Hypaton
The small Italian town of Capodimonte, located just over 100 km northwest of Rome, is famous for its archaeological sites. But that may be about to change, as a young man is currently making huge waves, putting Capodimonte on the map as the hometown of one of Dance Music’s brightest hopes. Ever since Giorgio Ortenzi, aka HYPATON, released his rework of La Bouche’s 1995 classic “Be My Lover” last year – which has racked up nearly 120 million streams. This feat has led to him being hailed as the future of the Future Rave genre, which David Guetta invented. Notably, Guetta not only featured on the official single version of “Be My Lover” but has also become the 25-year-old’s mentor. How did all this happen? HYPATON still has to pinch himself when he thinks back on it.
We are in the year 2023. Giorgio Ortenzi is still studying dentistry in Madrid, Spain, now in his fifth and final year. His father and sister are both dentists, so he continues the family tradition on one hand. On the other hand, his father was a singer and guitarist in a band in the past, and his cousin is the legendary Trance DJ Giuseppe Ottaviani. It’s hardly surprising that Giorgio was fascinated by music from a young age. “I’ve always felt the music in a very special way,” he says. At the age of five, he learns to play the guitar, “but lessons weren’t really my thing,” he recalls. He prefers the “Learning by doing” method – an approach that paved the way for a seamless entry into the world of production a few years later. Encouraged by his cousin Giuseppe, Giorgio tried his hand at producing Dance and Trance in 2015. And he quickly catches fire: “I realised that I love electronic music, and I should continue exploring in this direction.”
And that’s precisely what he does. Even starting his dentistry studies doesn’t change that. “I was like Spiderman: during the day, I was a dentist, and in the evenings, I worked on music,” he recalls with a laugh. Soon, his focus sharpens even more. HYPATON – as he now calls himself, named after his father’s former band – has found his niche: reworking 90s classics that combine nostalgic vocal samples with futuristic house grooves. And he discovers another passion: social media content. “I noticed that my following was growing. I made reel after reel after reel.” Giorgio has always had a very positive aura, he easily clicks with people, and is enthusiastic – all qualities perfect for his short clips on social media, where he now regularly shares sound sketches of new Future Rave reworks with his followers.
The feedback is huge – and it keeps getting bigger. More and more people – including celebrities, news agencies, and football clubs – use his sounds in their videos and creations. His rework of “Be My Lover” in particular goes through the roof and receives a million views in less than 24 hours. And then comes the day when nothing in HYPATON’s life and career is as it used to be. Or, to be precise: it was two days. “I’m a Juventus fan, and one day I see that Juventus have used a video with my audio. I literally went crazy. And then, the next day, David Guetta starts following me and writes to me. We started chatting almost every day.”
That hasn’t changed to this day. Whenever HYPATON works on a new track, Guetta gives him feedback and advice – a surreal situation, especially at the beginning. “Last year, I was still sitting in lectures at the university. And then, right after, I was on the phone with David Guetta. It’s something you have to wrap your head around.” How does HYPATON explain the fact that an icon like David Guetta chose him out of thousands to take him under his wing? “He says he loves that I’m more than just a producer with technical skills. I have a sense of how to build melodies and choruses, how to arrange vocals, those things. Because at the end of the day, you can produce a perfect track – but if the idea behind it isn’t strong, you’re not going to have a hit.”
It is therefore not surprising that Guetta commissioned a series of official remixes of his songs from HYPATON, including “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” featuring Anne-Marie and Coi Leray, “On My Love” with Zara Larsson, and – alongside Guetta himself – Cassö’s “Prada”. Anyone who listens to his work can agree with David Guetta: HYPATON has that certain something. Unlike many other producers, he doesn’t just pitch the vocals of the original up or down and wraps the whole affair in towering beats. Instead, he completely rethinks the chords. “I basically take the vocals and reinvent the entire track,” says HYPATON. The result is songs that sound both familiar and nostalgic and excitingly new and different – an irresistible mix that also works brilliantly in the live context.
HYPATON made his DJ debut last summer alongside, of course, David Guetta, at the latter’s Future Rave party series at Hï Ibiza. Pretty big shoes to fill for a debut. ? “You can say that again!” laughs Giorgio, who still gets sweaty palms when he thinks back to that exciting moment. “I was originally supposed to play my first DJ gig on a small stage in Switzerland. But then, David called and said, ‘You absolutely have to play at Hï!’ and of course I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it!’ Even though the pressure was crazy because I had never DJed before, I thought: I have to do this… So, I set up a pair of DJ turntables at home and basically practised my set like a maniac from the last day at the uni to the gig at Hï. Every day I played it through two or three times. And when the big moment came, I was ready.”
And that was just the beginning. You can expect a lot from HYPATON in 2024 and beyond. He certainly won’t be practising dentistry any time soon. But he has taken at least one important lesson from his studies for his musical career: “I learned that a smile is really contagious. If you smile, there’s a chance that other people will smile too. And that’s really important to me in my music: I want to bring energetic and happy vibes into my emotions and my tracks.”