• Unite Centrale, a record store specializing in electronic music, has just opened on the slopes of Croix-Rousse.

  • This unique place, managed by two DJs and fine connoisseurs of the environment, will also offer long training courses in deejaying.

  • Designed as a meeting place for vinyl and electro enthusiasts, Unite Centrale could eventually house a mastering studio in its cellar.

If Lyon has no shortage of record stores, fans of electronic music had their ears at half mast since the closure of Chez Emile in June 2020. To search the bins in search of acid house or ambient, there was no longer than to take the train.

Fortunately, two former Emile have teamed up to open Unite Centrale, a new electro record store (12 rue René Leynaud), on the eve of Record Store Day.

In a former metallurgy workshop, electro but not only

Olivier Mutschler and Guillaume Des Bois are well known in the industry: both are DJs and founders of labels – Sharivari for the first, Macadam Mambo for the second.

"I had created Chez Emile with two associates", explains Olivier Mutschler, alias Mush.

“The store closed at the start of covid, more for personal than financial reasons.

So, after a period where we thought about what we wanted to do in life, we embarked on a project that was intended to be more global.

Namely, bringing together a record store, Unite Centrale, which received financial aid from the CNM (Centre national de musique) in Paris, and a training course in deejaying, the Ecole du Mix, an association created by a friend in Avignon.

After many administrative delays, the two partners found the ideal premises, a former metallurgy workshop.

With its beams, its glass roofs and its raw concrete floor, the place offers an elegant decor with listening points, bins and shelves filled with vinyl records, 45 rpm included, but also a small selection of CDs, DVDs and books.

"We specialize in electronic music, with new things for electro but also second-hand for everything that revolves around it, on a fairly broad musical spectrum", summarizes Mush.

“We also offer collector's records, rarer things.

The advantage is that we already had a network, which we have expanded since the covid.

We are in an environment where there are a lot of releases: at Emile, we already had 60 distributors, so we always have to be on the lookout for what is coming out…”

More than a record store, a global educational project

Behind the glass roofs hides the other particularity of Unite Centrale: a "DJ booth", a space for individual training in computer-assisted music (MAO).

"It can also be used for people who want to record podcasts, and to give mixing lessons, activities that we will develop over time," explains Mush, who was a multimedia animator.

Becoming a good DJ can be learned, and the sessions are long and intensive: “We will offer courses of two or three hours per week, over three months.

But we will also set up introductory sessions for beginners, which we can adapt for those who do not necessarily have the equipment at home.

The goal is also that people come to ask for advice, and to train, that it is a place of exchange.

A cellar, which remains to be fitted out, will complete this modular place, open to all possibilities in terms of sound: “Eventually, we would like to give masterclasses and workshops there, especially with children, with the MJCs of the district”, Mush.

Until the ultimate goal: “to make it a mastering studio”.

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  • Electronic music

  • Vinyl

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  • Lyons

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes