One could call Michel Huygen the father of cosmic music in Spain.  Over 40 years after founding the groundbreaking electronic music group, Neuronium, the Belgian-born keyboardist and synthesist has released over 40 albums with the band, solo, or in collaboration with other artists including Vangelis and the group Tangerine Dream.

In 1976, Neuronium was born, briefly existing as a quintet consisting of a percussionist, bassist, guitarist and two synthesists.  The five played psychedelic rock, but evolved quickly into something more progressive and innovative: a style aptly described as cosmic music.  Huygen, with synthesist Carlos Guirao, (who, like Huygen, also played guitar) and guitarist Albert Giménez recorded a debut album, Quasar 2C361, released in Spain in 1977 on the major label EMI-Harvest.

They followed that the next year with Vuelo Químico, inspired by the lyrics of Edgar Allan Poe, and featuring singer Nico’s vocal contributions (famous for her work with The Velvet Underground) on the title track.  After Vuelo Quimico, Giménez left the band.

By 1980, Huygen had established his own imprint, Neuronium Records, beginning a string of releases averaging more than one album a year.  Two years later, he remained the only constant member of Neuronium, rendering the distinction between solo music created, recorded, and produced by Michel Huygen and/or Neuronium music a formality.

Huygen served as the head of the department of electronic music of the Center of Art in Spain in the mid-eighties while continuing a prolific output of recordings.  In 2001, Huygen released his best-selling album, Hydro, topping 150,000 copies sold, and eclipsing the million mark for total copies of his music sold worldwide.

From the start, the concept of Neuronium and its music has encouraged and contained a visual medium, including cover art incorporated into its stage performances.  The cosmic style has also been redefined, also referred to as psychotronic, with an articulated purpose of achieving a state of harmony between the body and soul.  More formally explained with traditional musical idioms, Neuronium covers several electronic music styles, including new-age, ambient, space music, and progressive electronic music.

Additionally, Huygen has contributed to several soundtracks, providing his signature brand of ambience to documentaries about the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Peru, as well as music for television news programming.  He’s also written and recorded sorts of imagined soundtracks, offering in 1990 a musical tribute to Salvador Dali, and in 1994, a very special album, Musica Para La Buena Mesa (Music for gourmets), serving Huygen’s concept of a pleasant musical atmosphere during any meal.

Nominated as best Ambient/New Age composer of the year in 2017 by the Hollywood Music Awards, Huygen announced several exciting projects scheduled for upcoming release including an album of new material, Kryptyk, as well as a best-of Neuronium compilation, Essentialia.  Perhaps most ambitious of all, Huygen will collaborate with the London Symphony Orchestra, recording an album at Abbey Road Studios.

For over four decades, Michel Huygen has established, reaffirmed, and consistently expanded his voracious appetite for creation.  His standing is as the world’s preeminent ambient music artist not only remaining influential for his past work, but vibrant and progressive in his latest recordings.  He is the patriarch and the vanguard of the psychotronic sound.