Benedikt Frey (Serious Trouble / R-i-O //Berlin)
@freybenedikt

Illustration:
@steviewhisper

Benedikt Frey says Yes.

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.

Buy from ESP

D1 - Silverblade (ft O-Wells) - SNIPPET

Interview & Tracklisting: http://bit.ly/bndktfr

Am Deck 16 - Benedikt Frey

The Year of The Radical Romantics

Mustn't Hurry (Radical Romantics Session)

British-German musician and former political journalist Anika delivers a guest mix ahead of her new album Abyss, out soon on Sacred Bones. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/anika-8th-july-2025

Anika 080725

sub-heavy 140 pressure for the deep bass heads; raw underground...
mix intro: field recording I captured of police helicopters scanning Stokes Croft, Bristol 2013

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EAT LIQUID is a Live LP by Annika Henderson, aka ANIKA, composed for and performed at the Zeiss Planetarium in Berlin in Feb 2023.

Can music be used to elevate the consciousness into psychedelic experiences?

We all seek escape in differing moments, through drugs, alcohol, sex and film but can music offer an alternative? Anika offers a journey into another realm, a safe place, a-top a dreamy soundscape of whining synths, siren calls, long-tailed guitar, all over the grid, to re-find the center of ourselves, a stay-cation to the inner realm, to unpick the stresses of modern day life – a complete experiment with no sinister motives. Spoken word includes cut-ups from Timothy Leary’s 'The Psychedelic Experience' 'First Bardo Instructions' during 'Climb On Board'.

STARGAZING WITH ANIKA
A poem written by Hanne Lippard in the context of the Planetarium.

Gazing at the stars
Which are not real stars
But a theater imitating the sky
in a man-made dome-shaped space
I think of asterisks
Those small stars
That are placed at the end of a word
To indicate that this is not the end
Not the end of the word
Not the end of the world
Not the end of a man-made doomed space Not the end of the sky
But rather a continuation
Of its endlessnessnessnessnessnessness 
credits
released June 9, 2023

Music, Concept and Production by Annika Henderson, bass played by Sally Whitton on Climb On-Board.

Special Thanks to Carmen Burguess, Pilocka Krach, Aude Langlois and Hanne Lippard.

Mix und Mastering: James Trevascus
Planetarium Technician: Susanne Wolff
Recording Engineer: Jonas Kimpel

Image: Florian Meyer (Still from Planetarium Live-Visuals)
Artwork: Aled Simons

Publisher: Edition Reality Baitz/Random Noize Musick
Label: Liquid Milk

Sponsored by Musikfonds e. V.

A production of the foundation »Planetarium Berlin«, first performed at »Live Radiant« Zeiss-Großplanetarium in Berlin. 

Anika - Planetarium_SIDE_A

EAT LIQUID is a Live LP by Annika Henderson, aka ANIKA, composed for and performed at the Zeiss Planetarium in Berlin in Feb 2023.

Can music be used to elevate the consciousness into psychedelic experiences?

We all seek escape in differing moments, through drugs, alcohol, sex and film but can music offer an alternative? Anika offers a journey into another realm, a safe place, a-top a dreamy soundscape of whining synths, siren calls, long-tailed guitar, all over the grid, to re-find the center of ourselves, a stay-cation to the inner realm, to unpick the stresses of modern day life – a complete experiment with no sinister motives. Spoken word includes cut-ups from Timothy Leary’s 'The Psychedelic Experience' 'First Bardo Instructions' during...  more
credits
released June 9, 2023

Music, Concept and Production by Annika Henderson, bass played by Sally Whitton on Climb On-Board.

Special Thanks to Carmen Burguess, Pilocka Krach, Aude Langlois and Hanne Lippard.

Mix und Mastering: James Trevascus
Planetarium Technician: Susanne Wolff
Recording Engineer: Jonas Kimpel

Image: Florian Meyer (Still from Planetarium Live-Visuals)
Artwork: Aled Simons

Publisher: Edition Reality Baitz/Random Noize Musick
Label: Liquid Milk

Sponsored by Musikfonds e. V.

A production of the foundation »Planetarium Berlin«, first performed at »Live Radiant« Zeiss-Großplanetarium in Berlin.

license: all rights reserved 

Anika - Planetarium_SIDE_B

(Photo credit - Fabian Kretz)

For 2018’s next expedition, veteran cosmonaut Benedikt Frey takes control of space command after making 2017 one of his several galactic conquests, putting his proverbial black, red & yellow flag in a stunning vinyl release on Bahnsteig 23, an equally stunning album on ESP, a plethora of killer remixes and continuing his record label ‘Love Pain Sunshine & Rain’. Need we say more?

His broad electronic taste is vast, and his sound can be a drift across the universe, a jump to hyperspace, industrial binary clunking or an extraterrestrial attack on the senses. Todays sample is the latter. Packed with ample 303, nothing could be better suited to help you laugh in the face of ‘dry January’, show it the Vs and prime you for the weekend.

@freybenedikt

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Benedikt Frey | 021

UK based selector, digging deep across tempos; seamless transitions, mindfully crafted to move bodies + shape atmospheres.


photography - https://www.instagram.com/thirdeyephotography.uk/

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