KOMPAKT - Forced Exposure

$15.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/9/2021

For Böser Herbst, Thomas Fehlmann returns to the sediment of ages, drawing from a similar lexicon of sounds to that used on 2018's 1929 - Das Jahr Babylon (KOMP 153CD/KOM 401LP). Like that album, Böser Herbst was produced as the soundtrack to a documentary made by Volker Heise, Herbst 1929, Schatten Über Babylon, which offers historical insight to the third season of the television series, Babylon Berlin. It adds yet another string to the bow of this most forward-thinking and creative artist, whose history takes in NDW (Palais Schaumburg), techno (3MB) and psychedelic ambience (The Orb), plus a clutch of gorgeous solo albums that explore wide terrain, from the dancefloor through supine home listening to compelling soundtrack work. Fehlmann's approach here was to "capture" samples of contemporaneous music, "picking up the dirt and dust of original 1920s archive sound and music excerpts and shaping the essence into this selection of tunes," he recalls. After delivering the material to the editing room, Fehlmann "threw all the pieces up in the air, deliberately lost the overview in consequence, researched the atmospheric thread and assembled it for this album." That explains the singular nature of the material here, and its ability to sit together so neatly and discretely, as its own entity. For Böser Herbst is a music box of possibilities, shadowed by its historical provenance, but never crudely beholden to it, rather "keeping the references only as a distant nod, a scent." It's certainly an evocative listen, a cornucopia of textural pleasure and sensual, tactile assemblage. The spiraling, psychedelic cycle of "Karnickel" winds its way between the ears like thread to the needle; "Mit Ausblick" immerses the listener in deep, gaseous tones, only to be lifted into the air by the glassy drones of "Umarmt". "Wunschwechsler" crackles with the unpredictability of weather systems while a guitar-like loop unspools across the horizon. Throughout, you can catch tiny tastes of the source material, but they're pressed into greater service, Fehlmann using these sources for their evocative capacity and then saturating them with grain and rumble, abstracting outwards. It's a music of temporal disjuncture and clairvoyant resonance, "speaking with the past -- alert, distant and quixotic."

$29.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/9/2021

LP version. For Böser Herbst, Thomas Fehlmann returns to the sediment of ages, drawing from a similar lexicon of sounds to that used on 2018's 1929 - Das Jahr Babylon (KOMP 153CD/KOM 401LP). Like that album, Böser Herbst was produced as the soundtrack to a documentary made by Volker Heise, Herbst 1929, Schatten Über Babylon, which offers historical insight to the third season of the television series, Babylon Berlin. It adds yet another string to the bow of this most forward-thinking and creative artist, whose history takes in NDW (Palais Schaumburg), techno (3MB) and psychedelic ambience (The Orb), plus a clutch of gorgeous solo albums that explore wide terrain, from the dancefloor through supine home listening to compelling soundtrack work. Fehlmann's approach here was to "capture" samples of contemporaneous music, "picking up the dirt and dust of original 1920s archive sound and music excerpts and shaping the essence into this selection of tunes," he recalls. After delivering the material to the editing room, Fehlmann "threw all the pieces up in the air, deliberately lost the overview in consequence, researched the atmospheric thread and assembled it for this album." That explains the singular nature of the material here, and its ability to sit together so neatly and discretely, as its own entity. For Böser Herbst is a music box of possibilities, shadowed by its historical provenance, but never crudely beholden to it, rather "keeping the references only as a distant nod, a scent." It's certainly an evocative listen, a cornucopia of textural pleasure and sensual, tactile assemblage. The spiraling, psychedelic cycle of "Karnickel" winds its way between the ears like thread to the needle; "Mit Ausblick" immerses the listener in deep, gaseous tones, only to be lifted into the air by the glassy drones of "Umarmt". "Wunschwechsler" crackles with the unpredictability of weather systems while a guitar-like loop unspools across the horizon. Throughout, you can catch tiny tastes of the source material, but they're pressed into greater service, Fehlmann using these sources for their evocative capacity and then saturating them with grain and rumble, abstracting outwards. It's a music of temporal disjuncture and clairvoyant resonance, "speaking with the past -- alert, distant and quixotic."

$31.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/26/2021

Double LP version. Includes download. With his new album, Year Of The Living Dead, Vienna-born and LA-based producer John Tejada finds a blissful extended moment of balance between the new and the familiar. Anyone who's followed his career to date, which has included four previous albums for Kompakt, outings for storied labels like Plug Research, Playhouse, and Cocoon and numerous remixes and collaborations -- most recently, his Wajatta duo with actor and musician Reggie Watts -- will immediately sense the warmth and eloquence that Tejada brings to his gilded, pliant techno and electro hybrids. But there's more here, too; an explorer's glimmer in the producer's eye, as he gets to grips with new ways of working and being, while offering a reflective opening for the listener, something echoed in artwork by graphic designer and "contemplative artist" David Grey. "The album was started using tools I was unfamiliar with, which became an interesting exploratory process," Tejada says. "Staying away from the obvious and having to re-learn simple things was a fun challenge." You can hear these new creative pulsations pushing the eight tracks on Year Of The Living Dead ever-forward; the album has an unique cast, and though there are trace elements of the genres Tejada has indulged previously, he's never quite put them together this way before. There's the dubwise glitter sprinkled across the moody opener "The Haunting Of Earth", the kind caresses found amongst the deftly woven textures of "Sheltered", and the churchy melancholy, all hymnal and golden, of "Echoes Of Life". Year Of The Living Dead also speaks obliquely to its moment, though Tejada works this implicitly, allowing the strange circumstances of 2020 to cast their inevitable shadow without being obvious or didactic. "The production process began right before lockdown and continued through what felt like a very serious time for all of us," he recalls. "Not being able to see or touch our loved ones made me feel we are all like ghosts. We can observe from a distance but cannot really be there. We are isolated and alone." And yet, Year Of The Living Dead's tenderness offers an out for that anxiety and loneliness, its intimate immensities gifting the album a redemptive and compassionate core. Compact and glistening, Year Of The Living Dead sculpts unassuming beauty.

$15.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/26/2021

With his new album, Year Of The Living Dead, Vienna-born and LA-based producer John Tejada finds a blissful extended moment of balance between the new and the familiar. Anyone who's followed his career to date, which has included four previous albums for Kompakt, outings for storied labels like Plug Research, Playhouse, and Cocoon and numerous remixes and collaborations -- most recently, his Wajatta duo with actor and musician Reggie Watts -- will immediately sense the warmth and eloquence that Tejada brings to his gilded, pliant techno and electro hybrids. But there's more here, too; an explorer's glimmer in the producer's eye, as he gets to grips with new ways of working and being, while offering a reflective opening for the listener, something echoed in artwork by graphic designer and "contemplative artist" David Grey. "The album was started using tools I was unfamiliar with, which became an interesting exploratory process," Tejada says. "Staying away from the obvious and having to re-learn simple things was a fun challenge." You can hear these new creative pulsations pushing the eight tracks on Year Of The Living Dead ever-forward; the album has an unique cast, and though there are trace elements of the genres Tejada has indulged previously, he's never quite put them together this way before. There's the dubwise glitter sprinkled across the moody opener "The Haunting Of Earth", the kind caresses found amongst the deftly woven textures of "Sheltered", and the churchy melancholy, all hymnal and golden, of "Echoes Of Life". Year Of The Living Dead also speaks obliquely to its moment, though Tejada works this implicitly, allowing the strange circumstances of 2020 to cast their inevitable shadow without being obvious or didactic. "The production process began right before lockdown and continued through what felt like a very serious time for all of us," he recalls. "Not being able to see or touch our loved ones made me feel we are all like ghosts. We can observe from a distance but cannot really be there. We are isolated and alone." And yet, Year Of The Living Dead's tenderness offers an out for that anxiety and loneliness, its intimate immensities gifting the album a redemptive and compassionate core. Compact and glistening, Year Of The Living Dead sculpts unassuming beauty.

$14.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/5/2021

2020 repress. Originally released in 2002 on Kompakt Extra. Two of Kompakt's most prolific artists appear on this split 12" and they both have moved away from the typical Kompakt minimalism (for this 12", that is) to show the world that pure raving techno can also come from Cologne. Mayer's "Pride Is Weaker Than Love" (updated title) versus Reinhard Voigt's "Supertiel" are a bow down before the bassdrum and their straight forward 4/4 beats. This is made to make the dancefloors burn, so rave on!

$32.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/5/2021

2020 repress. Originally released in 2012 on Kompakt. WhoMadeWho may lack a question mark after their name, but their music will certainly have you asking after them. The Copenhagen based collective is difficult to pin down, but their music sounds as effortless as it is stylistically and sonically adventurous. Having formed in 2003, the genre-bending trio made up of Jeppe Kjellberg, Tomas Høffding, and Tomas Barfod honed their skills on stage and in the studio, releasing a series of bestselling records on Munich based Gomma label and topped off by their Kompakt released 2011 mini album Knee Deep. They remain one of Europe's most cherished live acts -- performing alongside the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, Azari & III they are found as staples of the summer festival circuit with a breakthrough performance in 2011 at the legendary Roskilde festival. It must be said that Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age loves the band so much that he even did a cover of "Space For Rent". WhoMadeWho have truly succeeded on their mission to eschew convention. Fusing pop and disco memes with punk paraphernalia, they released Brighter in 2012. The album operates as the missing link between the radical playfulness of the band's previous full-length The Plot and the introspective focus of Knee Deep, bridging their early work with a newly founded sense of sincerity and musicianship. "The Sun" has already proved itself as a crowd favorite with the band; cocky, bold and catchy this is the hymn that fans new and old will be screaming to over the summer months. "Below The Cherry Moon" submerges the band in pop perfection revealing a matured depth and lyrical brilliance. Other songs on "Brighter" such as "Inside World", the hard-hitting "Never Had The Time" or existentialist groove study "Running Man" feature the accessibility as well as the edginess that describe both ends of the same passion: Jeppe Kjellberg's characteristic vocal hit the pop-nerve in the verses while Tomas Høffding's soft falsetto holds the song together, giving the album its constantly evolving flow. Clearly, the band members never settled for streamlined mediocrity, but keep looking for those dark spots on their own map that demand to be conquered, thus churning out another instant classic that will rule our hearts and minds.

$31.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Kompakt welcomes back Copenhagen's WhoMadeWho. Tomas Barfod's penchant for electronic music poetically juxtaposed with Tomas Høffding and Jeppe Kjellberg's respective backgrounds in rock and jazz, gives their music an electrifying combination of sounds, merging a variety of influences to produce a unique sonic fingerprint that is emotive, irresistible and immensely satisfying. Though they have yet to strike a note together since the release of their 2012 full length Brighter (KOM 254LP/KOMP 097CD, 2012), WhoMadeWho have been remarkably productive. With two full-lengths, a DJ mix for Watergate's series (WG 026CD), the trio have found themselves diving more and more into the world of electronic music, tapping into their goldmine of connections within the scene to spearhead an array of collaborations. Synchronicity is all about "meaningful coincidences" -- bringing interpretation to bear on connections that have no actual causal relationship. It's a canny concept to pin onto Copenhagen trio WhoMadeWho's latest album, which sees them return to Kompakt for the first time since 2012's Brighter. On Synchronicity, WhoMadeWho call on friends old and new: Michael Mayer, Echonomist, Adana Twins, Alex Boman, Robag Wruhme, Frank Wiedemann, Sainte Vie, Mano Le Tough, Marc Piñol, Rebolledo, and Perel is the cast list; WhoMadeWho direct the material, shaping it into one lovingly flowing gem of dance-pop glory. There's something particularly generous about hearing an album as all-inclusive and open-hearted as Synchronicity in the midst of the profound social and cultural shifts everyone is currently experiencing. While some songs on Synchronicity were recorded together, in real time, such as the collaborations with Adana Twins and Rebolledo, most of them have taken place via long distance, thanks to the pandemic lockdown. But you don't need to know who was where to understand either the magnesium-flare melancholy of "Sooner", recorded with Piñol, which has you holding your breath with the gentle thrill of the song's lush melody, or the stomping strut of the following Adana Twins collaboration, "Shadow Of Doubt". Elsewhere, there's the stentorian robot voice at the heart of "Hamstring", where they're joined by Michael Mayer; the lustrous headsoak of "Twenty Tears", a tender intervention by Rebolledo; the strip-light, slow-motion disco strut of "Cecil", produced alongside Echonomist; or the glittering, arpeggio dreamwork that Perel helps sculpt into shape on "Der Abend Birgt Keine Ruh". From pop revelations to dancefloor delirium to slow-burning brooders, Synchronicity is a space for the joys of the unexpected to collide.

$31.00 IN STOCK

2021 repress. Originally released in 2010 on Kompakt. Thomas Fehlmann remains as one of the most endearing and respected artists on Kompakt. He has inspired generations of fans and musicians over the course of his 30+ year career, from his early days as part of the legendary band Palais Schaumburg, and the pioneering Detroit/Berlin act 3mb (with Juan Atkins and Moritz Von Oswald), to his longstanding membership with The Orb, combined with his contributions as a solo artist to esteemed imprints R&S, Plug Research, and of course Kompakt. Gute Luft is the result of months of work scoring the hit German TV film 24h Berlin -- the longest documentary film in history which featured 80 camera teams following the lives of Berliners over a 24-hour period. Obviously, a huge challenge for Fehlmann, beyond the scope of the project and hours of music involved in a 24-hour film, there was dealing with the decision-making process that went with working with such a large production team. As he shared scoring duties with another musician (separately), inevitably a lot of his music ended up not making the final cut. Gute Luft is about re-tweaking and editing material from the countless hours of recording he had created. In a sense, Gute Luft is Fehlmann's ideal soundtrack to the 24h Berlin documentary. Fans shall rejoice as Thomas Fehlmann doesn't steer far from his signature path of trailblazing the finer links of classic Detroit house and techno with the submerged beauty of Berlin dub. One will immediately recognize the classic scoring techniques Fehlmann brings to Gute Luft -- various themes and sounds resonate in various forms and versions throughout the tracks. Fehlmann succeeds in synergizing the best of the past 20 years of Berlin's expansive history of electronic and dance music with Gute Luft. A recreational album in every way in which he hopes will make you "feel at peace with you and your environment, inspire you to lush, imaginative dinners, make babies, or just walk your own way with open eyes." Well put Thomas!

$14.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/5/2021

2020 repress. Originally released in 2004 on Kompakt Extra. Here we are again. In the middle of life. Those rituals of the urbans in summer are so oddly affecting. There is a comprehensive offering of wonderful periphrases and comparisons coming up. And we have chosen and decided: What happens outside, on innocent Sun-, Mon- or Whatever-days afternoons under the sun from Wherever, pent-up between several towers of speakers, mostly resembles to the droll ado on a baboon rock. The males and females, always striking weird poses and grimaces, sometimes hilariously romping out of the group, sometimes scratching their forehead, yelling, racing, delousing, making love and so on. These things are totally obvious for us. There is no difference. If you want to know it precisely check out papa's bookcase, in Brehm's Animal Life under B like baboon. It's right that we only clambered a few steps of the evolution ladder, but who promises us, that it gets even better upstairs?

$37.50 IN STOCK

The story's been told before, though perhaps it hasn't been documented as well as it should have been: a group of young producers in Germany were knocked out by acid tracks, and in particular, the UK's acid house moment, convinced by the way it negotiated pop's pleasure and dancing's drive. Across the turn of the decade, The Bionaut's Jörg Burger, alongside friends and peers Wolfgang Voigt, Ingmar Koch, Cem Oral, Andreas Bolz, and Gregor Luttermann, would produce a dizzying number of tracks under a mountain of pseudonyms. 1992 was a turning point for Burger. Moving between Frankfurt and Cologne, Burger produced Everybody's Kissing Everyone with one eye on the dancefloor, the other on the lounge room. The productions from these fruitful sessions share a glam pop element, even at their most supine, with Burger returning to his pop roots. This was a running theme across the '90s, as he released a stretch of pop-electronica albums and EPs as The Bionaut and The Modernist. Vivid and welcoming, precision-tooled for the dancefloor, dewy-eyed and humbly melancholy, The Bionaut's productions manage to make risk and experimentation welcoming, joyous -- the inverse of so much studious experimental music. Talking about his productions as The Bionaut, Burger uses the term "metapop" to explain his music, and that's a perfect way of thinking about what he does -- it's at once pop and beyond pop, with a knowingness that gleefully ransacks pop's history. You can hear, in the seven tracks on Everybody's Kissing Everyone, reflections of UK acid house, the spiraling squelch of Chicago acid tracks, the lilting lightness of pop-trance, but the connecting force is a lushness of tone and richness of melody that points forward to the pop-tronica of later Bionaut. Here, Burger takes a snapshot of that precise middle-point between the dancefloor and the bedroom and colors it in both primaries and pastels. It's a most elegant swoon. Includes liner notes. Includes download code with two unreleased bonus tracks. Yellow marbled vinyl.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Pop -- the album that has become widely recognized as the defining moment in which Wolfgang Voigt brought his listeners into a clearing of his deep, psychedelic forest. A landmark release in the GAS odyssey that drew international attention, Pop was originally released in 2000 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint, Mille Plateux. Pop was heralded by Pitchfork at the time of release as being "an exercise in sonic texture... pure sonic velvet, the layered drone radiating a palpable warmth." Pop was reissued by Kompakt in 2016 as a part of GAS Box (now out of print) and finally now, Pop is released on Kompakt -- for the first time on CD in its original artwork.

$28.50 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download with full CD track listing. LP version features Blank Gloss, Yui Onodera, Thore Pfeiffer, Morgen Wurde, Reich & Würden, Neozaïre, Joachim Spieth & Pepo Galán, Max Würden, and Leandro Fresco & Thore Pfeiffer. It's 2020, the year Pop Ambient turns twenty-one years old, a spritely young adult waltzing out of its teenage joys and tears. Pop Ambient has always stood for a certain classicism and elegance, a kind of beatless music that's diaphanous and hazy, gossamer and glittering. For twenty-one years, Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt has curated a series of peerless compilations that repeatedly find refreshing answers to a simple question: What happens when the dancefloor is empty, and everyone's home to drift away? As with many other Pop Ambient compilations, Pop Ambient 2021 offers a welcome platform to contributions from both old friends and new faces. It opens with the gorgeous, slo-mo drift of "Of A Vessel", from new Kompakt signings Blank Gloss. Sending their music out into the world from their home in Sacramento, this duo makes music that's featherlight and luscious, the muted chime of a guitar over here, the steady hum of a halatial drone. Neozaïre and Seventh World are two additional new voices, the latter closing Pop Ambient 2021 with a long, lambent dreamsong, Neozaïre offering two gaseous, morphing driftworks, "In Verschwenderischer Fülle" etched across with bell-like arpeggios. Pop Ambient has always felt like a field for play for the Kompakt cognoscenti, and 2021 is no different, with Joachim Spieth collaborating with Pepo Galán on the sidereal visions of "Libration", while Leandro Fresco teams up with Thore Pfeiffer on the lovely "Abejorro". Pfeiffer also contributes two lovely solo miniatures of abstract longing. Yui Onodera calls in again, long distance, for their fourth Pop Ambient running, with the refracted, glinting lightscapes of "Cromo 5" and "Monochrome", while there are also star turns from Max Würden, both solo and in Reich & Würden, and Morgen Wurde, who drops by with the "ethereal drama" of "Mittsommer". Pop Ambient gets the balance right: visions and soundscapes, long-distance communications and intimate asides, sweetness and light, drama and dreaming, all wrapped up in floral abstractions -- a most beautiful distraction.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Königsforst -- following the 1997 release of Zauberberg (KOM 370-1LP), Wolfgang Voigt's GAS project returned with Königsforst in 1998, a full-length that has stood the test of time as a template for introducing fundamentals of '90s techno into the principles of contemporary electronic music. Originally released in 1998 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS Box (KOM 370LP), Königsforst is now released on Voigt's own label, Kompakt, on CD in its original artwork. Königsforst brings glimmers of light into Voigt's dark, magnificent forest. Melodic strings and brass are added to his signature layers of ominous intensity. The forest path is laid out by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Zauberberg -- Wolfgang Voigt's most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography -- finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendor. Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS Box (KOM 370LP, 2016), Zauberberg is now released on CD on his own label, Kompakt. Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, Zauberberg is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt's unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, Zauberberg is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.

$27.50 IN STOCK

Videosphere, the debut album by the London-based artist Lake Turner (aka Andrew Halford), swoons into focus with "The Sunbird", a teasing drift of lilting, ambient tones, riding out a submerged piston-pulse rhythm. Across its brief 109 seconds, it manages to traverse evocative terrain --something mythopoetic, something both humble and grandiose, a glimpse of the other behind the sky's curtain. It's both sky-bound and earthen, a ritual incantation to call in the music of the spheres. Turner was introduced to the Kompakt family by his sometime collaborator Yannis Philippakis of Foals. He'd previously made music in post-punk and indie groups Great Eskimo Hoax and Trophy Wife, but Videosphere is the first time he's fully articulated his own vision of electronic music, aside from one limited lathe-cut 12", 2018's Prime Mover EP, on Algebra. The lush ambient-disco-techno dreams of Videosphere were constructed and completed in his London studio and at his parents' arable and sheep farm in Worcestershire, which might help explain the hazy, unhurried pastoralism of the album. A student of archaeology and ancient history, Turner is no doubt carefully attuned to the twisting cogs of history and memory, and it's no surprise that Videosphere has a nostalgic, melancholic cast; much of its beauty rests in the way it tugs, gently, at the heart strings. It's not all drift-dream hypnosis, though -- Videosphere is very much grounded in the now. "'No Way Back Forever' is a nod to the linear nature of time," Turner explains by way of example, "and the tipping point of the world climate crisis that scientists have now declared." Jayne Powell's vocals are sent spinning through the song, wound like candyfloss; she takes center stage on the techno hymnal title track, too. Throughout, there's a sense of forward movement, despite the life stasis we find ourselves collectively bound by in mid-2020; there's also a yearning for the communal, for community, that's captured in the album title, a nod to an object Turner encountered at London's Geoffrey Museum, "a television set in the shape of a spaceman's helmet from the 1970s." "The vision I loosely had was to make an electronic record that had a communal warmth and almost ceremonial or ritual feel. I wanted to examine the relationship of our archaic minds in the trappings of the modern world," Turner concludes. "What the Videosphere also symbolizes for me is the oneness of humanity and community, prevailing."

$15.50 IN STOCK

Kompakt welcomes back Copenhagen's WhoMadeWho. Tomas Barfod's penchant for electronic music poetically juxtaposed with Tomas Høffding and Jeppe Kjellberg's respective backgrounds in rock and jazz, gives their music an electrifying combination of sounds, merging a variety of influences to produce a unique sonic fingerprint that is emotive, irresistible and immensely satisfying. Though they have yet to strike a note together since the release of their 2012 full length Brighter (KOM 254LP/KOMP 097CD, 2012), WhoMadeWho have been remarkably productive. With two full-lengths, a DJ mix for Watergate's series (WG 026CD), the trio have found themselves diving more and more into the world of electronic music, tapping into their goldmine of connections within the scene to spearhead an array of collaborations. Synchronicity is all about "meaningful coincidences" -- bringing interpretation to bear on connections that have no actual causal relationship. It's a canny concept to pin onto Copenhagen trio WhoMadeWho's latest album, which sees them return to Kompakt for the first time since 2012's Brighter. On Synchronicity, WhoMadeWho call on friends old and new: Michael Mayer, Echonomist, Adana Twins, Alex Boman, Robag Wruhme, Frank Wiedemann, Sainte Vie, Mano Le Tough, Marc Piñol, Rebolledo, and Perel is the cast list; WhoMadeWho direct the material, shaping it into one lovingly flowing gem of dance-pop glory. There's something particularly generous about hearing an album as all-inclusive and open-hearted as Synchronicity in the midst of the profound social and cultural shifts everyone is currently experiencing. While some songs on Synchronicity were recorded together, in real time, such as the collaborations with Adana Twins and Rebolledo, most of them have taken place via long distance, thanks to the pandemic lockdown. But you don't need to know who was where to understand either the magnesium-flare melancholy of "Sooner", recorded with Piñol, which has you holding your breath with the gentle thrill of the song's lush melody, or the stomping strut of the following Adana Twins collaboration, "Shadow Of Doubt". Elsewhere, there's the stentorian robot voice at the heart of "Hamstring", where they're joined by Michael Mayer; the lustrous headsoak of "Twenty Tears", a tender intervention by Rebolledo; the strip-light, slow-motion disco strut of "Cecil", produced alongside Echonomist; or the glittering, arpeggio dreamwork that Perel helps sculpt into shape on "Der Abend Birgt Keine Ruh". From pop revelations to dancefloor delirium to slow-burning brooders, Synchronicity is a space for the joys of the unexpected to collide.

$15.50 NOT IN STOCK

It's 2020, the year Pop Ambient turns twenty-one years old, a spritely young adult waltzing out of its teenage joys and tears. Pop Ambient has always stood for a certain classicism and elegance, a kind of beatless music that's diaphanous and hazy, gossamer and glittering. For twenty-one years, Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt has curated a series of peerless compilations that repeatedly find refreshing answers to a simple question: What happens when the dancefloor is empty, and everyone's home to drift away? As with many other Pop Ambient compilations, Pop Ambient 2021 offers a welcome platform to contributions from both old friends and new faces. It opens with the gorgeous, slo-mo drift of "Of A Vessel", from new Kompakt signings Blank Gloss. Sending their music out into the world from their home in Sacramento, this duo makes music that's featherlight and luscious, the muted chime of a guitar over here, the steady hum of a halatial drone. Neozaïre and Seventh World are two additional new voices, the latter closing Pop Ambient 2021 with a long, lambent dreamsong, Neozaïre offering two gaseous, morphing driftworks, "In Verschwenderischer Fülle" etched across with bell-like arpeggios. Pop Ambient has always felt like a field for play for the Kompakt cognoscenti, and 2021 is no different, with Joachim Spieth collaborating with Pepo Galán on the sidereal visions of "Libration", while Leandro Fresco teams up with Thore Pfeiffer on the lovely "Abejorro". Pfeiffer also contributes two lovely solo miniatures of abstract longing. Yui Onodera calls in again, long distance, for their fourth Pop Ambient running, with the refracted, glinting lightscapes of "Cromo 5" and "Monochrome", while there are also star turns from Max Würden, both solo and in Reich & Würden, and Morgen Wurde, who drops by with the "ethereal drama" of "Mittsommer". Pop Ambient gets the balance right: visions and soundscapes, long-distance communications and intimate asides, sweetness and light, drama and dreaming, all wrapped up in floral abstractions -- a most beautiful distraction.

CD version features Blank Gloss, Yui Onodera, Thore Pfeiffer, Morgen Wurde, Reich & Würden, Neozaïre, Joachim Spieth & Pepo Galán, Max Würden, Leandro Fresco & Thore Pfeiffer, and Seventh World.

$15.50 IN STOCK

On his fourth album proper, Now Here No Where, Danish producer Kölsch (aka Rune Reilly Kölsch) is charting new terrain. Fans of his "years trilogy" -- 1977 (KOM 276LP/KOMP 107CD), 1983 (KOM 329LP/KOMP 122CD), and 1989 (KOM 373LP/KOMP 139CD) released on Kompakt over the past decade -- were privy to a kind of sonic diary, an autobiography, tracking the artist's early years through three albums of superior, meticulously rendered techno. Calling in collaborators where needed -- most notably, the strings of Gregor Schwellenbach -- there was still something deeply personal going down, not quite hermetic, but internally focused; the albums proved not only Kölsch's mastery of his chosen form, but also his capacity to make techno personal, individual, and to trace histories of the self through music. But on Now Here No Where, Kölsch finds his feet firmly planted in the present. For Kölsch, this makes Nowhere Now Here "an album about life in the year 2020. A time defined by confusion, misinformation and environmental challenges." Kölsch does this with music that effortlessly balances emotional heft with the dancefloor's brimming desires. It's a space that Kölsch has navigated for a while now -- one of techno's breakthrough acts -- but Now Here No Where ratchets up the lushness, making for a delirious drift across twelve tracks that are at once perfectly poised and deeply trippy. "Great Escape" is an elegant swoon, an opener that pivots on a sigh and a prayer; then "Shoulder Of Giants" bustles into view, subliminal clatter and an aching violin line giving way to a riff that glows with fluorescence and iridescence. "Remind You" combines an odd ECM jazziness with notes from a 21st century torch song; "Sleeper Must Awaken" mines huge buzzing synths and lets them float, in and out of sync, with reduced, ticking beats; "Traumfabrik" (dream factory) is oddly lush, the tones malleable and plastic, morphing across a glitching undertow. There are sad, emotional washes of strings throughout the penultimate "While Waiting For Something To Care About", while the patterns of "Romtech User Manual" twist and shape in the light. Throughout, Kölsch never keeps his eye off the dancefloor, and you can tell this is his still his home. The club as a temporary autonomous zone, as a space both of freedom and of politics; somehow, that's all here, Now Here No Where.

$30.50 IN STOCK

Double LP version. On his fourth album proper, Now Here No Where, Danish producer Kölsch (aka Rune Reilly Kölsch) is charting new terrain. Fans of his "years trilogy" -- 1977 (KOM 276LP/KOMP 107CD), 1983 (KOM 329LP/KOMP 122CD), and 1989 (KOM 373LP/KOMP 139CD) released on Kompakt over the past decade -- were privy to a kind of sonic diary, an autobiography, tracking the artist's early years through three albums of superior, meticulously rendered techno. Calling in collaborators where needed -- most notably, the strings of Gregor Schwellenbach -- there was still something deeply personal going down, not quite hermetic, but internally focused; the albums proved not only Kölsch's mastery of his chosen form, but also his capacity to make techno personal, individual, and to trace histories of the self through music. But on Now Here No Where, Kölsch finds his feet firmly planted in the present. For Kölsch, this makes Nowhere Now Here "an album about life in the year 2020. A time defined by confusion, misinformation and environmental challenges." Kölsch does this with music that effortlessly balances emotional heft with the dancefloor's brimming desires. It's a space that Kölsch has navigated for a while now -- one of techno's breakthrough acts -- but Now Here No Where ratchets up the lushness, making for a delirious drift across twelve tracks that are at once perfectly poised and deeply trippy. "Great Escape" is an elegant swoon, an opener that pivots on a sigh and a prayer; then "Shoulder Of Giants" bustles into view, subliminal clatter and an aching violin line giving way to a riff that glows with fluorescence and iridescence. "Remind You" combines an odd ECM jazziness with notes from a 21st century torch song; "Sleeper Must Awaken" mines huge buzzing synths and lets them float, in and out of sync, with reduced, ticking beats; "Traumfabrik" (dream factory) is oddly lush, the tones malleable and plastic, morphing across a glitching undertow. There are sad, emotional washes of strings throughout the penultimate "While Waiting For Something To Care About", while the patterns of "Romtech User Manual" twist and shape in the light. Throughout, Kölsch never keeps his eye off the dancefloor, and you can tell this is his still his home. The club as a temporary autonomous zone, as a space both of freedom and of politics; somehow, that's all here, Now Here No Where.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Two decades. Twenty years. Twenty compilations. Over 400 tracks. Over two days of total playing time and countless colored dots. If someone would have told Kompakt in 1999, when they put together Total 1 (KOM 010LP/KOMP 003CD, 1999) that this would turn into one of the longest standing compilation series in techno world, they would have laughed out loud. But here they are -- in the year 2020 which will probably go down in history as the most difficult period ever for club culture. But Kompakt won't stop doing what they're doing. Music is our oxygen. We'll dance together soon again. The Total series has always been like Kompakt's yearbook and to say it with the late Frank Sinatra: It was a very good year. The label's family of artists delivered a strong heterogeneous mix of uplifting sounds, from the lush reveries of Robag Wruhme and Soela to the stark primetime bangers of Marc Romboy or Anna & Kittin and everything in between. Notable new entries to our crew are the Londoner Kiwi with his wonderfully careless "Hello Echo" that picks up the camp disco vibes Justus Köhncke made a staple in our repertoire. Amsterdam's David Douglas delivers an appetizer for a full course meal. His quirky pop approach sits comfortably between fellow dutchmen Weval's abstract beats and Agents Of Time's opulent Italo disco. Yotam Avni blends Detroit techno with new age jazz that reminisces the sound of ECM artists like Jan Garbarek or John Surman. The man with the hat, Kölsch also picks up jazzier notes in his very own big room style. Youngblood Jonathan Kaspar appears twice, fortifying his status as one of the hottest beat smiths of our hometown Cologne. Total wouldn't be Total without our permanent staff present in full force. May Total 20 become your trustworthy companion in these uncertain times. As per tradition, Kompakt's founding fathers, Voigt & Voigt, Jürgen Paape, Jörg Burger, Michael Mayer, as well as our Berlin outpost Sascha Funke all deliver exclusive gems that also feature on Total 20.

2CD version features Robag Wruhme, Soela, Michael Mayer, Jürgen Paape, David Douglas, Kiwi, Sascha Funke, Jonathan Kaspar, Voigt & Voigt, Steve Moore, Weval, Jörg Burger, Agents Of Time, Kölsch, Enzo Elia, Aldebaran, Quique, Yotam Avni, Anna & Kittin, Christian Nielsen, Marc Romboy, and Blackrachas.

$27.50 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Two decades. Twenty years. Twenty compilations. Over 400 tracks. Over two days of total playing time and countless colored dots. If someone would have told Kompakt in 1999, when they put together Total 1 (KOM 010LP/KOMP 003CD, 1999) that this would turn into one of the longest standing compilation series in techno world, they would have laughed out loud. But here they are -- in the year 2020 which will probably go down in history as the most difficult period ever for club culture. But Kompakt won't stop doing what they're doing. Music is our oxygen. We'll dance together soon again. The Total series has always been like Kompakt's yearbook and to say it with the late Frank Sinatra: It was a very good year. The label's family of artists delivered a strong heterogeneous mix of uplifting sounds, from the lush reveries of Robag Wruhme and Soela to the stark primetime bangers of Marc Romboy or Anna & Kittin and everything in between. Notable new entries to our crew are the Londoner Kiwi with his wonderfully careless "Hello Echo" that picks up the camp disco vibes Justus Köhncke made a staple in our repertoire. Amsterdam's David Douglas delivers an appetizer for a full course meal. His quirky pop approach sits comfortably between fellow dutchmen Weval's abstract beats and Agents Of Time's opulent Italo disco. Yotam Avni blends Detroit techno with new age jazz that reminisces the sound of ECM artists like Jan Garbarek or John Surman. The man with the hat, Kölsch also picks up jazzier notes in his very own big room style. Youngblood Jonathan Kaspar appears twice, fortifying his status as one of the hottest beat smiths of our hometown Cologne. Total wouldn't be Total without our permanent staff present in full force. May Total 20 become your trustworthy companion in these uncertain times. As per tradition, Kompakt's founding fathers, Voigt & Voigt, Jürgen Paape, Jörg Burger, Michael Mayer, as well as our Berlin outpost Sascha Funke all deliver exclusive gems that also feature on Total 20.

Double-LP version features Jürgen Paape, Jörg Burger, Michael Mayer, David Douglas, Sascha Funke, Voigt & Voigt, and Jonathan Kaspar. Double-LP edition includes vinyl only track by Christian Nielsen; includes download.

$14.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL

After 2019's lauded three-track EP Topinambur (KOM 409EP) Kompakt announce Robag Wruhme's return to Speicher. On the A-side, Robag delivers a deep hypnotic chugger that goes by the simple but ultimately affirmative name "Yes". In all its simplicity, it's one of those tracks that gently tosses you down the famous rabbit hole. The flip side "Calma Calma" is pure summer festival bliss, resurrecting the spine-tingling a cappella from C'Hantal's proto techno classic "The Realm" for the 2020's. Both tracks are 100% Robag... highly emotive, über sexy, and yet somehow hazardous.

$28.50 IN STOCK

Double LP version. It's taken Yotam Avni a little while to get to his debut album; almost a decade, really, since his debut 12", That's What The World Needs (2012), on California's Seasons Limited imprint. During that time, the Tel-Aviv based producer has refined his productions, tightening the groove and paring everything back to bare essentials; the power in an Avni cut is its combination of piston-pulse propulsion and a deep, but gently applied, musicality. Avni's been on Kompakt's radar for a while, first appearing on the label last year, with his Speicher contribution (KOM EX109EP). The connection immediately made sense -- dance music that managed to feel both lush and streamlined across the same great gasp of late-night energy. But with Yotam Avni Was Here, he's taken a huge leap. After a brief intro, Avni sets his stall with "Beyond The Dance", which features slow-moving vocal melisma over sculptural, melting tonalities, a tintinnabulating, harpsichord-like two-note phrase pacing out the track. Then "It Was What It Was" comes into view, its strip-light textures suddenly placed into sharp relief by a muted trumpet figure that hangs in the air, melancholy and pensive. Avni's inspirations for Was Here are from the histories of both techno and jazz. "I wanted to try something more around Detroit Techno meets ECM," he reflects. "Carl Craig's Just Another Day EP (2004) and Kenny Larkin's Keys, Strings, Tambourines (2008) came out during my high school years and had huge impact on me." Avni continues, "I always wanted to go back to those hi-tek soul roots on a full album," he continues, and he explores that terrain with the sky-strafing brass on "Free Darius Now", Morse-code keys on "Vortex," and glitchy, microhouse tickles of "Know Hope" all contributing to an oblique narrative that seems to arc across Was Here -- one fleshed out by guest musicians, who include dOP and Georg Levin on vocals, and trumpets by Greg Paulus (Beirut, No Regular Play). The cover art makes the jazz connection explicit, riffing on the text-based, minimal design of The Modern Jazz Quartet's 1955 album for Prestige, Concorde. The way Avni has gathered around him both inspiring musicians and intriguing reference points makes you think of his broader career as well. The openness of his productions, which seem to be all about the multiple, the possibilities of cross-pollination, of fusing this with that, of adding and subtracting, all under the pulsating thumbprint of techno.

$15.50 IN STOCK

It's taken Yotam Avni a little while to get to his debut album; almost a decade, really, since his debut 12", That's What The World Needs (2012), on California's Seasons Limited imprint. During that time, the Tel-Aviv based producer has refined his productions, tightening the groove and paring everything back to bare essentials; the power in an Avni cut is its combination of piston-pulse propulsion and a deep, but gently applied, musicality. Avni's been on Kompakt's radar for a while, first appearing on the label last year, with his Speicher contribution (KOM EX109EP). The connection immediately made sense -- dance music that managed to feel both lush and streamlined across the same great gasp of late-night energy. But with Yotam Avni Was Here, he's taken a huge leap. After a brief intro, Avni sets his stall with "Beyond The Dance", which features slow-moving vocal melisma over sculptural, melting tonalities, a tintinnabulating, harpsichord-like two-note phrase pacing out the track. Then "It Was What It Was" comes into view, its strip-light textures suddenly placed into sharp relief by a muted trumpet figure that hangs in the air, melancholy and pensive. Avni's inspirations for Was Here are from the histories of both techno and jazz. "I wanted to try something more around Detroit Techno meets ECM," he reflects. "Carl Craig's Just Another Day EP (2004) and Kenny Larkin's Keys, Strings, Tambourines (2008) came out during my high school years and had huge impact on me." Avni continues, "I always wanted to go back to those hi-tek soul roots on a full album," he continues, and he explores that terrain with the sky-strafing brass on "Free Darius Now", Morse-code keys on "Vortex," and glitchy, microhouse tickles of "Know Hope" all contributing to an oblique narrative that seems to arc across Was Here -- one fleshed out by guest musicians, who include dOP and Georg Levin on vocals, and trumpets by Greg Paulus (Beirut, No Regular Play). The cover art makes the jazz connection explicit, riffing on the text-based, minimal design of The Modern Jazz Quartet's 1955 album for Prestige, Concorde. The way Avni has gathered around him both inspiring musicians and intriguing reference points makes you think of his broader career as well. The openness of his productions, which seem to be all about the multiple, the possibilities of cross-pollination, of fusing this with that, of adding and subtracting, all under the pulsating thumbprint of techno.

$14.50 IN STOCK

Home is where the heart is, and in this case that saying rings true. Though Michael Mayer puts his love, sweat, and tears into running Kompakt between producing music and DJing, he has managed to evade releasing anything solo on the mothership for the past eight years. There's been no shortage of musical output in that time -- be it his DJ Kicks, the ambitious collaborative full length &, and remixes for Metronomy, Weval, Arthur Baker, and Jagwar Ma, to name a few. This new decade promises a world of change, and fortunately for Michael (and all of us), his begins with the release of Higher. Italo disco and early '90s US deep house (think Nu Groove, Strictly Rhythm, Nervous) are some of the foundation blocks of what motivated Michael to become a DJ and create music. He finds inspiration with the sample heavy tracks from that era -- particularly the ones that used the human voice as an instrument to generate freshness, soul, and warmth. To those that have seen Michael Mayer DJ will immediately recall the spirit of his sets when first hearing the title track "Higher". A house number that is playfully serenaded by lyric-less throwback vocals. "Doot Doot" is a deeper acid tinged affair that is carried by wordless vocal melody that recalls a classic Susanne Vega song from an era gone by. Michael has never been shy of playing a little proto-trance now and then -- "Take A Stand For Love" adheres to the harmonic practice of the genre but changes things up thanks to a growling, gorgeous bass rhythm. Peak time pleasurable. "Belle De Lune" is how Michael is known best and an apt finale that is introspective but very much dancefloor driven. The track evokes an insatiable steaminess thanks to melodic bass rhythms and haunting synths. Epically lush.