Robert Precup and Silviu Sandu should be no strangers to the XLR8R readers. Their widespread influence on the flourishing Romanian scene was detailed in our investigative feature this time last year; and they then submitted a splendid 60-minute mix to our podcast series just over a month later—comprised almost entirely of their own unreleased minimal productions.

And it is in the studio that the Bucharest-based duo have been most prolific. For over a decade they’ve been the production team behind a remarkable catalog of sophisticated house-focused releases—the majority of which have been shared between Cécile, Vakant, Drumma, and Loco Dice‘s Desolat. In addition to this, they continue to work alongside George G under the Premiesku alias.

Having shared their debut LP in 2008, they dropped the Phantom Circle album in late October 2016—the result of many years in the studio. The 11-tracker, a “conceptual project” that arrived on Desolat, featured some impressive names, including tINI, Enzo Siragusa, and Ryan Crosson; each cut was co-produced with one of these anonymous names from the duo’s close circle of friends, though no clear evidence of the collaborator behind each track was offered.

Both innovative and brave, Phantom Circle went a long way to affirming Livio & Roby as two of the leading producers in minimal house scene; and so we thought it was about time to visit Precup and Sandu in their Bucharest studio—located in Precup’s basement—to learn more about their production processes.

In addition to this, a gallery of their studio can be viewed below.

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