Would Sweden’s Jonas Rathsman have made it to where he is today without the blessing of dance music’s best-known tastemaker? Well, yes—chances are the Swedish DJ-producer would have done just fine without the imprimatur of Pete Tong, who pegged the erstwhile member of the Stuffa duo as a “Future Star” in 2013, and who handed the reins of an Essential Mix to Rathsman and fellow French Express artist Perseus the following year. After all, Rathsman makes gorgeous music—his hazy tracks are full of subtle, graceful swoops and swoons, punctuated by moments of soaring grandeur and accented by flashes of surprising toughness. But then again, it probably didn’t hurt, either: He did score a clubland-conquering tune with “Wolfsbane,” released this past spring on the Method White label, and he’s just reworked Disclosure‘s “Omen,” featuring Sam Smith on vocals. (Hey, if you’re gonna listen to Sam Smith, you could do far worse than a smoky, dramatic Rathsman remix.) Rathman’s just finished up a North American mini-tour, with a stop at Palm Springs, California’s Splash House fest on August 9; below, find a short photo diary of the excursion.

1. Insert cliché-DJ-comment-on-airports here! I am actually starting to love these places.…

2. Day three in to this U.S. run, coffee is definitely my best friend right now.

3. Shout-out to Mela and Mohamed for picking me up! These guys came all the way from Sweden to see play— legends. It took us a few minutes to work out this parking meter—but we got there in the end.

4. Some much needed pool time! Could have stayed here all day.

5. Last minute set prep before we go to dinner!

6. Dinner set me up perfectly! Pizza and Californian wine—good times.

7. Post-dinner photo-booth action

8. When I arrived at Splash House, I headed upstairs to get a look from above—I was definitely excited when I saw this!

9. One of my oldest friends, Mohamed—still can’t believe they came from Sweden to see me. Love you buddy!

10. Always enjoy meeting up with Ben Pearce! Always ends badly. He is a bad influence!

11. Great crowd! Big thanks to everyone for the awesome party.

13. The morning after… f**k, that escalated quickly. Needed this breakfast before the last minute dash to the airport!