Audiophob, for some of you, a new name, not for me. It all started in 2003 when Carsten Stiller and Mirko Hentrich released their first split between their projects Alarmen and Spherical Disrupted. It triggered the birth of Audiophob as a label, and now, 22 years later, they are celebrating with not just another split release, but something that is growing beyond its borders. With a roster filled with releases from Autoclav1.1, Darkrad, Axiome, Mandelbrot, Mortaja, 2kilos & more and Phelios, it’s obvious they do things very well and continuously. Lots of performances and DJ gigs to support the label, as can be read in the monthly newsletter.
So, to celebrate 22 years since that first release that triggered it all, Carsten and Mirko created the project “Aquila”. It has one track of each of the two artists; “Tarazed” by Alarmen has an ambient approach with loads of melodic arpeggiators following IDM patterns and old-school German synth pioneer sounds. “Altair” by Spherical Disrupted has the same old-school German pioneer vibe, but plays in the background with an EBM / industrial vibe. Both tracks are very nice, but 15 minutes is insufficient to fill a CD. So they decided to ask friends to work with their material and surprise them. And this album as a whole is part of what happened.
First of all, the two partners in crime reworked each other’s tracks, resulting in a beatless ambient “Tarazed” and a bit more EBM approach of “Altair”. After that, it’s time for Autoclav1.1, The_Empath (twice), Wesenberg, Olivier ‘Docteur’ Moreau, Mortaja, Darkrad and Mandelbrot to work on things. And without going in depth on each track, the result is more than the sum of its parts. The danger, of course, is that all of the artists stick to the original too much, which would result in a compilation of two tracks, multiple versions. But the strength of this sampler is that each of the artists got (or took) enough freedom to make it their own. So it’s a splendid sampler with simply a few recurring themes. Personal favourites are the mixes by Docteur Moreau, Darkrad and both of The_Empath tracks.
But that’s not all. Because Carsten and Mirko met and became friends with way more people over the last 22 years. At the Bandcamp page, another collection is available, “Aquila (The Nova Aquilae Remixes)” The Price is free or ‘name your price’ with remixes of entirely different artists. First of all, Mirko and Carsten remixed their tracks, after which there are additional remixes by Oko And Machines, Pera Spera, X-D, Heimstatt Yipotash (twice), Anatoly Grinberg, R.G. Gardener, Carsten Vollmer, Andreas Davids (also twice), Triode, Hendekagon and b°tong.
We don’t do download-only releases here, but I had to. If you know the names of this second batch of artists, you already know you’re in for just about anything. From drum’n bass to straight EBM, some almost goth influences and mind-tingling additions from Carsten Vollmer and b°tong.
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