Stephan Bodzin & Oliver Huntemann

Stephan Bodzin "Authenticity is everything - without it everything would appear to be nothing more than a hollow shell", says someone who has found himself at thecentre of the international techno scene since 2006. The passionate musician from Bremen has become a heavy influence for an awful lot of producers worldwide. With his album "Liebe ist..." ('Love is...') Stephan Bodzin has reached yet another highpoint in his career. As the son of an experimental musician his career in the music industry was set from an early age. And it was only a matter of time before Stephan would fall in love with electronic music. Composing music for several prestigious European theaters was the first successful platform for his music. At the same time he discovered his passion for club sounds and increased his efforts in this area. His mind-blowing talent was soon discovered and producers such as Oliver Huntemann, Thomas Schumacher and Marc Romboy queued up to work with Stephan. Due to the quality of his impressive music he has reached the top of the international techno scene. Most recently he has remixed songs for well-known bands such as Depeche Mode, Booka Shade and The Knife. His releases can be found on labels such as Get Physical, Datapunk, Gigolo, Systematic and Giant Wheel. "Throughout my releases and all my collaborations I managed to let my ideas flow freely and to develop my own style" Stephan explains. "I understood that my personal definition of good and bad music is very dynamic and that's why intuition is so important in this business". He describes himself as a "melody man" - "after all it's the melodies that endure". The responses to his productions seem to confirm this: his sounds are greatly loved in clubs worldwide. DJ Hell himself has dubbed Stephan's tunes as the ground breaking "Bremen sound". It was a logical move to create his own label called "Herzblut" in 2006. As part of the label-conglomerate Plantage 13 he has found the ideal creative framework for his works. His solos productions have done nothing but raise his worldwide profile even more and he now has the freedom of an individual artist with a worldwide audience. "This was a massive step forward", he explains, "I produce music to share it, and I can experience this great feeling in each of my gigs". On top of that Stephan has created a phenomenal live set that will exclusively be performed on his "Liebe ist..." tour. Stephan's music is as polarizing as he is, both as DJ and live artist. But there's one statement that holds true for all of his productions: they are certainly of the highest 'authenticity'. Oliver Huntemann Electronic dance music has dominated urban club culture for more than a decade. Through its many highs and lows, techno music has proven that it is here to stay. The same cannot be said of very many techno artists. Hamburg-based recording artist and DJ Oliver Huntemann is, without doubt, one of the few activists from the early days still holding the torch. Brought up in the funky northern German countryside, he soon found himself heavily infected by the fascinating world of music. He started taping radio shows, buying vinyl and experimenting with his first set of turntables – all due to the massive wave of innovative American youth culture and music that pervaded Europe from the late seventies onwards. In practical terms: rap music, breakdancing and graffiti as featured in movies like Beat Street and Wildstyle or recorded by the likes of Africa Bambata, Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow or Whodini. It didn’t take long until Huntemann began spinning records at parties and realizing that this is what he wanted to do with his life – yeah, right Oliver .. heard that before, so you’re going to be a big ass DJ touring the world and so on… somebody bring me an espresso please… To placate his parents, Oliver sought out a “proper education” and spent 6 years with the German naval forces learning how to be an electronics technician – aye aye sir! No amount of military drills or discipline, however, could keep him from spending all of his money on records and going to parties. When acid house took Germany by storm in the late eighties, Oliver immediately knew that this was his thing – he was electrified! He started organizing his own techno parties and got to know Gerret Frerichs, who ran a club and a small recording studio, which is where they created the Humate project, together with the jazz musician H.G. Schmidt ! Their first record was released in 1992 on the cult label MFS… >>fast forward>> Through a trillion records and a wealth of projects - from the foundation of the successful dance labels Confused and Dance Electric to Huntemann and H-Man releases, via the highly profilic concept series Rekorder with Stephan Bodzin on labels like Cocoon, Gigolo or Giant Wheel, not forgetting those on his own labels, to the many DJ gigs around the world and, last but not least, building the Super 8 Studio - Oliver Huntemann has yet to grow tired of serving up state of the art music! His instinctive awareness that, in terms of styles and influences, electronic dance music is - and always will be - about renewal, has allowed him to maintain a unique freshness and keep his special touch very much alive.His latest coup is a new label - Ideal. Ideal is totally dedicated to fresh electronic music, primarily in the form of his own productions. Releasing tracks as Oliver Huntemann is a perfect reflection of his personal approach to the label. Following remixes for some of the biggest names in electronic music such as Depeche Mode, Underworld, Chemical Brothers and a successful collaboration with Dubfire (Deep Dish), Oliver is still one of the hottest producers on the scene. So keep on watching out for Oliver Huntemann, on the scene for over a decade without losing his connection to the underground.