New mastering and new cutting of one of Metroplex’ (and Detroit Techno in general) keystone releases. Three essential tracks by three masterminds in electronic music. Detroit Techno master Juan Atkins (Model 500) and Berlin’s Moritz von Oswald together with Thomas Fehlman are responsible for this absolute classic.
What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On ‘Silencio’, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and dark & dissonant. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms.
Metroplex continues its run of reissues with more seminal releases from the label’s essential back catalog. The long-awaited reissue of M024: Model 500’s eternal techno meditation “Starlight”, a mid-90s collaboration with dub techno maestro Moritz von Oswald of Basic Channel, Maurizio, and Rhythm & Sound fame. Remastered from original tapes and sounding super fresh.
Since 1991, Tresor has provided a home for artists to germinate their ideas for advanced new sounds and broadcast them to the world. The pioneers that first traversed the Detroit-Berlin connection and were at the forefront of a new cultural movement gave to Tresor its original and continuing mission: community, resistance and reshaping the world to come. The Tresor 30 compilation represents a major land- mark in this continuing history of electronic music. This unique collection of music profiles some of the artists that gave the previous three decades of Tresor its sound and foundation, but it also casts its gaze forward. Writing new postcards from the future, this collection brings new artists who main- tain a connection to that original mission to the fore, charting ways in which this ethos can contin- ue to build bridges and break walls in the next 30 years. Bringing together 52 essential tracks – both clas- sics and exclusive commissions – each of the 12 records in this box-set charts a unique line of flight from those artists that helped define the shape of this new music to those who continue to pattern its landscape further.
Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald – the two vital proponents of Detroit-Berlin axis, return to the mothership following their 2016 full length effort Transport. Angles is the result of a new conversation between the founding father of electronic music and his German counterpart. The serene source of captivating musical ideas that is Borderland, keeps on flowing and vibrating with subtle energy. Two versions form here a new set of studio-refined sequences. Both parts of “Concave” are the ungraspable manifestation of the wild quietness in which the duo finds itself. Predicting at once, possible outcomes for the craft of electronic sound, while respecting their profound origins.
When Tresor founder Dimitri Hegemann stumbled into a former bank vault in East Berlin on March 13th 1991, he had little idea that the space he had unlocked would fast become one of Berlin’s most influential and enduring techno clubs. As Tresor celebrates its 25th anniversary with this work of artists from the US, Germany, China, France, Austria, Italy and the UK, it is worth dwelling on how the cultural conditions that birthed Detroit techno – economic neglect and broken industry – were mirrored by the disused bunkers and impromptu parties of post-unification East Berlin, where techno found new, vigorous expression. This record marks the spirit of those 25 years of creativity, a paean to the psychedelic music of Dimitri’s youth. From the signature magnetic soundscapes of Vainqueur to the dark textures of upcoming Beijing producer Shao; from Jon Hassell’s slow epicurean volutes, to the ritual auras of Marcelus and Claudia Anderson’s contributions; from the dub-infused pioneering programming of Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, to Mønic’s enthralling cadences, it represents some of the old and new names that continually epitomise Tresor’s perennial spirit of ingenuity.
To coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Berlin club Tresor, Juan Atkins and Moritz Von Oswald have released a second Borderland album together. It begins in ominous mode, with the title track’s brooding bass tones casting a long, dark shadow, but the pair soon find a way to break away from the gloom with the mesmerising chords and heavy rhythm of “Lightyears” and the wonderfully spacey Detroit techno of “Riod”. Both “Odyssey” and “Merkur” push the tempo back down but keep an emphasis on hypnotic, woozy textures, snappy drums and jazzy tones, while “2600” shows that Van Oswald hasn’t lost his ability to craft dub-heavy, dreamy techno.
Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald – the two indispensable protagonists of the Electric Garden – plug back into the wilderness. The result: a font from which springs serene and exhilarating musical ideas that vibrate with refined energy for sixty seconds in every minute.
The Hipodrome Of Music 