Put on headphones, close your eyes and merge into Benedikt Frey’s 'Fastlane'. Imagine you’re sitting in the driver’s seat of a an automobile, one with exceptional horsepower and torque, and as you stare out the windshield you see the red light, warping in fata-morgana, about a mile down the road. It’s a straight road, black top, two lanes, and against your better judgment you’ve decided to floor the gas. There’s no hesitation in your muscle, your ankle or the ball of your foot, which you’ve realized is some kind of universal pivot, a first point of contact that merges your body with the will of machine. In this moment you’re in awe of the reality that you, a human being, an animal, could have grown out of pond scum into something so advanced as to engineer this thing, a mechanical beast capable of such overwhelming power and exhilaration, but you also feel a seductive dread, an outside force diverting you from caution toward a dangling carrot of curiosity, asking yourself, How far can I take this thing? The dread, now constant, is numbed, equalized by an adverse and intoxicating gratification. You feel both of these sensations in real time, however, instead of taking responsibility for yourself, friends, family and innocent bystanders, you cement your foot to the floor and lean your head back. The noise around you fades to mute, you smell the benzene-scented air, feel the wind on your face, the menacing vibration of the vessel you control beneath you and every grain of asphalt under its tires. This mile has now lasted an eternity and you’ve left your body for some outside view, as if you’re watching the high climax scene in a film. You’re past the point of no return so you embrace this sense of abandon and lean into fate. The film has become slow motion, crawling at a pace so mesmerizing you convince yourself there is an option to eject yourself from this madness, but as you finally let go of your last morsel of fear, you run the red light and become the nucleus of a fantastic glistening sculpture of torn metal, glass, oil, broken dreams and heartache. 'Fastlane' may be just drum machines and synthesizers if you’re timid, but listen harder and hear a catastrophic reality of existence, a wreckage so gruesome we dare not rubberneck, but it is our nature to stare.

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D3 - 1337 - SNIPPET

Andreas was born here in June on the beautiful planet Earth in a magnificent solar system. He is very grateful for this, and since then he has enjoyed all kinds of lively music, which plays an important role in his life. He thanks all artists and music lovers for allowing him to continue to experience his life with all its ups and downs ;-)

Music is a special kind of safe in which you can give free rein to your boundless creativity to continue to record positive events in life and process less positive ones. In this sense, time does not stand still, but music remains timeless....🎶💜🎶

+ @riolabel @initinit

Benedikt Frey is many. Or just one? He is a composer. An arranger. A DJ. A ghost producer. A fan. He plays in bands like INIT, or Dolphins or KEYS +++ produced the last two albums for Chris Imler. Downbeat in experimental dub zones. The goat for Edits and remixes. When house was his nation, he used to listen to pen names like Suedmilch or Venedikt Reyf. He still likes the music formed under their umbrella, but today his tomorrow is not echoed in yesterday. His sound signature moved on. Into the open. He founded labels like R.i.O. or Serious Trouble. 

He lives in Berlin. Physically. In mind Benedikt Frey is at many places. Traveling far thru his home studio that is a flat a studio a flat an instrument a record collection a flat a studio. Everywhere gear, vinyl, tapes, instruments, rooms for spontaneous sonic notions, these moments, when a sudden strike of stimulation falls. He is inspired a lot. For music to dance. Music for films. Music for live shows. Music for dancing glows. Techno, house, downbeat, ambient, jungle, electronics outside the norms. Those transportive ones. Jamming with others. Jamming with his mind. In Berlin Wedding, North of the town, where the lights dimmed low, neighbors share the flow, and a small river runs slow.  As a DJ he plays here, there, everywhere. Big clubs, small shacks, festivals, gatherings. From fast to 90 BPM - as he feels. 

For himself. For the crowd. In the spur. He still remembers his club kid days. Going to dance with friends. Down there in Offenbach. Doing the Robert Johnson. Collective emotions for a better tomorrow. These he still seeks. In his music. His shows. His collaborations. You can book him for a party. For enlightenment. For ecstasy or introspective perspectives. Dancing slow, whilst pirouetting a high-pitched show. 

Since more than a decade. His own music is out there, too. Bringing his spirits in sound. On his own labels. On international imprints like ESP Institute, Hivern Discs, Craigie Knowes, or Emotional Response. Solo works. Driving ones. Slow drills. Teased during his DJ dates around the planet. 

The music plays day and night. Inspiration comes. From a simple kick drum. A movie sequence. A bird on the sill. A picture, totally still. Can’t kick that feeling when it hits. Benedikt Frey. In dreams. In streams. In music. Emotions. Situations. At night. In those flashy lights, when it bites.

24.5. b2b with NVST, Kauz Zürich
10.05. Säälchen, Berlin
26.04. Zentralwäscherei, Zürich
25.04. b2b Philipp Otterbach, Arkaoda, Berlin
04.04. Sameheads, Berlin
13.03. Säule, Berlin
22.02. Kegelbahn, Luzern
21.02. Fribourg, CH

---- BYE24

17.12. Kiosk Radio,  Bxl
15.12. Curly Teeth b2b w. NVST, Bxl
30.11. Panorama Bar, Berlin
16.11. La Culottee, Paris
19.10. LAF, Pforzhyme
05.10. Sameheads, Berlin
28.09. Buka, Milan
21.09. Chemiefabrik, Zürich
14.09. Ausland, Berlin
16.08. Salon Des Amateurs, Düsseldorf
21.07. Am Bach Festival, Lucerne
05.07. Kappa Futur Festival, Turin
14.06. Masters, Zagreb
18.05. Outracena, Lisbon
27.04. Arkaoda, Berlin
24.02. Macadam, Nantes
26.01. Sameheads, Berlin

Welcome to the ESP Institute. Please remove your shoes at the door. Thank you.

Various music lover <3
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