Chill-out, also written chillout, takes its name from the chill-out rooms of British club culture, quieter spaces where dancers could rest away from the main floor. In 1989 at Heaven, in London, the DJs Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson played ambient records in such a room, and in February 1990 Cauty’s group The KLF released the album Chill Out.
In Ibiza the DJ José Padilla shaped a parallel tradition at the Café del Mar, a seafront bar where mellow sets accompanied the sunset, and the Café del Mar compilations went on to sell millions of copies worldwide; the Hotel Costes series from Paris followed a similar path. Chill-out is less a precise genre than a mood: its compilations mix downtempo electronica with ambient, bossa nova, jazz, soul and dub, united by slow tempos and soft textures. Much of what streaming services now file under chill or lo-fi descends from this idea of music for the pause after the party.