The latest artist to share five treasured records from their collection with FACT is Michael Mayer.
Born in Germany’s Black Forest, at the age of 20 Mayer moved to the city of Cologne, where he helped to establish the Kompakt shop, record label and distribution company. Over the course of the 2000s, Kompakt became a hugely important force in music, releasing seminal records by the likes of Superpitcher, Wolfgang Voigt, Matias Aguayo and DJ Koze that breathed fresh life into house and techno and whose influence continues to reverberate throughout popular music at large. Mayer meanwhile established himself as one of the world’s leading DJs, effortlessly representing the cutting edge without compromising on melody, immediacy and emotional impact. His first Immer mix CD, released in 2002, brought his winning aesthetic to a worldwide audience, and it’s one of the very few compilations to rank among FACT’s 100 Best Albums of the 2000s; earlier this summer he released the third instalment in that series.
As a producer, Mayer has two albums under his belt (the second being a collaboration with Superpitcher as Supermayer) along with numerous classic remixes for the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Baxendale, Miss Kittin and Ferenc. This month sees the release of Total 11, the latest annual compilation from Kompakt, on which you’ll hear an original track from Mayer (Picanha Frenesi) as well as he, Ada and Jorg Burger’s remix of GusGus’s ‘Hateful’. What with the launch of new sub-labels RAR, Protest and Klassiks, and Superpitcher’s long-awaited Kilimanjaro LP imminent, 2010 is turning out to be a vintage year for Kompakt.
A man of legendarily wide-ranging and inquisitive taste, we knew Mayer would do us proud when asked to pull five piquant platters from his shelves. Below are his choices, and his reasons for making them.
01: DAVID BEHRMAN
LEAPDAY NIGHT
(LOVELY MUSIC LTD, 1987)
“I bought this record at A-Musik, a fantastic little shop here in Cologne that specialises in experimental and obscure music (www.a-musik.com). I picked this one up alongside another beautiful Lovely Music release by Robert Ashley.
“At first, I was mainly attracted by the artwork. In my imagination the music really seemed to stem from this Russian pilot-looking androgynous guy/girl on the sleeve. It’s an otherworldly sound created by a trumpet, a violin and Behrman’s self-programmed sythesizer module “with ears” – which listens to the instrumentalists play and accordingly reacts to it. It’s pretty spaced out and tremendously beautiful as a result.
“I’m sort of a late bloomer when it comes to kraut music. Throughout the 90s it was rather annoying that journalists tried to draw a line between Cologne’s past and present. But at that time, we hardly listened to any old music. The present was – and still is – way too exciting.”
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sherburne