Hernan Cattaneo: Lost in Sound

Waking up to a voice note from Hernan Cattaneo turned what should have been a life highlight into heartbreak in a heartbeat for Ramesh Premaratna. The Lost in Sound director went to bed on Wednesday 29 October 2025 on the eve of a dream day, over a year in the making. He was to host one of the world’s foremost music producers and DJs for a gig-of-a-lifetime here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Argentinian progressive house idol, Cattaneo had agreed to kick off his Aus/NZ tour with a date in Auckland. This was thanks to the hard graft of graphic designer-by-day, Ramesh who founded his one-man music event company three years ago as a passion project and has gone on to host over 20 international progressive house and trance acts.  

“The flight’s gone! I’m really sorry – I'm not on it.’ This is the voice note I woke up to from Hernan,” Ramesh explains. “He was at the airport departure gate in Chile. There were a whole bunch of messages. He said they wouldn’t let him board due to a visa issue. He was obviously very upset.  

“My heart sank. I just rang him immediately. He was so upset. He told me how he’d been denied entry onto the flight because of what he was told was ‘a visa issue’. He was absolutely gutted. Obviously, so was I. I just couldn’t understand it; everything had been organised. It was all in place, just like with all the other acts I’ve hosted, we’d gone through the exact same procedure without any problems at all.  

“Hernan had travelled to New Zealand before, too, without any issue. He told me he’d been DJing around the world for over 25 years and had never experienced anything like this before. He just couldn’t understand it, and nor could I.”

And Ramesh still can’t. Six weeks on, he still hasn’t received an explanation from Immigration New Zealand as to what went wrong and why. “I contacted Immigration NZ and the Minister of Immigration to find out what happened but haven’t received anything back explaining or apologising for what happened.”  

Ramesh saw the New Zealand Herald article pick up the story later that morning, announcing the gig had been cancelled as Cattaneo hadn’t been allowed to travel to New Zealand. This was updated later that afternoon to include a statement of apology from Immigration New Zealand, accepting responsibility for the error.  

“I saw the apology in the Herald, that Hernan should have been allowed to board the flight and travel to New Zealand after all. They said it was their error.

The Herald article quoted Immigration NZ’s general manager of immigration risk and border, Richard Owen, saying, “We are sorry for what has happened in this case. Mr Cattaneo should have been allowed to travel to Auckland as he had the correct documentation to board the flight.

“We wanted to speak to Mr Cattaneo about a previous visa issue, but this should have been done on arrival in Auckland and would not have prevented him entering New Zealand.”

Owen told the Herald, “We spoke to the airline and confirmed he was able to board, however by then the flight had already closed.”

Ramesh was astonished by what he read. “It was hard to take it in, to be honest. On one hand, it at least validated the fact that it was nothing I did wrong; I wasn’t at fault in any way and there was nothing more I could have done. On the other hand, I was absolutely gutted that this had happened.

“Yes, it was good to see Immigration New Zealand take responsibility for this in the Herald. But I’m the person supposed to be hosting this DJ, this event, and I hadn’t received an apology or an explanation or anything.” He still hasn’t, despite emailing the ministry.

“I’m still waiting,” he shrugs. “I still want to understand what went wrong.”

The impact – and the loss – is huge. There’s the obvious monetary loss; to Ramesh personally, the venue (Studio the Venue) and all associated staff, the ticketing company, Cattaneo, the support DJs, ticketholders, and more. Such a ripple reaches hotels, restaurants, shops and nearby hospitality businesses that would have been supported. Many out-of-towners planned on turning the Thursday night gig into a weekend stay in the city.  

“We had people from Milford Sound, Queenstown, Nelson, Christchurch, Taranaki, Tauranga... from all corners of the country coming up for this,” says Ramesh. “These people had paid for flights, accommodation, taken time off work, made plans months in advance and spent a lot of money on this. I really felt for all these people.”

And, while he’s still at a loss, in many ways, from what should’ve been, he’s searched for silver linings. Being buoyed by the outpouring of love and understanding from a community that has rallied to his side has been the biggest, he says.

“I couldn’t believe the response; so many people sending messages of support. Some even said they didn’t want their money back. One even asked for my bank details, offering to pitch in to try to help me cover my losses. Here I was, feeling so sorry for all these people who had paid to come to this gig, and they were feeling sorry for me. I was really touched,” he says, through eyes that show it.  

Within two hours of hearing the heart-wrenching voice note from Hernan, Ramesh had set the process of refunds in motion. “It was essential that I acted quickly in communicating with everyone and refunding people’s tickets. It’s important for me to treat people the way I would like to be treated as a punter, as I’m so often one, too.”

He promptly uploaded a social media post, arranged a direct email to ticketholders informing them of the cancellation, with a follow-up email updating punters on ticket refund expectations. Within the next two to three days, people received their refunds. Ramesh could not be more complimentary about ticketing firm Humanitix, nor Studio the Venue, in how they responded to the situation. A ‘Plan B’ substitute event was well supported at central city club Il Brutto, with free entry before 10pm and Ramesh playing alongside fellow support DJ Vic Lo at the packed venue.  

Beyond the financial losses, other knock-ons include hundreds of disappointed punters. Not only do many miss a much-awaited performance by an artist they admire but the sense of community that comes with it. A night of good vibes can be transformational in a time when there are people struggling to find that connection from behind screens. There’s also the impact on New Zealand’s reputation when content is viewed by millions of social media followers and other international acts. DJ Dave Seaman, for example, sent commiserations to Cattaneo, commenting, ‘I know that feeling. They did this to me as well.’

Better for Brand NZ is a string of successful events, happy punters, big names singing the praises of the country and its people to the world. Ramesh has been working hard to add to this positive reputation, executing 10 events in Auckland last year alone. These featuring big fish such as Ferry Corsten, Paul Oakenfold, and Paul Van Dyk, who all left the country happy and told the world so.  

Bringing people together through a love of music, creating connections and memories are what prompted Ramesh to step up and inject his energy into the local music scene back in 2022. He began putting on events in Auckland as a way of connecting mates through music as the world awoke from its Covid pandemic slumber. He’s since spent three years building a community of fellow progressive house and trance fans, turning his passion into his Lost in Sound events company, on top of a full-time job as a graphic designer.  

Enabling people to experience the energy of big acts up close is another of Ramesh’s motivators. “If people wanted to see Hernan perform in Argentina, they’d likely see him mainly on a screen, because of the size of the venue and the number of people in it,” he says. “Here, people would have had a chance to see one of the biggest progressive house DJs in the world up close, 10 metres away, in a local venue among hundreds, not thousands of people. That’s a rare thing for fans to experience anywhere in the world.”

He DJs, too, and was due to support Cattaneo himself. ‘DJ Ramz V’ started out in his student bedroom 17 years ago, the year after he moved to New Zealand from Sri Lanka. He developed a love for progressive house and trance after seeing TyDi play at a Ministry of Sound Trance Nation event in Auckland. He has since attempted to bring him and another of his idols, Armin Van Buren, here, ‘but the numbers just don’t stack up’.  

Ramesh recently travelled to Europe on a research mission to try to attract other big names. He has major labels and acts keen. “Everyone you speak to says they love New Zealand. Or they’ve heard good things and want to come. It’s always a case of getting the figures to add up.”

Now, he’s still waiting for the loss figures to be finalised for the Cattaneo cancellation, while planning the next events he’s lined up. On Sunday 14 December he tried something new with a 1pm-7pm slot at Corban Estate in West Auckland, featuring a four-hour set from Argentinian DJ Ezequiel Arias. It was a resounding success; good crowd - in size and vibe, set and setting all a hit. "I couldn't be happier with how it went," said Ramesh.

“It’s always a risk,” he says, "organising events. But when you organise them and it goes wrong because of something that’s not your fault, that hurts.

“I do it for the passion, for the fun of bringing people together through music. But we’ll have to see how long I can keep going with it. Things like this happen and it makes me think, I might have to drop everything and walk away.  

“There are endless possibilities for this country and for the music scene here, if we can all pull together to make things happen. At the end of the day, I’m just one of many people out here, trying to do what I can to give people something to look forward to.”

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- Heather Barker Vermeer

©Human Interest NZ