Artefakt now team up with Maayan Nidam for a second part in their Collaborations series which is focused on live studio improvisations, capturing a raw energy and exploring new musical connections between the artists.
Collaborations is a new series curated by Artefakt on their own imprint De Stijl. Inviting friends and likeminded artists for extended studio improvisations crafting an EP based on live sessions. First guest is Claudio PRC, a close friend and familiar face in the deep techno scene. Both artists reside in Berlin and share a dedicated passion for atmospheric and immersive ambient and techno. Collaborations I features four jams combining the unmistakable strengths of both artists, resulting in a well varied pack of emotive techno with room for experiment.
Nick Lapien and Robin Koek’s latest collaborative album, Days Bygone, helps launch Delsin’s Interstellar series as they continue to explore beyond the dancefloor trappings of conventional techno to create a body of work steeped in mystery. Although not totally devoid of percussion, Artefakt shift their focus away from dominant drums and lean on the keys and pads to map out the landscape each track traverses. Sometimes furtive and suggestive, elsewhere pearlescent and diffused across great expanses, it’s these striking, sublime formations which define the atmosphere Lapien and Koek have created – a textured, dynamic exercise in techno as internalized listening music.
After launching their own De Stijl label last year, Artefakt are back on Delsin with Icarus, a sparkling new four track outing. Known for their intricate sound design and deep yet hard hitting grooves. Always serving up atmospheric music that is artful and filled with rich detail, they continued on their own path once again here. Starting with the smooth and hypnotic, stripped back grooves from Icarus. Followed by the cavernous and immersive ambient trip Ganzfeld Effect. The darker Vapour is still heady and meticulously crafted with deft little details, a rich sound field and supple techno drums getting you in the zone. Delphic then offers crisp breakbeats, dubby drums and electrically charged synths that are physical but emotional. It’s another perfect fusion of light and dark, thoughtful and physical techno from this ever impressive pair.
Artefakt returns to Semantica to present their second album entitled “Monsoon”. It would be fair to say that Artefakt have not succumbed to the pitfalls of “difficult second album syndrome”. In fact, “Monsoon” is arguably an even stronger and more entertaining set than their lauded 2017 debut on Delsin, “Kinship”. Its genius lies in the Dutch duo’s ability to craft atmospheric, dancefloor-ready techno cuts that prioritize mood and melody as much as bustling beats and rhythmic intensity. While their inherent grasp of atmosphere is best personified by the album’s opening and closing ambient cuts, it can also be heard in the broken techno hypnotism of “Inverted Forest”, the trance-influenced grooves and dreamy electronics of “Monsoon” and the yearning, early morning throb of “Vertigo”.
Dutch live-act and DJ duo Artefakt return to Delsin Records with an intricately produced three track release entitled ‘Falling Into The Light’. Artefakt began releasing music together in 2012 and now boast a discography spanning Field Records, Konstrukt and Deep Sound Channel, not to mention regular appearances on Delsin where their debut album entitled ‘Kinship’ dropped in 2017. Returning to Delsin, the pair’s next outing once again demonstrates their ever-evolving sound and is an exciting precursor for the launch of their own label later this year. Rolling drums open the release in ‘The Blue Hour’ as murky synths join hazy atmospherics, making way for ‘Weltformel’ with its racing syncopated percussion and ethereal pads that ebb and flow throughout the mix. Finally, ‘Falling Into The Light’ combines springy kicks with crystalline melodies, metallic elements and rattling effects to conclude a mesmerising release.
Artefakt come from the deepest branch of techno. The partnership of Robin Koek (Cyspe) and Nick Lapien (Metropolis, Rhine) have explored subterranean caverns, dense forests and unknown lands on labels like Prologue, Field and Delsin and their latest three track expedition on DSC continues that journey into the beyond. “Raid” is a near nine minute odyssey, a trip into shimmering cymbals, acid growls, placid lakes and ritualistic rhythms. The flip finds a breaking in the dense foliage: “The Radiant City”, a sanctuary of soaring strings, soothing pads and entrancing harmonies. “Lichtspiel” writes a different tale. Muted tones are ruffled by an industrial edge, the hand of man and the rise of the machine blended with a natural and organic warmth.
Dutch live-act and DJ duo Artefakt release their atmospheric debut album on renowned techno imprint Delsin. Known separately as Robin Koek and Nick Lapien, the pair first appeared on Field Records before follow up releases on Prologue, Delsin and Konstrukt. Kinship portrays a compelling narrative in a body of work that will undoubtedly keep listeners engaged from start to finish.
After a fine first EP on the label in 2105, Dutch duo Artefakt are back on Delsin with The Mental Universe. This four track EP again finds Robin Koek and Nick Lapien showcasing their knack for spellbinding grooves of voodoo techno, absorbing ambient and frictionless drum programming after other outings on the likes of Prologue and Field Records.
The excellent Field label embarks on a new mini trilogy of EPs that will “present a magical journey through modern-day trance.” First up in the series is Artefakt with their three track effort The Final Theory. Dutch producers Robin Koek and Nick Lapien make up Artefakt, and between them they excel at moody voodoo music on labels like Delsin. They open this latest EP with the title track, a deep, spacious house roller with subtle pads and gentle acid that perform slow motion acrobatics for nearly ten minutes. It is suspensory, dreamy music that works on the head as well as the heel. Moving Horizon is then less doleful and introspective but just as deep, with sweeping pads add a sense of scale, busy drums bring the dynamism and icy percussive sounds adding a sense of urgency. Last but not least, Solaris is a fatter, more physical groove with claps and gloopy bass, acid flashes and trancey pads all fleshing out a lush and deep electro workout. This is heavenly stuff that cannot fail to get inside your head and heart.
Insula, a brand new Amsterdam based label dedicated to new talents that bring an emotional narrative and personal identity to the techno scene. Their first record forms the initium of Cyspe’s solo project, with a sound rooted in architecture, geometry and cybernetics. Cyspe is also known as Robin Koek, one half of the Artefakt duo who recently released music on Field and Delsin Records.
Next on Delsin’s deep and house leaning series of releases is Artefakt with a new three track affair entitled The Fifth Planet EP. The Dutch duo are experts at conjuring up atmospheric grooves that seduce your soul. Opener ‘Transit’ is a thick, heavy and heady track with rubbery kicks tunnelling deep. Above it, smeared, sombre synths gets stretched and skewed into trippy forms and the whole thing has you as a slave to the groove. ‘From Our Minds To Yours’ is quicker and more overkill, but is again rooted in rolling rubbery kicks. Hypnotic once again, the synths here are lighter, more airy and more uplifting and induce trance like states of mind. Lastly, ‘The Fifth Planet’ steps it up another gear, with celestial melodic patterns, heavy synth daubs and spine tingling pads all expanding around a ticking techno groove. This is expertly crafted, serene and supple stuff that will sound perfect in the dead of night on some intimate and spaced out dancefloor.
The Hipodrome Of Music 