🚨 BALANCE CROATIA FESTIVAL 2026 🚨
Thursday 6th August - Monday 10th August 2026

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Lineup

Adam Freeland
Aera
Alex Banks 
Alex O’Rion
Amonita
Andrologic 
Anthony Pappa 
Atish 
Aubrey Fry
Carina Lawrence
Chicola 
Cristina Tosio
D-Nox 
Danny Howells*
Danny Tenaglia 
Dave Seaman
DJ Ruby 
Dmitry Molosh
Dobar House 
Dowden 
Eichenbaum 
Eli Nissan 
Elliot Moriarty
Emi Galvan
Ezequiel Arias
Gai Barone 
GMJ & Matter
Graziano Raffa 
Guy J 
Guy Mantzur 
Henry Saiz 
Hernan Cattaneo 
Hicky & Kalo
Hyunji-A
James Zabiela
Jamie Stevens
Jeremy Olander
Jerpa 
Jody Barr
Jody Wisternoff 
Joe Miller
John 00 Fleming 
John Cosani
John Digweed* 
Kabi 
Kamilo Sanclemente 
Karl Pilbrow 
Kasey Taylor
Khen
Lee Burridge
Lemon
Lloyd Barwood
Lost Desert 
Lost Miracle (Sebastien Leger & Roy Rosenfeld)
Mai Lawson 
Marcelo Vasami 
Mariano Mellino
Marko Felinger 
Marsh 
Martin Fredes
Martin Roth 
Matthew Sona 
Maze 28 
Mike Rish 
Miss Melera
Nick Stoynoff 
Nick Varon 
Nick Warren
Nicolas Rada
Patrice Baumel
Petar Dundov
Peter Makto
Pole Folder 
Powel 
Rocio Portillo
Sasha
Simon Vuarambon 
Simply City 
Spencer Brown
Stereo Underground 
Tim Green 
Tonaco 
Zankee Gulati 

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Iconic electronic compilation series & music imprint

Est. 2000

Flying the flag for ‘quality independent electronic music’, born and bred on a national and global scale in their homebase of Australia and beyond, Balance Music have been at the very forefront of underground house music since its inception, expertly guided by experienced director Tom Pandzic. Their revered Balance Mix Series (Established in 2000) has seen the likes of Max Cooper, James Zabiela, Kolsch, Hernan Cattaneo, Henry Saiz, Danny Tenaglia, Deetron, Joris Voorn, Patrice Baumel, James Holden, Agoria, Phil K (R.I.P.), and more step up to the plate for one of the most essential collections across the entirety of the electronica spectrum, whilst Balance Series, their showcase for expressive tech, progressive and wider variations of house music, is a focal point of the sound. The latter has nurtured top-drawer releases from quality artists encompassing a plethora of upcoming and established acts. As the brand continues to grow exponentially, their ever-expansive popularity shows no signs of letting up. - Juno

For Rune Reilly Kölsch, Kompakt has become a great label to call home. In 2013 the German imprint celebrated 20 years of record releases at the cutting edge of electronic music, championed in June by one of the most genre re-defining albums and personal music projects for an era: Kölsch’s landmark long player, ‘1977’.

A melodic autobiography on black wax, the Kölsch project has seen 36/37-year-old Rune take stock of a diverse and successful production career and draw upon his own personal beginnings: a nostalgia for childhood, family, friends and the confusion of applying his split-cultural heritage to what it means to think of ‘home’. As Rune freely admits, “being half Irish, half German and living in Denmark – it was all one big messy period of my life.” 

Born to hippie parents in the freetown of Christiania (a commune-like autonomous borough of the Danish capital Copenhagen) his childhood was spent surrounded by creativity. His mother was an artist whose family had roots in German politics and his father a singer songwriter who travelled through Asia playing music in the early 70's. Kölsch, however, did miss out on building friendships and found solace in making up “this imaginary world that I would spend days in,” before the family moved to Germany – a period of memories, relations and characters from which ‘1977’ derives its titles.

For Rune, the tracks he began building from 2010 took in this personal reflection, his being “completely locked in to reminiscing about what shaped me as a kid and into the individual that I am now” – contemplating his unique past to form the brickwork of ‘1977’, one of the most future-facing techno albums of recent years.

Influenced by hip hop, pop and the incredible legacy of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, Rune started producing in 1995, embarking on a string of success stories. In 2003 he released the multi-million selling, saxophone-infused ‘Calabria’, that saw collaboration requests pouring in from artists as diverse as Nicki Minaj, Shakira and Flo Rida. He then set up Tattoorecs – releasing pioneering underground tracks with no titles, just tattoos for artwork, that garnered critical acclaim and support from minimal and techno trailblazers such as Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Tiefschwarz and Ricardo Villalobos.

This appreciation of the complete musical spectrum has gifted Rune with a devotion to groove and melodics and with it the dexterity to input real creative change to the genres he reveres, not least his beloved techno. “2010 was the year of the ketamine house wave, where the music was 118 bpm and everything was extremely boring”, reflects Rune. “I wanted some melodic techno, some energy back in this scene. People needed the energy to express themselves and go crazy for a bit.”

This notion faced opposition, even from within Rune’s close circles. But it was Kompakt founder Michael Mayer who had the insight to see what Kölsch was trying to achieve. Rune’s conviction that vibrations and melodics are the key to human response had tipped the balance, underlined by his experience as a hip hop DJ where he “needed something to catch me and drag me in. And that’s what techno should do!” Here too he drew on his love of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, recalling how “they used to make mistakes all the time. It would be a big mash of all kinds of stuff, but at least something was happening. That’s what I was missing and that’s what I’m trying to change with the Kölsch project.”

The result is ‘1977’, a personal collection of dancefloor destroyers that are continuing to send clubs and festivals across the globe into melodic supernova. Take this video of Kölsch’s set at Belgium’s I Love Techno festival, one of Rune’s 2013 highlights, where “people were doing sit downs, singing along to all the tracks”. Watch it. It puts the hairs up on the back of your neck. “The response was overwhelming,” said Rune in a recent interview with Mixmag (who named Kölsch as one of their ‘Stars Of 2013’), as “when you think about it, it was just a bunch of childhood memories with a kickdrum underneath.” 

Elsewhere he’s ripped up the airways with an acclaimed Essential Mix for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1, delivered his incendiary soundscape to Singapore’s world-renowned ZoukOut Festival, boomed his live show through the heaving basement of London’s XOYO and played the hallowed Space Terrace – in his words “a boyhood dream since I started going to Ibiza in 1999. That was what I wanted from life!” So opening Amnesia in 2014 with Joris Voorn will be a bonus then...

While these are reasons enough to keep the beaming smile beneath Kölsch’s trademark black fedora, his humility remains just as striking. While tracks like ‘Goldfisch’ have taken pivotal positions in the set lists of world class DJs from across the dance music spectrum – traversing the underground with Seth Troxler, while simultaneously providing credible new euphoric highs for the likes of Axwell – Rune remains joyously down to earth. All despite producing, with ‘1977’, an album that has crossed as many cultural and musical boundaries as his own childhood past.

From the face-twisting melodic drive of ‘Opa’ and ‘Bappedekkel’, to the chord-surfing piano groove of ‘Der Alte’ and the euphoric crescendos of ‘Lorely’, ‘Oma’ and ‘All That Matters’ (all hits in different countries), the fact remains that whether in your living room, on the dancefloors of the world’s greatest parties, or simply in your headphones on your way home, Kölsch’s ‘1977’ has re-defined techno and become an achievement that speaks for itself. 

Words: Phil Dudman – Clubs & Live Music Editor, Mixmag


France leading electronic music & culture magazine and website, created in Paris in 1997.

Arnaud Rebotini is a singer, songwriter, producer and remixer, he has become one of the most emblematic figures in electronic music today, adept at straddling genres, both avant-garde and timeless, and bringing them together. 
For example, his Zend Avesta project (Organique, Universal 2000) married electronic music with a chamber orchestra. 
With his analogue synthesisers, he became a central figure on the scene of new international techno, marking renewed enthusiasm for the use of electronic instruments rather than just computers. His live shows have always been unanimously celebrated (Music Components, Citizen 2008, Someone Give Me Religion, K7 - 2010) and his remixes for pour Depeche Mode, David Guetta, Rammstein, The Rapture, Bloc Party, Acid Washed and Tristesse Contemporaine are as indicative of his sets at the biggest clubs and festivals (playing live or mixing) as his collaboration with the highbrow Groupe de Recherches Musicales, especially with Christian Zanési for their Frontières project.

Connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and irl through parties, film and video.

E.N.Records is a free music label by Electro News



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