Techno


		My first contact with the phenomenon Techno 1988, when the legendary Acid-House-Wave swapped all over Europe, was the first year i came in touch with music which has been produced with Drum-Machines and Synthesizers. And to say it in short words: To me, it was a real revolution and a completely new world. Suddenly, there was Acid-House and House from the United States and UK, and there was the new uprising sound called "New Beat" from Belgium. And, of cause, i felt a brandnew addiction to visit those special Record-Stores and to discover all those mystic and rare 12-Inches. Every trip to a Record-Store became a little adventure, and with every visitation, i discovered more and more awesome vinyls. The major problem at this time was that i didnt had enough money to buy all those phatt releases and a much more bigger problem was, that i didnt had money to spend for 2 Technics 1210-Turntables and a mixer, cause i only was aged 14 that time. I improvised that period with 2 exact similar compact HiFi-Units, where i could change the pitch of the built-in-turntables with screws. As you can think, it wasnt a comfortable way to learn mixing, but a year later, i recorded the first mix-sessions to the tape-unit of a third HiFi-Unit. What a technical and emotional adventure ! In Spring 1990, i saw a school-mate of mine DJing at a local public party in our hometown. I was perplex. I didnt knew that he was DJing, too. That guy was equiped with 2 Technics 1210-Turntables and a useable Mixer. I was fascinated, because he really was DJing with skills that i still had to learn. And there were many magical moments, as he played a sound which even was completely new to me. As i asked about, he told me, that those tracks have been produced by guys from Frankfurt, Berlin, London and Detroit and that its called "Techno", a follower of EBM.


	After listening to many Mixtapes by this guy, which called himselfs "Leguh", i serious became infected with that sound called Techno. I gathered all about i could. It felt like fever. The same year i became an apprentice boy, and so i fulfilled my greatest wish that time: i bought 2 brandnew Technics 1210-Turntables and a Vestax-Mixer. And what should i say? It was fantastic ! After just 2 months and learning to spin the wheels all day, i performed my first real sessions which could be described as useable mix. Sometimes later, in 1991 and 1992, i discovered the first underground techno-magazines in the Record-Stores, which i visited now as often as i could and where i spent nearly all my money. There were magazines like the legendary "Frontpage" and "Raveline". Later on, more magazines involved to techno appeared on the scene, but the "Frontpage" and the "Raveline" became something like a bible to me. I absorbed every single site of those magazines and learned much about that phenomenon called Techno. I learned about the roots of Techno, the pioneers of that sound and of cause, i spreaded my first Mixtapes public and joined the first Techno-Parties in the Ruhr-Area of Germany, which were very excessive and awesome. I experienced a spirit there, which could not be discribed in words or pictures. Definitive, it was a revolution! And not only in the way the music was produced and performed. Also in the way, the music was celebrated that time. And even in the way, people came together to celebrate peacefull.


		Raving Society Meanwhile, many techno-labels have been established. To go for their nearly weekly new releases was a kind of duty. More and more releases came up by excellent and important labels like +8 Records, R&S Records, Harthouse, Eye-Q, 80 Aum Records, Music Man Belgium, Tresor Records, LowSpirit, SpaceTeddy, Rising High, Warp Records, MFS, Basic Channel, Overdrive, Force Inc, Bush Rec, Suck Me Plasma and many, many others. DJs and Artists like Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Aphex Twin, Mark Bell, Jam El Mar, Marc Spoon, DJ Hell, Lenny D, Cosmic Baby, Paul van Dyk, Mate Galic, Ralf Hildenbeutel, Carl Cox, Steve Mason, Thorsten Fenslau, Sven Väth, Peter Zweier, Plank, Miss Djax, Joey Beltram, Josh Wink and especially Dave Angel became some kind of idol to me. I was fascinated about their skills in DJing and producing. Today, i would describe Dave Angel as greatest and primary influence. 2 tracks by him, "Endless Motion" and his Remix of "Sun Electric - Entrance" are currently still part of my All-Time-Favorites, after all those years. Both tracks also have been featured on the legendary "X-Mix" series, where techno and visual animation art became a great symbiosis. The "X-Mix" series is one of my biggest influences, beneath Dave Angel. Meantime, the "Techno-Movement" grewed worldwide. Again and again, new styles of Techno appeared on the scene and the whole thing became bigger and bigger. But the subculture Techno was not only reduced to music and parties. It started to became a lifestyle, inclusive outfits and clothes. Techno definately was "Machine-Music", and so people wanted to show that they are attendanted to Machines and Technique as they combined technical accessoires like hoovers, coffee machines and parts of other machines with their outfits.


	I often saw people wearing that white overalls, breathing masks or builder vests. Another important accessoires were whistles and little light sticks. I remember some parties, where the whistles temporary were much louder than the music played. Basicly said, the outfits had to be unique and flashy. When i went to a party at the "Tor 3" in Düsseldorf (Germany) with a hoover on my back, you can imagine the confused looks by other peoples in the city. But, to be unique, was one of the important things in that party era. Another point was, that the scene-magazines became more professional, that great companies suddenly acted as sponsor for popular techno events, that there suddenly was designed street-wear and club-wear, that art and graphic became an important part especially the "flyer-culture" which was free of all restrictions. It didnt took long that the scene found the definiton "Raving Society" for itselfs. This definition was pushed a lot that time by many scene-magazines and publications. And of cause, we all felt ourselfs as part of something special, more than ever as the first public reports about techno were shown at TV oder printed in popular magazines, and where techno only was reduced to drug abuse and a music-phenomenon, that they couldnt understand. The Love-Parade in Berlin already has became an established and well-known scene-event, but in 1991, another gigantic event has been realized. That was a party called "Mayday", realized in the "Halle Weißensee" (Berlin, Germany) and some of the smaller locations around there. It was amazing. It was the biggest party the scene have seen untill then. As i entered the great Hall and saw tenthousands of people having the party of their life, i knew, that this movement was more than just a musical revolution.


		Celebration Generation and first steps into producing Meanwhile i had first bookings at parties across the german Ruhr-Area. Playing at parties for those lovely and crazy people was another wicked experience and a new challenge for me. It was a feeling i couldnt describe. On my first gigs, i was very nervous while playing. But later on, i couldnt wait to play again and again. Often it happened that i visited the Record-Stores several times a week to get the hottest and freshest releases. Staying updated became a kind of serious addiction. People who experienced that time as DJ will know what i´m talking about. Further, i gathered with some guys and we started to organize own Techno-Parties. One funny thing was, that we couldnt find a useable location in the beginning, and so we organized our very first party in the local youth center with great resonance. But some teens went home shocked : ) As we found some good locations later on, the parties became more professional and the crowd of party people became bigger. I experienced that times very excessive. The party-timer was filled with parties or DJing around on some other events. As i was listening to that much music, i often asked myself how those kind of music has been produced. Many tracks have been produced seriously, but i had the opinion that i would have made some sounds in just another way as they were done. So, the curiousness grewed about producing and remixing tracks. But, those times the required equipment was much to expensive, even used. By chance, i visited an old school-mate and that guy was running a music-sequencer called "ProTracker" on an Amiga 500, a homecomputer which was very popular those days. I recordnized what could be possible using this machine and we also did some sound-experiments. That was the point where i became infected. ProTracker offered only 4 ridiculous tracks at 8 Bit and 22.050 Hz, but that wasnt important to me.


	This Machine was able to sample from any connected source and to trigger the sounds. So it became my second homecomputer after the legendary C64. I also looked for some cheap and used synthesizers. The first one i found was an Ensoniq ESQ-1, later i found a Roland Juno-6 offered by an acceptable price. From now on, i was busy as hell. I had to learn how to programm the synthesizers, i had to learn what all those parameters did mean, i had to learn how to sample sounds the best way and i had to learn the structures which have been used for the tracks i bought weekly at the Record-Stores. There was no Internet, there were no tutorials on demand. I learned all completely the autodidact way, and i also had to keept busy with the DJing. To shorten, i spend my complete free time beneath my job, but it was an exciting thing. I guess, learning to produce electronic music was the greatest adventure i experienced. It was a hard time, because lots of improvisations had to be done while producing with ProTracker, but i found my personal style and methods to get it managed comfortable. More and more i unraveled the mysteries of producing and learned many tricks, of cause i learned a lot by doing wrong in the beginning. Inspired by a Live-Gig of Hardsequenzer, who performed at "Mayday" using only the same computer as i did, i performed my first Live-Gig 1994 on a party in Duisburg (Germany). I used 2 Amiga 500s and the Ensoniq-Synthesizer to play some sounds live in addition. After that first gig i received a lot of positive and enthusiastic feedback, other live-bookings across the Ruhr-Area were following. With the time running by, my wish to release some of the stuff i produced on a label, became bigger and bigger. But the first transmission of demo-tapes wasnt successfull, maybe i selected the wrong labels that time. As i also produced House Music beneath the Techno tracks, someone gave me the advice to play the tracks at the Entity Record-Store in Dortmund. The guys there had founded a new label called "Draft Records", which primary was dedicated to House, Garage and 2Step.


		Housework and dubious evolutions in Techno The Entity Record-Store in Dortmund was one of my favoite Stores that times, beneath Channel Jam, Groove Attack and Delirium Store in Cologne and Important Records in Essen. So, one day i recorded some of my tracks to tape and asked Herb LF, if i could play them at his Record-Store. I already knew Herb as Record Dealer for a longer time, and so he agreed to listen to my demo-tracks. Herb was serious deep into Drum & Bass and 2Step, but he liked some of my tracks straighaway. Some weeks later he called me to let me know that he wanted to release some of my tracks on Draft Recordings. That definitively were real good news : ) Herb already had an studio with excellent gear like an analogue mixing console and tape machines. So we met for an intensive session and recorded 4 tracks in just one night, using some of his outboard-equipment in addition. That was someday in spring 1996. I was glad, because my 12-inch release on Draft Recordings would be the catalogue-number 005, and i already liked the previous 4 releases on Draft Recordings seriously. To me, Techno was still fascinating. But meanwhile i had moved to Hennef near Cologne for civilian service. In Hennef and Cologne i found a established crew of people who were organizing House and TechHouse Parties. Based on the fact that the Techno-Movement has become very commercial and pop-culture flavoured from 1996 on, i came back more and more to House Music and TechHouse and gathered with some people from Cologne. As time was running by, i lost a little bit of my musical orientation. My heart still was beating strong for Techno, but the scene already has been splitted in many sub-scenes and a pop-culture on the other side. I had the feeling that a gigantic sell-out began that time and that the most important thing has became to make as much money as possible. DJs became treated like Popstars, Raves were sponsored by big major companies, scene-magazines meantime were filled with lots of things that i didnt liked and the original spirit of the Love Parade was lost since people were around there which attacked some of the Ravers, spreading agressive moods or just to grab some of the girls.


	Through the rise of popularity of Techno, the amount of weird people has been increased. I had the feeling that the original spirit had gone somewhere between commercial techno releases which appeared in the official charts and a great amount of people with strange and particular forms of use. Techno even became some kind of boring with the time. As the "first and second generation of Techno" has been exciting and spectacular, it now has become a kind of mainstream, without real innovations. So House Music and TechHouse became my primary style of interest. But i always watched the changes which happened to Techno just to stay updated. In the early summer of 1996, my first 12-inch on Draft Recordings finally was released, i called it "Kurhouse Traxx", using the pseudonym "Blanche". I got some white-labels in advance, and let me say this: The moment, when you play your own tracks from vinyl the very first time, is unbelievable and pure magic : ) I will never forget this day. And looking back, i have to say that i immolated a lot for this moment. But i felt eased because i knew that i was on the right road from now on and that producing music would be my primary challenge, much more than DJing. That was absolutely clear to me. In 1997, i released my second 12-Inch, also on Draft Recordings. Till 2000/2001 there have been several other releases on Draft Recordings. Meantime i had changed my completely equipment from the Synthesizers and the Amiga 500s to a Windows-PC, which offered much more possibilities as i ever dreamed of. Mainly because of a new virtual sound-technology called "VST". That technology was another revolution to me as it opened a complete new universe of possibilities and chances.


		New horizons with clouds of Techno First i had a slow PC running at 90 Mhz with 8 MB Ram and a 2 GB Harddisk. Lots of things still couldnt be realized in realtime. Nearly all audio processes had to be calculated offline, often the machine was busy for 10 minutes and more just to calculate a delay or just a reverb. But i also had some gear running using a MIDI Interface, so more complex arrangements could be done. Through those new possibilities i began to produce also new styles i was interested in all the bygone years, like Ambient, Breakbeats, Drum & Bass, Electro and Trance. Techno as style has lost a little bit of its relevance to me, but the influence still was more than mighty. When i started producing tracks of other genres, techno and its roots always played a big role. I tried not to seperate the different styles and influences, more i tried to connect them, sometimes with funny results, other times with astonishing results. And of cause, i discoverd a new style called "Psychedelic Goatrance" in 2000, which suprised, energized and influenced me like techno back in 1990. On my very first Goatrance-Party i met Michael, a guy who also was around the first time at a Goatrance-Party and who also seemed to have excellent knowledge about electronic music and producing. As the psychedelic sounds impressed us that much, we decided to gather and start producing Psychedelic Goatrance. After just two months of constant studio-sessions, we finished our first Demo-CD, containing our new psychedelic tracks and some of the older tracks i made the months before and which really still were influenced by techno. Just two days after we have send the first Demo-CDs worldwide, NovaTekk, one of the biggest distribution companies in psychedelic Trance, called us and offered to sign a contract for our first album. So the project "New Age Hippies" was founded. As Michael and me had the same roots in techno, we never were able to squash them. Over the years, we successfully released many tracks and also did a lot of Live-Gigs on countless events and parties, untill Michael had to leave the project for familiar care back in 2003.


	Meanwhile i had updated the studio gear. The new and faster PC offered much more possibilities for complex arrangements and effects on the tracks. But, over the yeas, the amount of finished tracks has been increased to nearly 400 tracks. As they were such different by styles and genres, they all unfeasible could be released by "New Age Hippies". So i had thoughts to seperate all those tracks rough into some more beside projects beneath. Psychedelic Trance in the future would be released furthermore by New Age Hippies. For all kind of progressive stuff i founded the beside-project "Smooth", for those deep stuff like downbeat and chillout i initialized a beside-project called "Smooth Genestar". And finally, for all kind techno-based tracks, i started with the beside-project "Tenonaki". Maybe you wonder about this project name, so i will explain how that name was found. In 2006 i played a Psytrance-Live-Set at Alhambra in Oldenburg (Germany). That Gig, i played less psychedelic stuff but more impulsive and minimalistic techno. As i showed a video of the live-performance to my girlfriend Jana, who also is part of "New Age Hippies" since 2009 and meanwhile also started producing as "Jaja", she always mispronounced the name of that party as joke : ) Jana named the party always "Tenonaki" instead of "Teonanacatl". Somehow, her newly created word "Tenonaki" became kind of embodiment for minimal or technoid stuff i had produced, and so it became the name of the beside-project for techno and all kind of similar stuff. To me, it was the right and consequential step to seperate all this different tracks i had produced the bygone years. Excellent and interesting music can be discovered in many genres. You will find amazing music in Classic as well as in Jazz, Dub, Gothic, Wave, Metal, Soul, Funk, Blues, Hiphop, Electronic, Disco, 60s, 70s, 80s and many many more. And a little bit of all of them is part of my inspiration till today.


		Creative Commons and other current activities The technical possibilities today are unbelievable, when i think back to those years where professional studio-equipment nearly was far too expensive or audio-processes had to be done in offline-mode only. With the rising of technical possibilities, my fields of activity expanded more and more. I seriously became interested in audio-synthesis and programming VST-PlugIns. In 2007, i released my first bundle of VST-Synths and FX for free (see link-list below for URL). Further, i gathered skills about Mastering the last bygone years, and so i also do some Mastering-Jobs today. Sound-Design is another important thing to me, so i released several Sample-Bundles and Preset-Collections the last years, also for free. As i got lots of technical questions via email and messenger, i started the "Psytrance-Workbase", a forum where all is about Psytrance, Techno and producing knowledge. If you´re interested in, please notice, that the forum is based completely on german language. But, one of the most currently important things was the foundation of the netlabel "CYAN" by Jana and me in 2009. We really like the philosophy of open-source, and so we decided it should be a completely free netlabel. With CYAN, we realized one of our greatest dreams. In the bygone years, i signed a lot of contracts and deals of records labels. But the main experience over the years has been, that most "real" labels screwed me or didnt felt themselfs addicted to comply with agreements or contracts. In the last years the idea to found an independent label became bigger and bigger. As i discovered real good and professional netlabels in the web, the decision was made. CYAN is completely open for all styles of electronic music. Today, we manage our and other artists music, doing the mastering for the tracks, creating the artworks and serving the website. CYAN also has a profile on the free music portal Ektoplazm, where our releases currently have been downloaded more than 60.000 times.


	As you can see in the "Releases" section, two works by Tenonaki are allready released on CYAN beneath other artists. Currently i feel the wish to go back to my techno-roots a little bit more, so in the future there will be new releases by Tenonaki to celebrate and remember a bygone awesome era. Another thing that has changed is the equipment we use today. After beeing nerved a long time by Microsoft Windows, we defected to Apple and OS-X in 2009. So today, the Studio mainly is based on 2 Macs running Logic Pro, Ableton Live and Studio One in combination with some Controller-gear and Synthesizers by Korgs as well as Drum Machines by Roland. Changing to OS-X also was a kind of liberation to me. To Jana and me, the future will be an exciting act as we still have many plans and visions. Closing, i would like to quote a part of one of my favorite statements, which appears in the track "Solar Driftwood" by Yello: ...If we could communicate from our tiny piece of solar driftwood into another galaxy what would we say? We can send out pictures, symbols, chemical formulas or language. The magic of music is a sign of consciousness that could be understood on far-flung worlds millions of lightyears from our horizon. Music is an interstellar language from a highly insignificant planet one of nine in our system which sails through time and space...