Whilst Dominic Stanton isn’t a name that’s threatened the security of the vanguard of DJs on polls like our own Sony inthemix50 or DJ Mag Top 100, Stanton, or Domu as he’s better known as, has developed a loyal following over the last ten years under the Domu name, as well as his array of other monikers including Sonar Circle, Umod, Zoltar, Blue Monkeys, and Yotoko to name a few. As such, when the UK producer and DJ announced his plans to quit making music and performing, effective immediately, on his blog overnight fans and dance followers in general were incredibly shocked.

The startling news came in an entry on Domu’s personal blog TrebleO, and much like the recent retirement of techno don Alex Cortex, Domu’s parting message to his fans and followers was filled with grief and sorrow at the unfortunate turn of events, as well as some rays of optimism to be leaving what the producer saw as an often thankless scene.

“It’s over… I am no longer Domu. He is a character, always has been, and as of Friday 13th November 2009, he no longer exists,” Stanton began. “I am cancelling all my gigs and not taking any more. My hotmail is closed, my Twitter is closed and my Facebook is closed.”

In the long, and at times intensely emotional final message, Stanton details the reasons behind his decision to hang up his headphones, explaining how his ‘creative light has dimmed’ and he had found his life changing for the worse.

“I had started to change, for the worse I am now sure. My confusion was growing, my insecurity and bitterness getting out of hand, a lack of creative direction and focus were leading me somewhere very dark,” he wrote. “I have felt so depressed by all of this. Believe me I have searched my soul long and hard this year to find the reasons again why I do this, but I can’t locate them.”

“I met some incredible people in cities I never dreamed I would visit, shared my thoughts and collected wisdom from a huge range of deeply profound and lovely people. But I have also met some real arseholes, and I could feel I was becoming one,” Domu explained. “Playing records I wasn’t sure I liked to people who had no idea who I was. I had gone cold, cold to the music, to the reactions and to the point of it all. I was changing what I thought I liked, so that I would be liked. I have gotten numb to my life’s biggest passion, and I need to leave it for a while to see if I can ever get it back to how it was.”

The snippets here are exactly that, so to get the full extent of Domu’s final send off check out the whole entry over at the TrebleO blog, and hear his beloved Let Me Be in the clip below.