Event Information

___________________________________________________

STEWART WALKER

Berlin-based Stewart Walker is a restless innovator. After making a splash in the late nineties on definitive labels like Force Inc. and Tresor, he’s had an inestimable impact on the development of current club sounds, yet consistently chooses the less traveled road: working as live producer in a world of DJs; injecting emotion into functional electronic dance music; quietly building a label family of unclassifiable artists on his own imprint, Persona.

After selling his guitar in 1993, Walker began assembling a synth-based hardware studio while in university in Athens, GA. Inspired by Jeff Mills’ Live at the Liquid Room he became obsessed with rhythm. A string of recordings appeared on Matrix Records in Detroit – including the 1997 single Amphetamine Sulphate – and later on Deepfried (Grand Rapids, MI) and Tektite (Austin, TX). A year later, his first European release Artificial Music for Artificial People was picked up by Cristian Vogel's British imprint, Mosquito, and Walker hit the live circuit. Armed with only an AKAI MPC2000 sampler and a DJ mixer, he did what a DJ never could: move a club crowd with sounds shaped by his own hands. This original approach was welcomed across Europe and in Japan as well as his native US.

1999 saw Walker’s debut on Berlin’s Tresor Records with Nothing Produces Stark Imagery, followed up by the now-classic minimalist experiment, Stabiles, on Mille Plateaux. These productions proved to be seminal in the development of minimal techno.

Walker continued to release on labels such as Minus and Force Inc. until, in 2001, he set up his own imprint, Persona Records. Persona released eleven records in the US culminating in the second landmark album of Walker’s career to date: Live Extracts (2003). Live Extracts captured the sound and atmospherics of Walker’s in-club performances and was soon licensed by Tresor. Persona restarted in 2005, this time in Berlin. Now based in Europe, Walker performed in every capital and made incursions as far afield as Australia and Russia. Soon after, he released the downtempo album Grounded in Existence and a breakbeaty techno EP, Travel Plaza. These releases showcased Walker’s increasing attention to nuance, dynamics, and melody. Concentricity, Walker’s fourth full-length, was released in 2007.

LINKS:

MySpace (with music samples):
www.myspace.com/stewartwalker

Website:
http://personarecords.com/stewart-walker

Discography:
http://www.discogs.com/artist/stewart%20walker

AUDIO:

Stewart Walker - Live in Montreal, 2008:
http://www.personarecords.com/liveshows/StewartWalker_Fricoti_2008.mp3

Stewart Walker - Live @ DEMF, 2002:
http://www.personarecords.com/liveshows/StewartWalker_DEMF2002.mp3

Preview Stewart Walker tracks on BeatPort:
https://www.beatport.com/ja-JP/html/content/artist/detail/5904/stewart_w...

VIDEO:

Stewart Walker - Live @ Break & Enter, 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg4tLmal-wc

Stewart Walker - Live @ Space:Garage, 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap_ZfgRTg6o

__________________________________________________________________

DARIO ZENKER

Just in time, the ‘Free State’ of Bavaria has produced a new son to relight its techno torch. Munich born and raised Dario Zenker is writing his own chapter in the long story of electronic music from Germany’s dirty south.It all started with listening to Michael Jackson as a kid, then Dario moved on to underground hip hop to rile the neighbors.Several visits from the not-so-friendly neighborhood police later, Dario’s father, a pro audio engineer, introduced the wunderkind to music programming and imparted the tools which later consumed him. At 15 Dario started to DJ, and not too long after he received his club education from the legendary Ultraschall.In 2005 at the ripe old age of 21, Dario landed his residency at Harry Klein which he still maintains today.2006 saw his debut vinyl release and in the space following Dario managed to sprinkle his magic chuga chuga dust on some of the world’s finest minimal techno labels.Whether DJ-ing or playing live, in just a few years Dario has built up a reputation for freaky experimental sets which never seem to stay in the same place for too long. Constantly innovating Dario has never been content walking a straight line with the crowd. To attempt to put it into words:bomb, duck, cover, swerve, bomb, swerve, bomb bomb.In 2008 ‘the’ youngin became ‘our’ youngin joining the hallowed ranks of the Vakant crew with Dario’s split personality ‘Sam Und Er/Womde!’ EP (VA019). Dario’s thick kink finds a natural home here on the Vakant deep freak out bus bumping and bouncing the club kids wherever they need to go. Liberalitas Bavarica!

LINKS:

MySpace (with music samples):
http://www.myspace.com/dariozenker

Discography:
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Dario%20Zenker

AUDIO:

Dario Zenker - Live @ Harry Klein, Munich 03.20.09:
http://www.kontrolsf.com/K47/Dario_Zenker_@_Harry_Klein_03.20.09.mp3

Preview Dario Zenker tracks on BeatPort:
https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/artist/detail/22682/dario_ze...

VIDEO:

Dario Zenker - Live @ Harry Klein, Munich 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=888AZ4RUZNg

___________________________________________________

ANDRE LUCERO

A veteran of West Coast underground electronic music culture, André Lucero continues to reinvent himself. From breakdancing in the early 80's to his present studio efforts, he always kept his focus on beats and sounds of genres to come. Starting with the earliest electro hip-hop, passing through time and space to the present and future of electronic music, his selections are open minded but always have a dancefloor sensibility.

Not being satisfied with spoon feeding or accepting convenience, André has chosen the paths less traveled. Helping foster the rave scene in Santa Barbara; playing at the first mega-rave in the US (Raveamerica); releasing one of the first (if not THE first) underground electronic dance music mixed CD's (Fusion, Volume 1); his involvement with the seminal San Francisco techhouse event/DJ crew, Urban Development; to playing with international legends for Space Children, he has been recognized for decades as a stand alone talent who brings something special to the lineup. Sharing the decks with some of the heaviest hitters on the planet, he understands how to rock a crowd as well as to tell a story. No two sets from André are alike. Each moment drives the relevance of the music selection. Each moment is unique. The sound: warm, spacey, funky, soulful techno. Having recently relocated to Ohio, we are happy to welcome Andre back for a much anticipated second perfomance at [KONTROL]..

LINKS:

MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/djandrelucero

MUSIC:

Andre Lucero - DJ Promo Mix 2008.1
http://lucerodesign.com/mixes/listen/2008.1.mp3

___________________________________________________

http://www.kontrolsf.com