Thomas Fehlmann

Prolific techno pioneer Thomas Fehlmann comes out with his sixth solo album, Gute Luft, on Kompakt. Born in Switzerland in 1957, and residing in Germany since 1984, this legendary producer has an extensive catalogue of material under his belt. Starting with founding the Teutonic Beat label, which became an outsource for such artists as Jörg Burger, Wolfgang Voigt and Moritz von Oswald, to contributing to the world-renowned Orb, Fehlmann also provided the soundtrack for German documentary 24H Berlin, which follows the lives of several Berliners over a 24-hour period. The unused material, combined with elements from his previous albums, makes up Gute Luft. As Fehlmann describes it, "there are many more ways to explore and experiment with certain ideas than just on a single track." He also gives credit to Berlin, and asked himself during the process: "What holds it all together in Berlin? I figured that air, the good old Berliner Luft, is something that is guaranteed to touch everyone and everything in the city." On Guft Luft, Thomas delivers lush melodic arrangements and blissful dub ambience, with delicately driven shuffles. If this is a true representation of Berlin's magic, we all need to hop on the next plane. Guft Luft is one of Fehlmann's finest releases.