Producer & DJ · Berlin, Germany
Eric Cloutier
Eric Cloutier DJed for 25 years, ran the Palinoia label, became a Tresor resident, and only then made his first album, born out of two hard years.
Eric Cloutier had been DJing for almost 30 years, running his own label, and holding down a Tresor residency in Berlin before he released a single full-length album under his own name. When My Friend The Abyss finally arrived in 2026, he was candid about what the process taught him: "That I have a lot more to learn in the studio!!"
Detroit, Then New York
Cloutier got into electronic music in Detroit around 1996 and 1997, attending an early Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva party during the city's rave-scene peak and digging through records while watching shows like New Dance Show. He started DJing that year, holding residencies at Necto in nearby Ann Arbor and at Detroit's after-hours spot The Works, and began booking international DJs himself for a Detroit venue called Oslo. He moved to New York in his twenties and became involved with The Bunker, the long-running party, joining as a resident in 2010. Playing Japan's Labyrinth Festival in 2009, he later said, was "a massive feat, especially for someone who's never made a record before."
Palinoia
Cloutier founded the Palinoia label in 2016, opening with his own three-track EP, Heuristic. The name is Greek for the obsessive repetition of an act until it's perfected, and the label built a real catalogue under that idea, including a 2019 EP, Apeirophobia, and a 2019 split release, Palinoia LTD 001, with Donato Dozzy, who had already remixed Cloutier's 2015 EP Raxeira. By his own description, curation came first: "the most obvious thing I'm known for is curating and selecting." He eventually moved to Berlin and became a resident DJ at Tresor, one of techno's most storied rooms.
My Friend The Abyss
The album, released July 17, 2026 on Palinoia, came out of what Cloutier has called his own "Series of Unfortunate Events," two years of what he described to Keyi Magazine as "endless strife and loss and depression." He lost his usual outlet, the DJ booth, during the period, and described real imposter syndrome before a conversation at Berghain helped reignite him creatively. "I mostly felt like I needed to exorcise some demons alongside doing something more engaging for myself in the studio," he said. Seven tracks and just over 36 minutes, the record is tense and unhurried, built by someone who had spent a quarter century mastering everything about a dancefloor except how to make his own record for it.
FAQ
Who is Eric Cloutier?
Eric Cloutier is a Detroit-born, Berlin-based DJ and producer who has been active since 1996. He founded the Palinoia label in 2016, holds a residency at Tresor, and released his debut album, My Friend The Abyss, in 2026.
What is Palinoia?
Palinoia is the record label Eric Cloutier founded in 2016, named for the Greek concept of obsessively repeating an act until it is perfected. Its releases include a collaborative EP with Donato Dozzy in 2019.
Why was My Friend The Abyss Eric Cloutier's first album?
Despite roughly 25 years of DJing and running his own label, Cloutier had never released a full-length album before My Friend The Abyss in 2026. He has said the record grew out of a difficult two-year period of personal loss and depression.
What is Eric Cloutier's connection to Donato Dozzy?
Donato Dozzy remixed Cloutier's 2015 EP Raxeira, and the two later co-released the Palinoia LTD 001 EP together in 2019, a working relationship that predates Dozzy's own 2026 collaborative album with Batu.
Where did Eric Cloutier start DJing?
In the Detroit area, around 1996 and 1997, holding residencies at Necto in nearby Ann Arbor and The Works in Detroit before later moving to New York, where he became a resident at The Bunker party in 2010, and then to Berlin.