@ Sun May 26 03:41:11 2013

Sonar Kollektiv Labelnight - 25.05. This time with fabolous The White Lamp, who released their hit Make It Good in spring, SK longtime hero Eva Be, Paskal&Urban Absolutes & Oliver Marquardt.

[1] The White Lamp - Make It Good
[2] Sonar Kollektiv Labelnight

Based On Misunderstandings Vol.1 "The best club music catches you off guard and by surprise. For me, there is no tested formula or any given rules that make a track work on the dancefloor. Be it an infectious bassline, an uplifting and sensous chorus or just a mesmerizing beat - most of the time the tunes that get people really going at clubs are all based on misunderstandings."
– Alex Barck

When Sonar Kollektiv co-founder and Jazzanova member Alex Barck started the Based On Misunderstandings series five years ago, the aim was to illustrate the diversity of tracks he plays in his infamous DJ sets all around the world. A loose collection of songs he collects while travelling the world and meeting likeminded producers and DJs.

After six outstanding and genre-breaking releases (including contributions by Mark E, Paskal & Urban Absolutes, Hannes Fischer, Soulphiction, Eva Be, Phil Gerus, Lars Bartkuhn and Roland Appel), a digital download compilation in 2009 and a regular clubnight by the same name at the prestigious Watergate club in Berlin, it's now time for a proper showcase compilation of this fully fledged sublabel of Sonar Kollektiv!

By and large, the compilation is a personal journal of Barck's exclusive trips and stopovers at the most happening clubs and festivals all around the globe. When he played in Toulouse last year he met local visual artist and producer Vect who handed him a CD with "Soulful" on it. A sample heavy, chopped up piece of finest chillwave Barck has been playing out ever since. In Hongkong he encountered the mysterious duo The Horses, who he asked to remix one of his own new productions, "We Get High". We meet old and new aquaintances troughout this adventerous journey: Christian Prommer (of Drum Lesson and Prommer & Barck fame) shovels in a banger of a non-nonsense house track ("You Belong To Me"). And the new kid on the block, Berlin-based Hannes Fischer, is featured with two tracks (both released in early february on the sixth Based On Misunderstandings 12inch) and an astonishing remix for White Lamp's "Make It Good". All of the contributions by this young and fresh talent direct toward a new definition of deep house and beyond. EnaWadan from South Africa champions two own tracks as well. "Reborn" gets a special enforced treatment by Sandro Bianchi & be.lanuit. "Inner Joys Of Life" sees Paskal & Urban Absolutes take charge by adding their distinctive production flavour to the mix. Barck himself steps in the game with one new original track, "We Get High" (yes, including vocal samples from Michael Franks) and an absolutely crazy remix for the long forgotten and obscure band from still-divided Berlin, Spinning Motion (originally released in 1980 on their album "Confidence In The Future" which will be reissued in 2013, watch out for that!). To round off this marvelous showcase we additionally get offerings by newcomers Pattern Select, Lovejet and Moscow-based wunderkind Phil Gerus.

In the end, almost none of the tunes here have anything in common. Just the fact that they all please Alex Barck's ears. Ears you can trust!

[1] Soundcloud Clips
[2] iTunes Preorder
[3] Video: Lovejet - Milk

Jazzanova at Record Store Day On the occasion of the sixth Record Store Day in April (20th) , Sonar Kollektiv releases for the first time a limited 300 copy special edition in celebration of the day, the vinyl and the record store.

And it wouldn't be Sonar Kollektiv wouldn't we be treated with a very special goodie:

The new shooting stars and new signings of the label, Paskal & Urban Absolutes took a classic out of the extensive repertoire of the label to task, “That Night“ by Jazzanova from 2001.

As usual with a remix by Paskal & Urban Absolutes the vocals of the track are not short-changed after the revision. With a voice like the one of Vikter Duplaix you can't do wrong anyway. On the other hand, Alexander Kastner and Adrian Hoffmann built such a safe bet of a 2013 sounding deephouse cracker that you get subsequently a dub version of it on the flipside. You can call it a win-win situation for everybody. Hopefully especially for the Record Store Day 2013 though!

Listen to the snippets on Soundcloud.

www.jazzanova.com
www.sonarkollektiv.com
http://soundcloud.com/paskal-1
http://www.facebook.com/paskalurbanabsolutes

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home

[1] Soundcloud

Neve Naive - The Inner Peace Of Cat And Bird When two kindred spirits meet, their combination often results in more than just its sum. NEVE NAIVE is such a coincidence.

Producer/multi-instrumentalist Stefan "Merse" Ulrich and singer/songwriter Neve aka Alexa Voss have joined forces to come up with one of the most astonishing debuts of this year.

"The Inner Peace Of Cat And Bird" is a precious songbook of tales about relationships, communication, affection, heritage and - at its core - the finding of ones own inner peace. Alexa Voss - the Neve in NEVE NAIVE - is a renowed singer (as a solo artist called Miss Flint, as a member of reggae outfit Jahcoustix and the Outsideplayers and as a background singer for several acts like Laith Ladeen, Culcha Candela and Flomega) and now also shines as a gifted lyricist. With Stefan "Merse" Ulrich she found the perfect partner to illustrate her very personal and honest soul bearing. Ulrich is widely kown for his trombone playing in the Jazzanova live band or with The Ruffcats.

One could wonder what the title of the album, "The Inner Peace Of Cat And Bird", refers to. Can it really be as savage as the tiger and the eagle which appear in the drawing by Wolfgang Nocke for the cover design? Or is it just a metaphor for the ongoing duality between male and female, or any two partners caught up in the rapture of a relationship?

The whispered intro sets the mood straight for a set that should be enjoyed in its entirety and in chronical order. The opening track of this conceptual album, "30 Years" has Neve declaring: "I am reborn, it's a new dawn, it's a new day... everything is possible cause of all the things I know." This might sound naive on the first listen. But isn't exactly that the state you´re in, when you feel so invincible? Neve continues: "30 years, but I refuse to be mature."

The plot enfolds furthermore with "How I Learned To Fly" with its harsh piano and brass stabs. The off shot single "Dancer" takes the listener to a club packed with a lovey dovey crowd and adds a bit more electronica to the mix. The album is a terrific balancing act throughout between warm, soulful acoustics and futuristic, crooked electronical sounds. The two ballads , "Anti-Realist" and "Maybes" take Neve to her first self reflective doubts. Might she be not like all the other girls? Melodies start to darken but still keep spirits high. "Hands" is a wonderful and endearing plea for communication or the indictment of the lack of it. "Average Tragedy" has an almost anthem-like vibe to it, the theme tune for those moments when you're finding out that love is slipping away but also knowing that time will heal all wounds. The joyful guitar playing and Neve's outstanding vocal delivery are the perfect cure for every broken heart out there.

The only track that doesn't stick to the storyline seamlessly is "Small Town Kids". Neve dwells about her upbringing in nowhere land: "Small town boys, small town girls breaking free to make some noise, running away to see the world!" The jaunty trombone and the vivacious drums make it one of the stand out tunes of the album. Whereas "Goodnight My Friend" is a sexy and morbid lullaby that closes affairs in a conciliable way. The outro is a reprise of "Inner Peace" and shows - with a nod to Laurie Anderson – Neve´s avantgardism.

If it helps, references can be made towards the artsy dancepop by Little Dragon or the jazz-tinged soul of label mates Micatone. But then, NEVE NAIVE has its very own and unique voice and distinctive sound that actually compares to none.

[1] CD
[2] Limited LP (incl. MP3 Download)
[3] Dancer (Official Video)

The White Lamp - Make It Good w / Phon.o Remix At the end of october a white label pressing of “Make It Good” caused a stir in club land.

The track impressed Gilles Peterson so much that he licenced it right away for his next Brownswood Bubble compilation. Now, finally we have the official release on Sonar Kollektiv hitting the stores. Next to the original version the 12inch is equipped with a remix by veteran Phon.o.

The Bristish duo The White Lamp called attention to themselves for the first time with a release on Futureboogie in April. Now they already produce a masterpiece with “Make It Good”. A track that works probably in every club of this world. The hypnotic bassline lures the laziest butt on the dancefloor and when the vocals set it, then, well then there’s no holding back anymore.

The already very impressive remix portfolio of the old hand Berliner Phon.o is now enriched with a further gem. The additional synth chords and the radical vocals re-arrangement turn the track into a confidently stylish hybrid of Chicago House and Techno.

With the digital release you get the Galactic Disco Mix and the incredible remix by Hannes Fischer. This youngster purely kills the game at the moment. He strips the track down to the bone, dresses it with a new bassline and a sassy shuffle beat and let it breath. This way the vocals shine even brighter and become anthem-like. Is this the longawaited redefinition of deep house?

[1] 12inch
[2] Soundcloud
[3] The White Lamp

Hannes Fischer on Based On Misunderstandings Just when you thought we run out of them, we're proud to introduce the next wunderkind of the Berlin techno-/house scene: Hannes Fischer

...was born in Thüringen, raised in Baden-Württemberg and finally moved to the capitol of club culture. Here he caught attention in no time with unofficial remixes for Adele, Bon Iver and Lana Del Rey. His remix of "Down On Your Own" by Dems sports now more than half a milion views on Youtube. It didn't take long therefore until an official remix request for Lana Del Rey's "Summertime Sadness" dropped in. As much fun as it is for Fischer to do reworks of existing tracks, as eager one now awaits his own original material. And you can be assured: he has accumulated quite a lot.

His 12inch for the "Based On Misunderstanding" series on Sonar Kollektiv is a stroke of genius in every sense. With "Deep Field" he connects the dots between deepest house and ethereous space boogie somewhere along the reference points of John Daly and Space Dimension Controller. Its electrifying bass line and a Balearic guitar break make "Mystic Mountain" catch the spirit of the times right on. With all the ideas stuck in this single track others would have filled a whole album.

Obviously Fischer will be flooded with remix inquires over the next few months. Which will hopefully still leave him with enough time to start working on his debut album. Who doesn't want more of this?!

[1] Hannes Fischer - Based On Misunderstandings 6
[2] Hannes Fischer Soundcloud

Hot Coins debut album + album launch party After a long journey the debut album of Hot Coins is finally on it's way to you.

An estranged homage to late 70s NYC anti-culture, realized through the eyes of a Scottish born electronic musician living in modern day Berlin.

The man behind Hot Coins, Danny Berman, is best known by his Red Rack’em moniker. A purveyor of the finest club music from hip hop and soul through to house and techno. A DJ/producer who has progressively climbed electronic music’s precipitous ladder of approval. A vinyl obsessive. A party starter from NG to BK.
Quietly working on Hot Coins for the past four years, this very personal project is sonically inspired by Berman’s love of dance music’s fruitful 78-82 period that embraced the cross pollination of emerging post-punk, disco and electro scenes. Goths and futurists in England danced to Kraftwerk and DAF, New York punks and no-wavers danced to ESG and ‘Planet Rock’. Good times…

…and bad times. Lyrically,The Damage Is Done candidly delves into fear and paranoia motivated by the destructive excesses of modern clubbing. The dark side of the dancefloor, the inevitable comedown and the transcendence that can follow. ‘Foxxy’ encapsulates this, dispelling the myth that clubbing is exclusively reserved for celebration and revising it as a breaking down of pride, a lack of self-belief, a public surrender to humiliation. ‘Confined’ muses on trapped relationships; whether it be personal, professional or with something less animate. First single ‘Geek Emotions’ is a loser’s anthem for the eternal underdog. It means more when a geek wins than when a winner does - but geeks never win. No-one tells that story. However, it is about dancing after all though: ‘Leathered’ is a Warriors inspired homage to the “homo-erotic nature of Italo-disco” and ‘I Ching’ is naturally described as “David Mansuso having tantric sex with himself in a NYC loft” (“Ching “is also slang for cocaine in Scotland). Remarkably, the album ended up being mixed in rural Austria on the world famous ex-Townhouse studios SSL 4000 B series desk which was used to mix Public Image Limited’s ‘Metal Box’ album and ‘In The Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins. This is the desk that the famous ‘gated reverb’ drum sound that defined the 80’s was invented on, so it’s fitting that the album was mixed on it. As several of the tracks feature vocals from City Haze and Berman himself, plus guitar (from Crazy P maestro Chris Todd and Paul ‘Peej’ Murphy) and saxophone (from acclaimed folk saxophonist Pippa Marland), the future lies in the live performance of these tracks. Hot Coins is currently hard at work in Berlin rehearsing the tracks in preparation for a live tour in 2013.

Be prepared for the album launch party at Wilde Renate in Berlin on Feb 16th - tickets and more information soon.

[1] CD
[2] Limited 2LP

REUNION1 Alex Barck kicks off his new 12inch "REUNION1: Re-set feat. Pete Josef" with an exclusive Marlow remix - FOR FREE!

Alex Barck is known for participating at as many parties as possible simultanously. Now he invites for the very first time in his career to his own and personal bash. To the island La Reunion in the Indian Ocean to be exact. That's where he settled with his entire family for a whole year since last summer to complete his probably most ambitious work ever: His debut solo album. The fist guest to be received is Pete Josef from Bristol (one half of The White Lamp), who wrote the lyrics for "Re-Set" and lends his voice to it naturally. A voice that suits perfectly Barcks twisted but always highly accessible productions. As a DJ who lives for the dancefloor Barck comes up with a track that make your legs shake and - in the second part - your hands raise.

To assign the talents of newcomer Hannes Fischer to do a remix is a clever move. The latest wunderkind of the Berlin techno/house scene has an impressive sensitiveness for nuances like only very few have nowadays. In his rework he squeezes the essence out of "Re-Set" and fills it rich in content into a flacon that spreads somehow the odor of lavender.

Until the release of the album "Reunion" there will be further three 12" coming out of the holiday residence Barck. Stay tuned! In the meantime there still will be DJing in selected locations, work for the project Prommer & Barck (a second album is in the making), A&R managing for Sonar Kollektiv and of course active support of Jazzanova.

[1] 12inch
[2] FOR FREE

Merry Xmas 2012 has been an amazing year for Sonar Kollektiv with a lot of wonderful projects and releases, collaborations and events.

We started the year with a remix collection "Jazzanova - Upside Down". In March we released the 4th album by our longtime friends Micatone followed by amazing singles with remixes by Alex Barck, Stee Downes and Blue Mondays. Back in 2011 Jazzanova went with their complete live band into the famous GDR broadcasting studios to record the live album "Funkhaus Studio Sessions" which saw the light of day in May, accompanied by a new single "I Human" with lead singer Paul Randolph. New artists joined our Kollektiv, like EnaWadan from South Africa, Paskal & Urban Absolutes (Germany) , Phil Gerus (Moscow), Hot Coins (UK) and FETSUM.

After the international debut of his critically acclaimed album "The Colors Of Hope" in May, the release of his uplifting single "Waitin' For You" in August, FETSUM entirely electrified the audience on his first headline tour through Germany in September 2012, now in spring 2013 FETSUM will play a bunch of shows in the US (Los Angeles, New York, Austin - SXSW).

Our Secret Love series continued with the release of issue 6 in October. Within this month we celebrated our 15th anniversary at prestigious Volksbühne, Berlin (video will follow). Exclusively for this event labelfounder Jazzanova did a limited 10inch of their rework for Joe Bataan - Ordinary Guy, which has been sold out in 2 days.

With Paskal & Urban Absolutes and Phil Gerus we signed young and hot producers for the Based On Misunderstandings imprint, followed by a regular Sonar Kollektiv club night at Chalet (watch out for them - the next one is in February 2013 with special guests).

Be prepared for 2013. We'll have a lot of fantastic music for you with albums of Hot Coins, Neve Naive, Paskal & Urban Absolutes, Stee Downes, Dego and more ; new issues of Best Seven Selections, Computer Incarnations, Based On Misunderstandings and G.I. Disco.

2013 will be the year for Sonar Kollektiv to be on tour, watch out for dates in your town. See you next year!


And now, here is our christmas gift for you:

http://soundcloud.com/sonar-kollektiv/jazzanova-i-human-feat-paul-2

Sonar Kollektiv - 15 Years Of Volxmusik Sonar Kollektiv’s 15th anniversary is more than just another invitation to let one’s hair down though.

Sonar Kollektiv was founded in 1997 by Jazzanova. Designed as a platform for own releases it soon attracted numerous new discoveries and like-minded musicians to lead their trumps right here. Still it was never the intention of Sonar Kollektiv to pursue one specific sound or provide an already existing scene. Each and every release on the label (250 and counting) was at all times meant to illustrate the musical taste of the collective, its flavourful development and recollection of past sounds. The various compilations and label showcases played a big part of it. From the renowed „Secret Love“ compilation (No. 6 has been released in October 2012), the „Computer Incarnations For World Peace“ edition, the „...Boadcasting“ and „....Mixing“-series to the „Romanian Jazz“ label showcase Sonar Kollektiv continuously cares about broadening its own and the horizon of any type of music lovers. How broad this horizon can be expanded showed the release of Âme’s „Rej“ in 2005. Shorthandly minimal techno was redifined and at the same time the sublabel Innervisions (runned by Dixon) was leveraged to worldwide fame. Other milestones in the eventful history of Sonar Kolletiv were the discovery of the New Zealand reggae soul combo Fat Freddy’s Drop (2005), the debuts by Micatone (2003), Benny Sings (2005), Clara Hill (2003) and Eva Be (2004), the first releases by Dimlite (2003), Tricksi (2006), Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson (2007), as well as Georg Levin (2005) and his collaborative project with Dixon, Wahoo (2004). Also for some of today’s legends of more sophisticated electronic music, like Ulrich Schnauss, Ben Klock and Marcin Kozlowski (now a member of Whitest Boy Alive) Sonar Kollektiv offered a stepping stone to their international careers. And in 2003 a certain Eric Wahlforss released his first record here, just before founding Soundcloud.

When at the end of 2009 the rate of fire ceased some thought the label is running on empty or lost touch to contemporary sounds. But the releases of this year so far should prove doubters wrong. The remix album „Jazzanova Upside Down“ (released in January) gathers the who’s who of the currenty most happening and game-changing DJs and producers (Henrik Schwarz, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Filippo Moscatello, Manuel Tur, Mark E, and more) to catapult Jazzanova classics into the future. By signing Phil Gerus from Moscow, the new project Hot Coins out of the UK, EnaWadan from South Africa and the pan-Geman duo Paskal & Urban Absolutes four of the most promising new acts slantingly offside the dancefloor have been added to the already impressive roster. And once again all true pop aficionados with an addiction for soul and a genuine craft in songwriting are pierced to the heart with the brand new albums by FETSUM („The Colors Of Hope“) and Micatone („Wish I Was Here“).

But what is the formula of success of the Berlin based label? A dance music imprint that – with a few exceptions – actually doesn’t release club music? Is it even after all exactly this? Delievering music for prior to, succeeding and one day after a club night?

There’s no other German record label that can boast such an adventurous range of styles: reggae, folk, electronica, jazz, funk, calypso, house, techno and now also chillwave, dubstep, dream pop, and so on. At Sonar Kollektiv there’s somehow room for everything. Still, all of the 250 and counting releases have one common denominator: It’s music made out of passion - without any financial aim or attemps of ingratiation. From and for music lovers.

Our 15 Years compilation features this adventurous range of styles and artists, from Hot Coins, Micatone, FETSUM to Jazzanova, Stee Downes, Eva Be and Paskal & Urban Absolutes. Including unreleased tracks and exclusive material.

Here’s to another 15 years of Sonar Kollektiv!

[1] Webshop
[2] iTunes