Berlin: the electronic music commune

Berlin: the electronic music commune

16 June, 2008 | 12.27PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News:

Berlin is the centre of global electronic music with many world renowned clubs, record labels, DJs and producers located in Germany’s capital city.

But what is it about Berlin that is so attractive to the electronic music community?

Beatportal went to Berlin to find out.

Berlin: the electronic music commune

To insiders, electronic music is a community of like-minded individuals and nowhere is this fact more obvious than in Berlin, now the epicenter of global electronic music.

With some of the world’s most influential record labels based in Berlin, and hundreds of producers and DJs having relocated to the city in recent years, the capital of Germany has become a powerhouse for the scene, yet despite its rapid growth Berlin has remained very close-knit and friendly.

The community here is attractive in it pervasiveness.

Berlin-based DJ, producer and record label owner Ellen Allien told Beatportal in an interview last year that the Berlin techno community is very respectful towards one another.

“We even have techno barbeques so we can all gather and exchange ideas,” she said at the time.

“There’s no in-fighting or negative competition.”

And standing backstage of Minus’ Sunday Adventure Club yesterday, the respect that Berlin-based artists and DJs have for one another was very obvious.

In one corner of the stage Heidi from Get Physical could be seen joking around with British DJ and producer Jesse Rose who relocated to Berlin from London in 2006.

Luciano was hugging Loco Dice, Sascha Funke was dancing to Richie Hawtin’s techno and Ewan Pearson was hanging out.

Everyone seemed relaxed and there for the music, but more than that, it seemed like everybody was a big group of friends having a fun day out.

“Berlin represents freedom for me,” English producer and talented remixer Ewan Pearson told Beatportal.

“I moved here a few years ago and it was a great change.

“There’s such a large amount of creative people in this city, and it feels like one big community of like-minded individuals.”

It may sound like a hippy ideal, but to Berlin’s electronic music immigrants the collaborative, constructive attitude of the city makes it an attractive place to live.

That, and Berlin’s cheap rent and superb dancing spaces: with world-renowned clubs such Berghain (arguably as influential as Tresor was in its heyday), Week-end, Watergate and Bar 25 located in the city, DJs, artists and electronic music fans are spoilt for choice.

But Berlin is much more than just clubs - the catalyst behind its electronic music boom is a culture of creative freedom, the kind of open-mindedness that leads to progressive art, fashion and music.

It is no coincidence that the world’s most restrictive societies also are the most culturally stagnant, and by contrast Berlin’s looseness is the exact reason why the city is producing some of the most exciting electronic music in the world.

“Here it’s not uncommon to go to a park on a Sunday and have DJs playing on a soundsystem to a thousand or so people,” revealed Sven von Thülen, a former editor for Germany’s De:Bug magazine, and one half of Bpitch Control’s Zander VT [check out their tunes in the player below].

Believe it or not, the authorities tolerate free raves taking place in open public spaces and very rarely shut them down.

“Only occasionally the police will close a party down, and it’s usually because of noise complaints from neighbours,” said Sven.

“But if there are no neighbours the police usually won’t even show up.”

Afterparties are allowed to just run and run too; it’s not unusual to see wide-eyed clubbers stumbling out of Bar25 on a Tuesday morning.

And when you think about it, why should authorities care how long people party for?

Berlin’s lack of restrictions makes all other cities seem conservative.

Bpitch Control’s Sascha Funke is a Berliner and he has lived in the city his whole life.

He told Beatportal that Berlin’s culture of freedom started the moment the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

“I was 13 when the wall came down so I don’t remember too much what it was like before but as a teenager growing up in reunified Germany we had complete freedom to do what we wanted,” said Sascha.

A city in transition always seems to breed cultural vanguards – one possible comparison to Berlin’s current melting pot is New York City in the 1980s – yet despite the fact Berlin is a very different city to only a few years ago, original grass-root values still permeate.

“Bar25 originally started out as a place for friends to hang out,” explained Sven.

“It only used to have a mobile sound system, but within a year it became hugely popular and Bar25’s owners decided to invest more in the venue.

“Now it’s a restaurant, an outdoor cinema and they charge on the door to get in, but at its core is the same feeling of hedonism.

“You can party in there for 96 hours straight if you really want, and Berliners appreciate that freedom.”

One example of Berlin’s collaborative approach to electronic music was a recent joint venture between Bar25 and a party further up the river.

Despite being on the face of it rival club events, Bar25 and the organisers of the other party arranged for a river shuttle between the two events so that clubbers could go to both parties.

It’s hard to imagine such partnerships existing in other electronic music markets, which tend to be more competitive and in some places, even cut-throat.

Perhaps then, we all have a lot to learn from Berlin.

“The way I see it, there’s too much war and fear in the world already, we don’t need that in electronic music,” said Ellen Allien.

“This is our little island and our little network.

“And in the end, that makes our community stronger.

“It’s about human strength and collectiveness, not using music as a capitalist tool.”

It’s a sentiment that Beatportal hopes will catch on as quickly as the forward-thinking music of Berlin.

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• Check out Zander VT on Beatport