Gabber Eleganza launches launches Never Sleep label with Hardcore Soul book and mixtape
Hardcore Soul features contributions from Ewen Spencer and Mark Leckey.
Italian artist, DJ and hardcore enthusiast Alberto Guerrini, aka Gabber Eleganza, is launching a new label called Never Sleep.
The label is the continuation of Guerrini’s ongoing attempt to bridge “the sonic landscape and aesthetic side of hardcore and post-rave cultures, and the contemporary culture of music and art”, which began in 2011 with a Tumblr, growing to incorporate performances at Club2Club, Berghain, CTM Festival and more.
Never Sleep’s first release is a book titled Hardcore Soul, made in collaboration with photographer Ewen Spencer. It attempts to explore the similarities between the northern soul and hardcore scenes through images deliberately arranged in a non-chronological order, “reinforcing the feeling that everything is happening at the same time and in the same place”.
The book features “additional discussion” from Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Leckey, whose 1999 piece Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore explored a similar subject matter. It’s accompanied by a 19-minute mixtape (streaming below), which is described as a no-kickdrum “sonic limbo”.
The book will be available in an edition of 500 and the mixtape will be available in an edition of 50. Both can be pre-ordered here ahead of a launch event in Berlin on April 26 – more on that here.
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