Artists & culture
She didn’t know who HUGEL was. Now they share a hit.
A Reiki practitioner’s Suno song became “Movin’ To The Sun.” HUGEL brought a producer’s ear, Ultra Naté brought her voice, and the record took on a life of its own.
AI-assisted
AI assisted with research and writing; the article was revised under editorial direction.
HUGEL wanted to arrange a call. Bernadett Gango considered suggesting WhatsApp in case the phone bill was expensive. She had no idea who had contacted her.
A few months later, their names shared a UK No. 2 single. “Movin’ To The Sun” paired the French producer with Ultra Naté, the voice of “Free,” and Imael Angel. That third name belonged to Gango, a Reiki practitioner whose song had begun in Suno.
The unexpected part of their first conversation was how little his reputation meant to her. HUGEL suggested that she look him up before deciding whether to collaborate. She was considering what to do with a song. He already knew what it took to turn someone else’s idea into a record people would reach for their phones to identify.
Before the phone call
Gango’s Reiki practice and her music share the name Imael Angel. On Spotify, she describes deep house as part of the same spiritual work. The two occupations sit together in her biography.
She and her partner, Gyula, made music for manifestation. A published excerpt drew requests for a full version. Gango had also spent eight years at music school.
Her solo release, “I’M MOVING TO THE SUN,” appeared in April. By the time HUGEL got involved, there was a song to listen to and an audience asking for it. Their collaboration would put it through another set of musical decisions.
HUGEL had done this kind of work before
Two years earlier, HUGEL told Beatportal how he made “I Adore You.” A friend played him a vocal topline. The production was pop, but he heard potential in the voice. He made a beat, then rejected his first version: “it needed more drums to keep people dancing.”
He returned to the studio and built a version where the drums never stopped. At its first outing in Germany, people pulled out their phones to Shazam it.
For “Movin’ To The Sun,” he rebuilt the instrumental and invited Ultra Naté to record the vocals. The release credits also name the duo Late Nine as producers. An idea that had arrived through a generative tool was now passing between working musicians.
A famous voice, cut into syllables
The change is measurable before considering the sound. Gango’s April solo release runs 3:42; the new single runs 2:22. The commercial recording is a minute and twenty seconds shorter.
Ultra Naté’s performance became raw material for further production. In The Singles Jukebox’s review panel, Harlan Talib Ockey describes a surging bass and vocals cut sharply into syllables in the chorus. Scott Mildenhall hears texture in her performance even through the processing.
The same record earned a 9 from Alfred Soto and a 2 from Oliver Maier. Soto loved its stutters and bass; Maier found the chopped-vocal hook interchangeable with countless others. Inviting a celebrated singer had produced an argument about what the production did with her voice.
A song originating in AI had acquired a human singer, whose performance was then edited into fragments. The live voice became the material for an electronic hook.
The hit catches up with “Free”
“Movin’ To The Sun” came out on 22 May through Make The Girls Dance Records. Mixmag introduced Imael Angel as its songwriter, in a collaboration across generations of dance music. Its release story made no mention of AI.
By late August, the single had reached No. 2 in Britain. Ultra Naté had climbed higher than “Free,” which peaked at No. 4 in 1997. Almost three decades separated the two records.
An earlier version retained an audience of its own. The writer behind a Bastringue investigation had found the song on TikTok, saved it on YouTube and returned in August to find the video gone. Other recordings with the same title sounded different. He eventually recovered the version he wanted on SoundCloud, labelled “Original AI version.”
His search followed a listener’s attachment to a particular recording. HUGEL’s success had not erased the one he wanted to hear again. The song now existed in several forms, with different voices and different people drawn to them.
Gango’s artist name stayed alongside HUGEL and Ultra Naté on the hit. She has since performed in Budapest with MSSNGRS. On Spotify, she has pinned another of her songs, “BAD TIMES,” with the note: “My strongest track yet.”