Heavy Deeds presents: Massimiliano Pagliara

This Sunday, Kiku Room welcomes one of Berlin’s most enduring and distinctive selectors, Massimiliano Pagliara, for a four-hour session from 8PM–12AM.

Born in Puglia in southern Italy and based in Berlin for more than two decades, Pagliara occupies a unique space between house, disco, electro, techno and the stranger corners of dance music. His sets are warm, psychedelic and deeply physical, capable of moving from classic Chicago house and Italo-inflected electronics into cosmic disco, acid, proto-house and tougher late-night territory without losing their sense of flow. A longtime resident of Berghain / Panorama Bar and Robert Johnson, he has also held residencies at New York's Basement and Stuttgart's Romantica, while appearing across many of the institutions that have shaped European underground club culture, including Tresor, Cocktail d'Amore, ://about blank and Wilde Renate.

As much as Pagliara is known as a DJ, his production catalog is an equally important part of his story. An obsessive user of analog synthesizers and drum machines, his records carry the same combination of warmth, melody and movement found in his sets. His debut LP, Focus For Infinity, arrived on Live At Robert Johnson in 2011, followed by With One Another in 2014 and Feel Live in 2018. The latter expanded his sound far beyond straightforward club music, folding Balearic harmonies, cosmic electronics, jazz and pop sensibilities into a deeply collaborative record created between Berlin, Los Angeles and Portland.

His catalog stretches across some of the most respected labels in underground electronic music, including Live At Robert Johnson, Ostgut Ton and Permanent Vacation. His 2017 Time And Again EP marked his debut on Ostgut Ton, connecting his production work directly with the institution where he had already become such a recognizable presence behind the decks. In 2019, Pagliara launched his own label, Funnuvojere Records, giving him an outlet for the more open-ended, melodic and leftfield side of his musical world. His later work, including the 2022 album See You In Paradise, continued to blur the boundaries between house, disco, electro, Balearic music and synth-driven experimentation.

In 2026, Pagliara marks two decades of production with 20 Years Of Massimiliano Pagliara: Selected Unreleased Works, a retrospective collection of previously unreleased material from across his career. It is a fitting snapshot of an artist whose sound has never belonged entirely to one era or genre: rooted in the history of the dance floor but continually looking outward.

Before Massimiliano takes control of the room, our friends at Fireworks, San Diego's house and electronic collective, take over Kiku for a special daytime session from 2PM–8PM. They'll open the doors early and carry the room through six hours of local selectors before handing things over to Massimiliano for the night.

Fireworks Takeover: 2PM–8PM

Massimiliano Pagliara: 8PM–12AM

Sunday at Kiku Room.