One of the primary producers on Gudrun Gut's Berlin-based electronic-pop label Monika Enterprise, Barbara Morgenstern debuted in 1999 with the Vermona ET 6-1 album. Through 2000's Fjorden and 2003's Nichts Muss, her melodic sense became more pronounced, and with time she also began fielding remix requests for the likes of Dntel, Station 17, Ellen Allien, Malaria!, and Smash TV. Tesri, a collaborative release with To Rococo Rot's Robert Lippok, came out in mid-2005. The Grass Is Always Greener followed in 2006. BM, released two years later, featured a collaboration with Robert Wyatt, while 2010's Fan No. 2 gathered stray tracks while also functioning as something of a career overview. In June 2012 her new album Sweet Silence has been released on Monika Enterprise.

Mieko Shimizu aka ‘Mico’ is a prolific London based Japanese composer, singer and producer, with several diverse and accomplished albums already under her belt. She erupted onto the scene with the searing audio art of her alter ego Apache 61, fusing layers of cross woven breaks and shattered percussion, whilst battling shards of sub bass within stateless melodies drawn from the fringes of the avant-garde.  Her forthcoming album, 'My Tentacles' sees her return to a deeper more reflective state in the cavernous depth of sumptuous symphonic songs that oscillate with glitchy electronica. It's quite simply a gorgeous album, interleaving magical melodies and rich harmonics; with songs that are both beautiful in their sincerity and tantalising in their complexity.

She has collaborated with Mick Karn (ex-Japan), David Cunningham (The Flying Lizards) and Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot) and re-mixed the likes of Coldcut and Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono of the cult electro-pop act, signed “the Japanese Drum’ n Bass Ninja”, to his label 'Daisy World'. Word quickly spread of her incredible live shows bringing a steady stream of appearances as far a field as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Japan as well Sonar, alongside the mighty Kraftwerk. She has released tracks on compilations by hip Berlin Label Monika which works with artists who have turned away both from the glossy world of corporate clubbing and the tired formulae of indie guitar rock.' Recent works included collaboration with Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra on Japanese silent film 'Yogoto no Yume' by Mikio Naruse at The Barbican and a commission for the exciting 21st vision of what opera might become; Opera Shots.

Adding yet another string to her bow, Mico was recently made an 'Emerging Artist in Residence’ at London's Southbank Centre where she collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall with her own orchestral compositions. Mico has recently been working on the quirky animation film 'Being Bradford Dillman' which premiered at this years at the London Film Festival also on the theatrical production of 'Lost Monsters' at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, as well as scoring for contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance Theatre (Leeds) and for the Ballet ‘The Red Balloon’ with choreographer Aletta Collins at London's Royal Opera House.

'My Tentacles' is due for release in January 2012.  Prepare to experience an astonishing piece of work.


Musikkrause
Started as a FAT sister label, with an eccentric bent and experimentally “too intellectual” with its heads out the window. Above all, a raw cut and clever yet boozy funk understanding from Metaboman the platform was, always MK, but a shared stylistic closeness through Robag Wruhme. In the present as an emancipated partner alongside FAT on the same level. Here comes about the stuff which is a bit club dweller-ish outsider (!): functional, experiment, melodic lone purloiner, slicked up snarky paired with a jazzy panorama and frivolic understanding of song hand in hand. As special tid-bits come to light next to Metaboman along with Krause Duo and Robag Wruhme and other sonic artists like Ian Simmonds, Schleck und Stecker, Portable, Someone Else on Musikkrause the shine of the speaker boxes.
   
With a wide awake view to the future, the right mélange of tradition, down-to-earth instincts and the adventurist appetite bend the parameters in the direction of…wrong-headed sympathetic humanity in a paradise of electronic music brought to tears, scrumptious, freak-out and fleshly depth. There is also the exception without the cemented delusions of grandeur…how does the German sitcom main character Stromberg put it: “If you allow the butter to be taken from the bread, then eventually you won’t even have the bread!”


Shabnam Shabazi is following