We are a blog, record label and mix series for electronic music, in the genres House, Tech House, Deep House, Minimal and Techno! We curate, promote and select fresh music for DJ's, listeners and creators on all our platforms. FDF started 2014 with the simple idea of the "Free Download Friday"!

Genre: 
Melodic Deep House Lounge Ibiza Style House, Elektro, EDM wenn kleine Töne GROSSE Laune machen 

Wolfgang Lohr is a Berlin based producer, composer, remixer, artist, and DJ whose career spans way back and encompasses a vast variety of different musical projects. Born in Bad Segeberg and raised in Lübeck (GER) by the Baltic Sea, where he served as a trumpeter, singer, and songwriter for the ska band “DaSKArtell” (@das-kartell).

He finally moved to Berlin in 2007 and dove right into its colorful and flourishing electro scene. Till this day he’s involved in several groups and productions, such as the Disco-House duo “DINKS” (@dinksmusik) and the Tech House outfit “Dorade” (@dorademusik), making him a mainstay of the scene who has created remixes for well known, fellow artists like Felix Jaehn, Parov Stelar, Alle Farben, The Manhattan Transfer and In-Grid.

His cover of Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack” has surpassed a total of 90 million plays and has turned Lohr into one of the most sought-after Electro Swing artists worldwide, with a catalogue that now spans about 150 own tracks and remixes.

In addition to his musical endeavors, he has co-founded a Tech House label Coast Connection (@coastconnectionrecords), the “FDF” music blog (@free-download-friday), turned House-label “FDF Records”, as well as the “Electro Swing Thing” (@electroswing) label that has become a home to the versatile cross-over genre and amplifies the voices of its artists.

Booking Request: 
info@electroswingthing.com

CHECK OUT MY LATEST SINGLE:
linktr.ee/klingande

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


x ~..~ x

In love with Music  -> Collecting Music -> Sharing Music

Akustische Ausdrucksweise,
zur positiven Anregung von Mitmenschen.
Auf der Suche nach Einklang.

🎹 Electro-Folk, Deep House, Tropical & Chill. 

Behind the stage name “Karlk” hides Charles Perrono. Born in Lorient in the West of France. Mixing world music influences with electronic styles ranging from Electro Chill to Deep House, Karlk found early success releasing music online. His breakout hit “What I Want,” created with the DJ duo Ofenbach, earned him million streams and charted internationally. The track was later featured in a Google advertising campaign or even playlisted on the International Space Station, further elevating Karlk's profile.

A self-taught composer and producer, Karlk was introduced to music at the age of seven. Turning his back on “too academic” music theory lessons, he taught himself to play several instruments, including guitar, drums and piano.

Multi-instrumentalist, he began to compose on Ableton Live, pieces mixing world and electronic music, from Chill to Electro Pop, via Deep House. He enjoyed dazzling success on the web and reached million streams, which made it possible to sign on labels such as Universal Music, PIAS or Times Records. He performs in important festivals in Europe such as Lakedance or Transmusicales.

In 2017, he released his debut album, Crossroads, which included two global hits: “Daydreamer” and “Jeff.” Though Karlk has begun composing for film, TV, and video games in recent years, he is preparing to release his second album “Silent Echoes” in 2024.   

Throughout his career, Karlk has fused diverse musical influences with modern production techniques to create an eclectic but cohesive discography. His self-taught approach and persistent experimentation have paved the way for his evolution from bedroom producer to international star.

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