Another Barker masterclass.

Sam Barker asks more from techno. The artist known simply as Barker is one of electronic music's most consistently conscientious and curious producers, challenging listeners to question the norms we accept about our shared culture—whether it's the music that fills the room, the process behind it, or the purpose of the space itself.

British-born yet based in Berlin since 2007, Barker forged a connection to many of the city's leading institutions, including Ostgut Ton, and over the course of a long and fruitful relationship, he carved out one of the more singular paths on the club and label's roster.

Not one for orthodoxy, Barker challenged four-to-the-floor techno framework in favor of melodic experimentation. By decentering or completely stripping away the typical trappings of kick drums and claps, his productions are both light and immersive, buoyant in low-end presence and shimmering in weightless space.

Six years after Utility, his sophomore album Stochastic Drift arrives this month. Shaped by pandemic-driven reinvention, it burrows deeper into harmonic twists and freeform drift. "At some point I became conscious of the process," he wrote of his latest album. "The only thing you can do is embrace the uncertainty and see every change as a potential positive.”

Consider his RA Podcast another sequel. Like his much-beloved 2019 mix for FACT, it's a collage of live recordings and a fitting expression of the artist's own internal spring. RA.982 radiates wide-eyed optimism: percussion cloaked in foggy, swirling pads and trance-like chords, neatly synched in synthetic glimmers. 

All in all, it's an hour of music crafted for contemplation, collective euphoria, or heads-down epiphany—or for that matter, any moment, really, its emotive depth seemingly endless.

@voltek

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/982

RA.982 Barker

DJ
Resident: @gonzostworoom
Radio: @noodsradio
Label and parties: @no-rewinds

#groove #globalgroove #hardgroove #funk #bailefunk #latincore #clublatinx #electronic #disco #nudisco #italodisco #trance #eurotrance

DJ & radio host

@RefugeWorldwide

askgoldenmedusa@gmail.com

selected past gigs: 
27.04.18 - berlin, leisure system.33 @ säule
21.06.18 - berlin @ griessmühle
25.08.18 - berlin, atonal festival @ tresor
26.10.18 - berlin, riot @ fiese remiese
03.11.18 - berlin @ diskothek melancholie 2
23.11.18 - berlin, leisure system.35 @ berghain
21.12.18 - berlin, pte @ farbfernseher
08.02.19 - berlin @ arena club
23.02.19 - berlin, weeeirdos @ ohm
08.03.19 - berlin, slave to the rave @ griessmühle
10.05.19 - berlin, herrensauna @ tresor
22.06.19 - wupptertal, yyard @ mauke
13.07.19 - berlin, mother's finest @ griessmühle
19.07.19 - stockholm, weeeirdos @ bronx sauna
23.08.19 - berlin, leisure system.36 @ berghain
01.09.19 - barcelona @ brunch-in the park
14.09.19 - copenhagen, 1yr bday @ ved siden af
04.10.19 - berlin, killekill @ griessmühle
19.10.19 - milan, cyberspeak @ secret warehouse
30.10.19 - leipzig, heet @ mjut
14.12.19 - berlin, refuge @ griessmühle
03.01.20 - berlin @ griessmühle
31.07.20 - berlin @ oxi garten
20.09.20 - berlin @ warning safe rave
03.10.20 - berlin @ oxi garten
18.09.21 - berlin, burial soil @ sc club
25.09.21 - berlin, kontinuum @ trauma bar & kino
05.11.21 - berlin @ aeden
02.04.22 - athens @ qrelcaim
22.04.22 - berlin, grounded theory @ rso
23.04.22 - düsseldorf @ salon des amateurs
28.05.22 - berlin @ oxi
11.06.22 - cologne @ gewölbe
25.06.22 - fluid festival
07.08.22 - berlin @ aeden
19.08.22 - bau mich auf festival
11.11.22 - london, technomate @ unit 58
23.11.22 - berlin @ kwia
11.03.23 - berlin @ oxi
05.05.23 - berlin, takseer @ fitzroy
24.11.23 - berlin, takseer @ panke
03.02.24 - berlin, zilzal @ panke
03.03.24 - berlin, gig for gaza @ lark
30.03.24 - berlin @ oxi
17.04.24 - berlin, la casita @ ohm
18.05.24 - barcelona @ zilzal 
27.09.24 - berlin, no stone @ panke
07.11.24 - berlin, la casita @ ohm
16.11.24 - berlin, soli party @ rote insel
15.02.25 - berlin, soli party @ rigaer94
12.07.25 - berlin, soli party @ zigrastr

RA.982 Barker

Resident Advisor