As a producer, musician, DJ and serial collaborator, Chris Schwarzwälders distinctive style of deep, restrained house is hard to pin down, but you’ll always know it’s him when you hear it. 

Born in Frankfurt am Main in the 80s, he started playing hiphop in the 90s. While making beats on his MPC2000, he dropped into Offenbach’s Robert Johnson club and fell in love with techno. 

In 2009, Chris moved to Berlin and started DJing at KaterHolzig, where he found a group of people who thought about music in the same way he did. In contrast to the trends of the late 00s, the sounds being made from this little paradise on Berlin’s river Spree were slower, softer, and more soulful than a lot of what was being played in clubs at the time. 

It was here that Chris began to cement his reputation as both a solo producer and collaborator, who was capable of bringing his trademark sounds to a whole number of side-projects - many of which have gone on to play to crowds around the globe. He joined the Feathered Sun collective in 2013, together with a group of friends including Acid Pauli, Nu, Jo.Ke and Raz O’Hara. Dreamy, groovy and often improvised, the collective represented a special kind of musical freedom in which a group of producers came together to create something new in a singular, live moment. 

At the same time, Chris’ friend Mira was making moves of her own, and they started to play back-to-back sets, soundtracking the legendary Monday mornings of KaterHolzig, and now, Kater Blau. The two, who are both residents at Kater Blau, have now been playing together internationally for almost a decade, and have formed a common musical understanding that translates throughout every one of their sets - deep, clubby and melancholic. This partnership has also carried on into the studio, where they have collaborated on numerous hits. 

His most light-hearted side comes out in collaboration with Iannis Ritter, where the two musicians take on a weirder, more melodic & electro approach than Chris’ other proejcts. 

If you were to ask him, Chris would describe himself as reserved, logical, rational, melancholic and humorous. Which is why you’d never hear him telling you about the hundreds of nightclubs and festivals he’s played around the globe, or the number of hits he’s had with his productions. If you’re lucky though, Chris might tell you about his favourite synthesizers, and get lost in a conversation all about electronics and sound. Which is exactly where Chris wants to be - lost in electronics and sound.

DBFC is not a band, its a club
DBFC has no strategy
DBFC is not interested in any political lies or promises
DBFC is inspired by the spontaneous combustion of the sixties and the endless possibilities of dance music
DBFC is not afraid to be accused of being schizophrenic nor longing to be praised for its diversity
DBFC refuses to choose between making dance records or rock records
DBFC is Dombrance, David Shaw, Antoine Reininger and Guillaume Rossel

charl le grange is following