter in a career defined by constant artistic evolution.
If there is one project capable of bringing together every influence that has shaped Diego Flores, this is it.
Flores considers Tessellate to be the most authentic representation of his musical identity to date. Every composition emerges from the meeting point of seemingly distant inspirations—from the harmonic sophistication of Hiatus Kaiyote, the forward-thinking production of Flume and KOAN Sound, the cinematic power of Hans Zimmer, the jazz language of Robert Glasper, and the infectious energy of Jersey Club rhythms alongside Brazilian grooves.
Rather than simply blending genres, the album seeks to demonstrate how far sound design can be pushed while remaining deeply musical and emotionally expressive.
The release unfolds across three key dates:
- First Single: July 10
- Second Single: July 24
- Full Album Release: August 7
For Flores, the real challenge was never following trends, but finding a way to bring experimental sounds into a context that still feels natural on a dance floor.
For years, he produced music driven solely by curiosity. That philosophy remains unchanged today, but with a new objective: creating songs that resonate not only with listeners, but also with producers and DJs looking to incorporate them into their own sets.
Beyond the release schedule itself, Tessellate represents the convergence of everything Diego Flores has experienced over more than a decade of making music—the energy of electronic production, the sensitivity of jazz, years of instrumental training, and the cultural richness gained from living between different countries.
Will this become the album that best defines Diego Flores’ artistic identity?
The answer will gradually reveal itself as audiences discover each new release.
If Tessellate represents the conclusion of one chapter, it also marks the beginning of another.
Diego Flores explains that his current focus is on developing a project that is much more centered around his identity as a DJ—creating music that preserves the complexity of his sound design while naturally translating to the dance floor.
New production tools, such as Ableton Live 12’s stem separation, have also opened exciting creative possibilities, allowing him to reinterpret songs, create original bootlegs, and build exclusive edits for his live performances.
Rather than chasing trends, Flores is searching for the balance between experimentation and club energy—a direction that promises to define the next stage of his artistic journey.
With 14 years of experience, more than 100 releases, a career shaped across Guatemala, New York, and Panama, and a sixth studio album about to arrive, Diego Flores demonstrates that artistic evolution is not about finding definitive answers, but about continuing to ask meaningful questions through music.
That same philosophy also shapes the advice he offers emerging artists.
Rather than focusing first on marketing or commercial success, he encourages musicians to discover what they truly want to express before worrying about how to sell it. For him, building a sustainable career means learning to communicate your artistic vision without sacrificing authenticity—understanding that creativity and the music industry are not opposing forces, but complementary parts of the same equation.
With Tessellate, Diego Flores isn’t simply releasing another album.
He is opening the door to a new chapter in which his role as a DJ will become increasingly central, bringing to the stage a performance where experimentation, musicianship, and dance-floor energy coexist naturally.
His next chapter is not about following the direction of the electronic music scene.
It’s about contributing a new perspective to it.
From hearing Skrillex for the very first time to preparing the release of his sixth studio album, Diego Flores transformed an unexpected inspiration into a 14-year career that continues to evolve and surprise.
More than 100 releases, three countries that shaped his artistic identity, and a unique blend of electronic music, jazz, and improvisation define the creative universe of an artist who has never stopped exploring new sonic possibilities.
Tessellate is more than a new album—it’s the culmination of years of learning, live performances, collaborations, and artistic experiences, brought together in Diego Flores’ most ambitious project to date.
New York ignited his passion for music production, Panama transformed his artistic vision, and Guatemala strengthened his cultural roots. Every chapter of his journey can now be heard throughout Tessellate.
With the first single already released, a second arriving soon, and the full album launching on August 7, Diego Flores enters an exciting new era—one that promises to redefine both his music and his future as a DJ.
