Carlo Ruetz
It was a breakthrough by name, and by nature. By 2013, Carlo Ruetz had been playing twisted technoid minimal for a decade, but it was his debut longplayer of that year Breakthrough that launched him into the spotlight. Within 24 hours of its release the album crashed into the top spot of Beatport’s minimal techno chart, and it remained in pole position for weeks. It also caught the discerning ear of Richie Hawtin. Since that unmissable moment, Carlo has only gathered more and more momentum; acclaimed EPs for MINUS, DEEPERFECT and KD MUSIC, alongside memorable performances at international Minus showcases and Richie Hawtin’s essential Ibiza night ENTER. Unique in sound and in situation, Carlo Ruetz is the ‘overnight sensation’ born of ten years in the trenches of the underground.
Rostockbred Carlo became fascinated by the sound of music at an early age. In his youth he was often the last person on the dancefloor in the early hours, and in 2001 he bought his first turntables and mixer, built a small studio in his parents’ attic, and recorded his first set to tape. His devotion to the minimalist aesthetic was forged in these early sets, and continues it continues to be his calling card. Carlo adopted a DJ alias “Jason Wawn” and soon became a regular fixture of clubs and open air parties in northern Germany. With his horizons broadening further, and after stepping out from behind the mask to embrace his real name, Carlo Ruetz went on to blaze the stage at ENTER. Ibiza at Space, FUSE Brussels, TOFFLER Rotterdam, 10 DAYS OFF The Last Waltz Ghent, and a 2015 tour through India.
Carlo began writing his own compositions in 2010, inspired by artists like Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner, Daniel Steinberg and Magda, and the following year he made a successful debut with I’m Fucking Famous. Handmade EP through Alfred Heinrichs and his homebaselabel Supdub followed, with further releases for Moonplay Records and Slaap Records, before the gamechanging arrival of Breakthrough through Supdub Digitales in March 2013.
Carlo Ruetz is Known for starting from scratch with every production, mining deep for unexpected sounds and arrangements, and taking compelling bends and turns while in the DJ booth. It’s no surprise that Richie Hawtin counts Carlo Ruetz as part of the new Minus generation. With forthcoming heat lined up with future releases, and more clubs and festivals switching on to the distinctive Carlo Ruetz sound, expect to hear more from this overnight veteran who exists at the leading edge of minimalism and techno.
PAST EVENTS
Peter Schumann
DJ and producer Peter Schumann was born and raised in Gera, Germany, also where he discovered his passion for “black gold” two years before moving to Frankfurt in 1997. Settling in did not take long and soon he had set up his own series of events in space place aka Tanzhaus West (Frankfurt). At the same time he started DJing for Radio X DJ Night on a regular basis. He is known for minimal grooving beats and a colourful variety of House, Detroit and Minimal. Peter’s first release was published in 2002, together with Marcus Martinez as Audiomat on 3d Records. After a two-year break the next strike was made, this time together with good friend Benjamin Fehr on the Frankfurt label Catenaccio. In 2005 Peter played his part on ‘Compilation Elektronische Musik – Intercontinental 4’ for the Cologne label Traumschallplatten. His first solo run was the Elster Records release ‘Delicate Issue’ – a complex EP full of both gloom and dreaminess – making you hope for more! Between 2004-2007 he was managing Anthony Rother’s Datapunk, Psi49net and Stahl labels featuring productions of DJ Hell, Sven Väth, Anthony Rother and Gregor Tresher and of course his own. In 2010 after moving to Berlin, Peter started Platte International, his own strictly limited imprint, only available on Vinyl. Since then he has been managing the BAR25 label, as well as working as a booking agent for Kater Holzig / Kater Blau, he is holding longterm DJ Residencies for Zukunft in Zurich, Dora Brilliant, Tanzhaus West in Frankfurt and Kater Blau in Berlin.
PAST EVENTS
Saschienne
Saschienne is the duo of Julienne Dessagne and Sascha Funke, signing responsible for a uniquely genre-bending body of work that is as intricate as it is propelling – an expertly balanced blend of both the abstract and the concrete. Pooling the forces of different musical backgrounds, Funke and Dessange formed Saschienne in 2012, debuting with their sublimely subtle full-length “Unknown” on Kompakt. Already, Funke himself was no stranger to the advanced techno club circuit, with much-acclaimed releases on Kompakt and BPitch Control under his belt, while singer and producer Dessagne subsequently developed her own electronic solo project between exquisite post-industrial leanings and hedonist dance culture, releasing EPs on Optimo Music and Hippie Dance as The Twins. In 2015, the pair followed up their debut album with the EP “Golden Prints”, delving deeper into the twisted realms of somber, yet strangely soothing electronic music. Also touring with an array of synthesizers and drum pads, their leftfield techno/pop live show has been continuously described as a showstopper – those who know, know.
PAST EVENTS
Santé
Berlin’s Santé emerged as part of a wave of new producers with a different cut to their electronic jib around the time that deep house was losing its way somewhat. His productions ooze character, charisma, soul, colour, humour and above all a sense of humanity.
After teaching himself to play the guitar in his early teens, Santé bought himself an Akai MPC-2000 when he was 16 and set the ball rolling for a life entrenched in electronic music. “I was totally into sampling and house” he recalls of those early days of button bashing and experimentation. He left his hometown when he was 21 to immerse himself in the dance music mecca that is Berlin. The plan was to study music at university, but failing the entrance exam meant he had to pursue other endeavours. A studio internship blossomed into a full-time career, with the emerging talent spending six years producing jingles and ad music and nurturing his passion for house music at any opportunity. Nothing was released, however, until one of his demos found its way to Matt ‘Radio Slave’ Edwards. His first ever release came out on Edwards’ acclaimed REKIDS imprint, setting the bar incredibly high and garnering him a lot of high-profile attention in the process.
The next major stepping stone for him was meeting two guys named Ali and Basti – also known as Tiefschwarz. “They were looking for a new engineer and took me to their label Souvenir, where I got the freedom to release my music and have a playground” he explains. This fruitful, intense relationship lasted three years before Santé decided to fly the nest in search of new pastures, his sophisticated sound developing all the while. In recent times, his style has taken on yet more verve, with the warmth of the house he has always known and loved now bolstered by a loose techno rhythm and percussive drive. The sensuality remains, yet with more dance floor urgency. Whether its one of his acclaimed live shows or one of his DJ sets you’re listening to, the infectious energy is always there.
He describes himself both as a party animal and a studio gremlin (“because you need to be both to do music!”), and cites his biggest influences as The Cure, Talking Heads, Aphex Twin and the Detroit techno pioneers and legends. Embracing both the convenience of the present (producing wherever he goes on his MacBook) and the charm of the past (one look at the rented 808 in his studio will attest to that), he is a producer who effortlessly spans the old and new skool in the most uncontrived of ways.
A look at his upcoming release schedule spells out what a diverse producer he is and how far his popularity ranges – from bastions of techno like Cocoon to the kings of big room house Defected, through to underground darlings like Desolat, Supernature and 8Bit. Few producers can claim such a breadth of imprints to be associated with at any one time. When you ask Santé to describe his musical style, he says he doesn’t really know how to – which goes someway to explaining his widespread appeal.
Plans for the future include his long-awaited debut artist album, which he promises will be more of a song-based affair than a straight-up collection of dancefloor grooves (“to show a few more skills”), and his fledgling Avotre brand, currently housing a record label and with a clothing line in the making. With his impressive release schedule to boot, he’s looking to be bigger than ever over the coming months.
PAST EVENTS
Martin Buttrich
Martin Buttrich is famously as fluent behind a mixing console as in front of a virtual drum kit. That technical prowess, combined with a fascination for music of every shape, has resulted in outstanding releases on influential labels such as Planet E, Four:Twenty, Cocoon, Poker Flat, Nervous and Desolat. He’s also put his sonic thumbprint on many big ticket artists, notably receiving a Grammy nomination for a Tori Amos remix in 2003. Such diverse musical horizons are rare. While other prolific artists may have slowly watered down their music, Buttrich’s star has risen in diametric opposition. His vision has become more and more condensed, more and more crystallised. Flipping and puncturing grooves in a live setting is a snap for him, and he’s entranced audiences at festivals like Time Warp and Creamfields, at temples of boom such as Fabric (London), Womb (Tokyo), Cocoon (Frankfurt), Panorama Bar (Berlin) and Amnesia (Ibiza) and at worldwide Desolat Experience parties with Loco Dice.
When people say “Buttrich’s music sounds amazing”, they’re not just talking about the catchiness of his compositions or the way he manipulates beats into unique tapestries. His skills with a sonic scalpel – that esoteric ability to navigate the spectrum of audible (and inaudible) frequencies – have given him cachet among sound engineers. An incredible work ethic combined with a flexible, curious, and humorous approach have made him truly great at what he does.
Buttrich’s journey into electronic music began in clubs in Berlin and Hannover at the dawn of the ‘90s, when post-Summer of Love-Europe began to swing to its own hypnotic, machine-like groove. At 18 years old he began experimenting with production as X-Rotation (with Daniel Bross), which led to the projects Rhythm Assault, Sounds of Life and Phunk Diggaz (with engineer Andy Bolleshon).
Buttrich began a notorious collaboration with his then co-worker at Peppermint Jam distribution, Timo Maas, in the mid-‘90s (they worked the telephones together). After setting up his first studio in the basement of the Peppermint Park studio building, the partnership led to over 100 co-productions and remixes that included Madonna, Muse, Fatboy Slim. Josh Wink and Green Velvet. Buttrich has produced funk legend Bootsy Collins, while switching the patterns for artists including Tom Jones, Kelis, Moloko, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Yello, War and Roger Sanchez. His Azzido Da Bass “Dooms Night” remix with Timo Maas hit the UK top ten charts.
All the while he created an impressive library of beats and collected an arsenal of music production equipment for his studio in Timetools, a studio complex founded in 1997 in Hannover with a group of musicians. Buttrich is happy with the subtle crunch of an SP-12 sampler and the ‘smoky’ vibe of his analog mixing desk – adding a bass guitar or other instrument when necessary. But he’s not above having fun with a laptop either: approaching music programs as if they were video games. He doesn’t rely on any one machine or music composition technique, and his array of outboard gear is mouth-wateringly state of the art.
But he never loses touch with the gritty, human side of music, and the environments that it is played in.
Another key musical partnership, with Loco Dice, begun in 2002, undoubtedly inspired Buttrich to delve deeper into the musical histories that first lured him towards after-dark melodies. In a short space of time they’d built up a deep discography creating an era-defining sound in the process. They spent more than half a year living in New York in 2006/2007, with half of Buttrich’s studio set up in a rickety hideaway in Brooklyn that looked out over Manhattan’s vistas. Between late night production sessions and snowstorms, their Desolat label came to life.
Having his debut solo album Crash Test released on Desolat in early 2010, Martin Buttrich is taking his vision to the road, fusing wild imagination with solid musical architecture, cherry-picked inspiration with true perfection of his musical craft.
Since then constantly on tour, in 2011 Martin Buttrich still has dropped a remarkable collection of music – productions like “Fire Files” EP on Desolat or remixes for Marco Carola and Lee Curtiss amongst others.
Currently based in LA, Martin Buttrich is working on his second artist album and a jazz project called The Stoned Autopilot.
Stay tuned.
PAST EVENTS
Anja Schneider
Anja Schneider is the mobilee records founder, broadcaster, internationally renowned DJ and producer once labeled a “perpetual motion machine”, and one of the hardest working individuals in the business.
From her beginnings in radio to the ‘Hi Five’ anniversary year of mobilee, her ascension through the ranks has been fuelled by her strong work ethic, sharp tastemaker instinct, charming personality and innate musicality. Starting out as a producer for KissFM, Anja became a radio persona in her own right in 2000 for Fritz Radio. Armed with an engaging presentation style and impeccable taste, Anja’s ‘Under the Blue Moon’ program – which still airs to this day – resonated with Berlin’s music-loving masses and propelled her forward into a career as a club DJ.
After her first forays into production in 2004, Anja joined forces with Ralf Kollmann to found mobilee records the following year. Anja’s keen ear defined the emergent imprint through its early releases, unearthing talented newcomers such as Sebo K and Pan-Pot, and paving the way for her celebrated mobilee debut with Sebo, Rancho Relaxo. Harnessing her unique interest in collaborative creativity, Anja’s list of studio partners has grown to include the likes of Paul Brtschitsch, Marco Resmann, and Lee Van Dowski. Anja’s 2008 opus, her debut album Beyond the Valley, was released to critical acclaim, with tracks “Belize” and “Safari” dominating Charts and dancefloors worldwide. Alongside her original work, an extensive list of remixes for labels such as Dessous, Crosstown Rebels, and Diynamic now line the annals of her impressive discography.
As a label head Anja has focused not only on discovering fresh talent, but also on cultivating and developing the mobilee roster, pushing artists to challenge themselves and developing their careers as DJs and musicians. Under her guidance, mobilee and its sister label Leena Music have grown into one of Berlin’s most-watched staples, with a close-knit collection of producers and musicians that carve out a distinct sound in a city teeming with electronic music.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s most respected DJs, Anja has traveled to almost every corner of the globe, making her mark at world-renowned clubs.
With ears honed through years of experience, Anja’s achievements as a producer, DJ and label head are far from peaking. Her development as a one-of-a-kind artist and businesswoman is just the start of what we can expect from Anja’s evolution, as she builds mobilee into the defining platform that stands in testament to the vision, passion, and love of music that drives her extended mobilee team in all that they do, and all that will come.
PAST EVENTS
Ellen Allien
Wherever you find Ellen Allien, you find movement. Born in Berlin, living and working in Berlin and Ibiza, one of the planet’s most dynamic party scenes, her artistic home stands for one thing above all: freedom, in every aspect. DJ, musician, label manager, t-shirt designer and creative all-rounder – Ellen Allien has carved out her own space in all these roles, creating a unique universe.
Since 1999 she has managed the label BPitch Control in Berlin, as well as the t-shirt range ellen allien. As a DJ she rocks clubs and festivals all around the world. She is a resident at DC10/ Ibiza, Nitsa/ Barcelona / watergate berlin as well as at major festivals such as Melt/ Germany and Name/ France and tours worldwide with BPitch Control events. Her productions have even been performed at temples of modern art such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
She is constantly exploring new aural worlds, most recently on her soundtrack album “LISm” (2013), her works “Dust” (2010) and “Sool” (2008) or in collaboration with Apparat in 2006 on “Orchestra Of Bubbles”. Or like her upcoming EP “High” (2015) or recent EPs “Ellen Allien RMX” (2015), “Freak” (2014), “Free Nation” (2014) with Thomas Muller or the 12″ like “GO” (2007), “Pump” (2010) und ” The Kiss” (2011). Most importantly she shares her enthusiasm with others: her creative base and label BPitch Control, her fellow musicians and of course her audience. For a long time now, Ellen Allien has been regarded as a fixed star in the electronic music galaxy. She is an extraordinary creature, a one-of-a-kind artist without whom Berlin’s vibrant electronic club landscape wouldn’t be the same. Fortunately someone thought of a suitably extraterrestrial name for her right at the start of her career: Allien. No name will ever suit her better.
PAST EVENTS
Thomas Melchior
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Christian Löffler
Being asked to describe his own music, Christian Loeffler states that he tries to combine melancholy with euphoria. “All my music is connected by a gloomy spirit, which is minted by a warm sincerity. I try to merge all kinds of different acoustic colors to obtain this feeling in my music.”
Loeffler started to play music by the age of 14. Living in a secluded region, lacking a musical surrounding, he had to teach himself the essentials of making electronic music. Before long he developed his own deep and moving sound, colored with a melancholic undertone- Music for the soul & for the body. He recalls a variety of music styles he listened to as a child and teenager that were highly influential to his own development as a musician.
Due to the fact that Loeffler is also working as a visual artist, he’s following the same approach when making music that he’s following when painting or taking photos. It is more about telling a story than making everything accessible right from the start.
In the course of the production of EP’s like “Heights”, “Raise” and “Aspen”, Loeffler developed some strategies to use acoustic material and singing in his music. Amongst others he samples different stringed instruments, percussion and atmospheres. He continues working with the recordings on the computer, combining, layering and alternating them.
The extraordinary capacities of this young producer have kept eyes and ears closely following the fresh talent as Loeffler’s deep moving melancholic sound, is absolutely irresistible.
ÂME
After a long night of dancing, many night club patrons leave the venue with a certain track stuck in their heads. But for Âme, the DJ/production duo of Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann, the tunes lodged in their brains are the ones they didn’t hear, ones not yet written that would fit perfectly in their sets. Since 2003, Beyer and Wiedemann have penned songs that once existed just outside club- goers’ imagination, songs that boldly combined floor-filling elements with conceptual conceits while maintaining their visceral appeal. As part of Innervisions, the collective/label they run with Dixon, Âme (pronounced “AHM”) offer glimpses of the future of electronic music through their live project, genre-melding compilations, and an independently run shop that completes the connection between artist and admirer. In a genre obsessed with reliving the past, Ame are focused on what’s still to come.
The partnership was formed in their hometown of Karlsruhe where Wiedemann first crossed paths with Beyer in 2001 at the latter’s record shop, Plattentasche. Bonding over Chicago house, Detroit techno and much else besides, the duo joined forces in 2003 to produce seminal deep house platters for Sonar Kollektiv, many of which were collected on the duo’s selftitled debut album. Intent on not repeating themselves, Ame splintered their established sound and found a more nimble, compositional approach that yielded their scene-conquering single, “Rej.” Not content to rest on their laurels as the tune made the rounds on Defected Records and many others, the pair teamed up with Dixon and Henrik Schwarz in 2006 for another instant classic, “Where We At,” featuring Derrick Carter’s stirring vocals.
It would’ve been understandable if Beyer and Wiedemann had further pursued the sound which brought them such acclaim, but for Ame the appeal is in breaking down influences and songwriting habits in order to craft something new. Without attachments to particular methods and patterns, the duo was free to develop an overarching view of what dance music could be and pursue it through various moods, timbres and even genres. But if one stylistic point shines through it’s the group’s penchant for orchestral instrumentation and composition, albeit deconstructed and enmeshed in vintage synth tones and spectral vocal samples. From the waltzing prototechno of “Fiori,” a key movement in Ostgut Ton’s ballet score, Shut Up and Dance! Updated, to the gargantuan brass tearing through the wildpitch strings of “Enoi,” their work simultaneously evokes the conceptual ardor of John Cage or Tony Conrad and the dance floor thrust of DJ Pierre or Underground Resistance.
Âme ‘s ability to fuse together seemingly disparate influences is greatly informed by their talents as DJs. Not given to fulfilling trends, their sets draw upon the whole of dance music’s history and keep them in great demand around the world. Their regular nights at such establishments as Robert Johnson (Frankfurt), Fabric (London), Trouw (Amsterdam), Lux (Lisbon), and Air (Tokyo) are exceeded only by their marathon sets during Innervisions nights at their beloved Panorama Bar (Berlin). Those awaiting the opportunity to experience an A?me DJ or live set have been well cared for as well, as the pair have captured their curating skills on mix CDs for Sonar Kollektiv, NRK Sound Division and Fabric, as well as the landmark survey of historical minimalism, The Grandfather Paradox compilation done in collaboration with Dixon and Schwarz. Ame are set to follow this achievement with a periodspanning mix all their own, Primary Structures.
As core members of what they refer to as the Innervisions family, the duo are deeply involved in the group’s operations. The imprint is renowned for exacting quality control, releasing only five or six titles a year encased in lavish artwork, many of which are widely tipped. With input from Wiedemann, Beyer and Dixon drive the label’s A&R direction, selecting a few artists – who have included Laurent Garnier, Chateau Flight, Stefan Goldmann and Culoe De Song – to accompany the main cohort of Henrik Schwarz, Tokyo Black Star, and themselves. Fully prepared for the 21st century, Innervisions connects to its fanbase through a thoughtfully stocked web store which sells records, fashionable clothing and books like Tobias Rapp’s Lost And Sound (which they translated into English) and its release subscription service. Ame are also crucial components of A Critical Mass, a live project that finds the pair, alongside Dixon and Schwarz, reworking the creative DNA of each other’s songs in real- time. It’s just one more facet of Âme’s artistry, further evidence of the duo’s position at the forefront of electronic music.
Philip Bader
Philip Bader was born in Berlin and fell in love with electronic music in 1998. He already gave his DJ-debut in 1999 at the old Tresor club. Just spinning records was not enough so he launched „Max und Moritz“ with his friends. They organized quite a few parties in this constellation, the most famous event in Berlin is „Karneval der Verpeilten“ for sure. Altogether, their Sunday afternoon parties in the old Casino Hof called „Gelee Royal“ were the beginning of the legendary “sunday after” parties in Berlin.
In the end it was just the next logical step for Philip Bader to start producing his own music. And now he is only con- centrating on dj-ing and producing. His production debut was a release with Perry Roden on Monika Kruse’s Label Electric Avenue, followed by successful releases on Kindisch, Saved, Stil vor Talent etc. For instance, a remix for Raz Ohara on Get Physical and „Mumba Drums“ together with Sascha Braemer on Kinisch (sub label of Get Physical). Philip’s productions are characterized by his deep minimalistic Berlin techno style and the really creative and smartly placed vocals – he uses his own voice quite a few times. His DJ sets are like his productions: consistently deep, playful and powerful.
Nick Curly
After six years of running the respected Cécille Records and establishing it as a go to label for fans of a certain strain of house music, the label is going on something of a hiatus. As such, Nick Curly is now focussing on his other main interest, 8Bit Records, and it will be here that the German DJ and producer will hone in once again on the deep and tracky tech house sound that made him so well known in the first place. As well as releasing more of his own EPs, he will of course continue to A&R new talent for the label at the same time as continuing to work with friends and peers like Johnny D and Marcus Fix, who have been a constant throughout Curly’s musical life.
In 2014 the Nick Curly also enters a pantheon of DJ greats with his entry into Defected’s hallowed In the House mix series. It’s a perfect hook up given his close relationship with the label – not only did Defected re-release his debut artist album, Between The Lines, in 2012, but they also helped serve up some killer remixes of it from seminal acts like Larry Heard. On top of this, of course, Curly is a long time DJ who first cut his teeth during his teens with a residency at the legendary Vibration Club in the Karlsruhe region of Germany.
Since then he has gone on to hold down residencies in Ibiza with Kehakuma at Space, where he helped define that night’s sound for a number of years, as well as turning in an official mix CD for them in the past. He’s also mixed an official CD for Cocoon, another Ibiza night at which he has been a popular guest, whilst outside Ibiza he has played the world’s biggest and best festivals and most connoisseur clubs including Womb in Tokyo, Sonus Festival in Croatia, D-Edge in Brazil, Eastern Electrics Festival In London, Love Family Park in Germany and Gypsy Club in Russia.
Curly’s productions and the music released on his labels has come to be known as the Mannheim sound – a deep and tracky tech house style that is loopy and involving, folding you into the groove with each rotation as various elements of soul and melodic beauty infuse the spaces left behind. Whilst tech house is a genre much maligned; Nick Curly has been, is, and always will be a shining example of just how the genre should sound.
“I have a new EP coming out in that style,” says the man himself. “It’s back to more like the stuff I started with; the Mannheim sound that helped launched my international career. People, especially DJs, expect this from me and I know DJs are playing it already.” With a renewed focus on his boutique 8Bit label, plenty more productions in the pipeline and an ever busier DJ schedule, Nick Curly becomes an ever more essential member of the global house community with every passing week.
