By blending Greek soul with futuristic groove, Echonomist is quietly reshaping the global techno scene. Petros Manganaris, better known as Echonomist, has become a cult figure for those in the know, an underground hero whose music can make a cavernous club feel as intimate as a late-night jam session.
Armed with a lifelong obsession for synthesizers and an uncanny knack for genre-bending, this Greek producer/DJ has journeyed from local downtempo obscurity to the stages of the world’s biggest techno temples. And he’s done it all without losing the experimental spark that makes his sound unique. In an era when electronic music can feel formulaic, Echonomist stands out as a maverick, a melodic alchemist turning raw emotion and gritty rhythms into pure dance floor gold.
It all started in Thessaloniki, where a young Petros was gifted a synth by his family and told to learn some traditional Greek music. Instead, he started cooking up bizarre, squiggly sounds that had zero interest in Sunday family sing-alongs. That anti-traditional streak stuck. By the mid-2000s, he’d formed a band called IνΦo (Info) and started performing lush downtempo sets with live instruments, vocals, and plenty of leftfield electronics. The group dropped three albums by 2009 and gained a rep in Greece’s underground, but it wasn’t enough. Petros had bigger sounds in his head.
Soon he was diving deep into DJ culture, discovering the holy trinity of Carl Craig, Maurizio, and Underground Resistance. He launched his solo alias Echonomist, dropped the live band setup, and started crafting tracks that hovered somewhere between deep house and dubby, percussive techno. Early releases on niche-but-respected labels like Resopal, Upon You, and Dessous showed he could make club music that felt both personal and propulsive. And importantly, he was never out here copying trends. This guy had his own thing from the jump.
Trying to pin down Echonomist’s sound is like trying to explain a dream while still half-asleep. It’s fluid, fuzzy at the edges, but undeniably felt. One track might slink through lo-fi breaks and woozy pads; the next punches you with peak-time techno. But everything he touches is laced with this warm, obsessive love for synthesizers. Dude literally helps build custom synths. Who does that?
His productions are emotional but not cheesy, cerebral but not boring. They hit that elusive middle ground that makes you dance and think. And that’s not some PR fluff. His tracks actually stand out in a sea of algorithm-made sameness. He’ll throw in ambient interludes, gritty bass, tribal percussion, eerie vocal snippets, whatever tells the story. Genre? Who cares. If it moves, it stays. He’s making music for the 3AM crowd who want feels, not filler.
You can hear that in "Our Last Night" with Mironas, a straight-up synth-pop heartbreaker disguised as a breakbeat track. Or in his downtempo experiments that sneak their way onto club-friendly labels. His whole deal is making music that does something to you. The Greek melancholy creeps in too, not in an obvious folklore way, but in the weight his tracks carry. There's nostalgia baked into the pads.
<Spotify link="https://open.spotify.com/track/5ssbETymDhXHIFx81anNpQ?si=f76ba038a2dd4632" />
Echonomist’s real leap into the global spotlight came with "Panic Attack", a track made with fellow Greek wizard Jenia Tarsol and picked up by melodic techno overlords Tale Of Us for their Afterlife label. This wasn’t just a big track. It was the track. One of Afterlife’s biggest hits ever. Deep, brooding, absolutely unhinged when dropped at the right moment. That tune alone made Echonomist a name you had to know.
Then came the Innervisions era. Berlin tastemaker Dixon hand-picked his tracks for the Transmoderna compilations, a move that put Echonomist next to some of the most forward-thinking producers in Europe. He followed that up with two standout EPs: "Virtuality" and "Night Versions", which play like soundtracks to the sexiest dystopia never filmed.
His collab streak didn’t stop there. In 2020, Echonomist linked up with WhoMadeWho on their Synchronicity project (out via Kompakt), delivering moody dance-rock hybrids that hit both the hips and the heart. Then came the Adana Twins hookup for the "Subway Yard EP" on TAU, a four-track stunner that hit #1 on Beatport’s Indie Dance chart. Sleek, neon-lit, and dripping with retro-future swagger, that record is a front-to-back killer.
And let’s not forget his remix game. He’s reworked everyone from Stephan Bodzin to RY X, turning their originals into warped, emotionally-charged versions that somehow hit even harder.
<Spotify link="https://open.spotify.com/track/0oQFtmqPZ8UP76PpffbgIO?si=713d61e68f534da3" />
You know a DJ is the real deal when they can crush it in a sweaty Berlin basement and then slay a beachside mega-rave in Tulum. Echonomist’s gig history is stupid impressive: Zamna, Fabric, Burning Man, Stereo Montreal, Space Miami, Caprices Festival, AHM Beirut, all certified venues, all ticked off.
Whether he's playing for 300 heads in a fogged-out club or 10,000 ravers under the stars, he adapts without watering down the vibe. One night it’s peak-time thumpers. The next it's trippy sunrise grooves. And he always sprinkles in his own tracks.
That range is rare. And it’s what makes people stick with him. Fans don’t just go for the party. They go for the trip. His sets evolve, stretch, shift moods. They’re storytelling without the pretentiousness. You leave sweaty, exhausted, and weirdly emotional. You go home and try to find that one track from his set for three days straight. That’s the Echonomist effect.
In the process, he's become a kind of underground diplomat for melodic techno, helping move the sound beyond tired templates. He keeps the soul in the machine. And the DJs love him for it. Tale Of Us, Dixon, Adriatique, Solomun, they’re all Echonomist fans. If you know, you know.
Instead of cooling off after all that momentum, Echonomist kept his foot on the gas. In late 2023, he dropped his debut album "Secret Places" on Innervisions, and it was a statement. An actual album. One that you can sit with, start to finish. It bounces from ambient dreamscapes to club destroyers to tender vocal-led gems, all stitched together with that signature Echonomist glue. Think high-concept, low-ego. Critics lost their minds. Fans streamed it into oblivion.
<Spotify link="https://open.spotify.com/album/0ElteHQWxULaWN811p9Bad?si=vUHcg6SMSMCVtTK-LyfAVg" />
And now? He just launched his own label: Flying Hearts, a collaboration with Jenia Tarsol, built for music that doesn’t care about categories. The first release is a rework of a track by UK indie band Throws, turned electronic symphony. If that’s the starting point, Flying Hearts might just become one of those labels that defines the next wave.
What’s coming next? More hybrid sets. More sonic curveballs. Maybe even a return to his downtempo roots. But whatever it is, it’ll sound like Echonomist. No one else.
Explore More
View All
