In the second half of the nineties some dark shadows flitted over otherwise very idyllic and peaceful Mecklenburg: Above all some young people searched for a reason for their acute hopelessness und reckoned to find it in the foreign on which they focussed their hate from then on. In contrast to the quickly spreading right-wing radicalism a group of artists and musicians from the area of the small town Neustrelitz demonstrated an alternative by their tolerant and cosmopolitan lifestyle. They tried to establish a new perspective which enabled people to enjoy their lives without being poisoned by hate. In the language of electronic dance music they spread their message and rapidly found followers who also just wanted to have a good time in the wonderful nature of Mecklenburg. In this way they contributed some important youth welfare work to the area and became locally well known under the name Forschritt3000 from 1998. It’s hard to say how many people put their efforts into this project over all the years but it’s been a lot. Without peering at recent trends too much or developing a profiling compulsion Fortschritt3000 grew steadily and today features the two music labels 3000° and Acker Records, a small booking agency as well as the own series of events SOS U-Ground. Latter supports the region with its frequent parties on the venue of Fusion Festival with electronic music culture and incidentally also was the setting for the available live recording.

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A CD inlay (from “Dreher & Smart – Wandertag”) with this profile text is available for download here.

From the conservatively arranged, gloomy desolateness of the everyday life in Western Germany’s province metropolis Muenster, three coloured crystallization points of contemporary illustration and character arts are sparkling recently. All the various colours of everyday emotional life are flamboyantly refracting here and create an inspiring kaleidoscopic play of exotic beauty. The name of this glistening construct is toytoi and as one might adumbrate now, the project of the graduate designers Andrey Duhnev, Malte Rommel and Jan Philipp Huss pursues a relaxed and playful approach. The young label presented its first product around the end of the past year. Produced in a low number of pieces, the toytoi calendar represents kind of an introducing portfolio for lovers of the genre: Sometimes the technical precision of vector graphics meets the organic perfection of nature, then pretty conflicting emotions join in a morbid but charming way and then again the optical journey leads into the multicoloured worlds of obscure shapes and psychedelic patterns. Quite often a distinct pregnancy of meaning can be diagnosed and always there are allusions to contemporary designer and vinyl toys flashing through. Though the works of the different toytoi protagonists are pretty heterogeneous, they appear to be astonishing coherent and complementary when presented next to each other. Beside these diverse internal resources, the label also implemented up-to-date interfaces for an exchange with external creativity potentials: The so called custom- character campaign enables people to download the digital folding template for a dummy, transfer it to the world beyond bits and bytes via a printer and finally to create a very own little character sculpture with the help of a scissor, glue, some dexterity and all above a proper portion of creativity. Apropos sculpture: At the beginning of 2010 the crew of toytoi is diligently busy with getting the cosy optics of certain works literally tangible…

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A PDF Version of this profile text is available for download here.

The first sunrays of the newborn year force their shiny way through some window cracks when the party in the small club approaches an explosive climax. It is that much packed that aimed movement becomes difficult now, and also it is difficult to hide away from the omnipresent phat smile on the faces of the crowd who is boisterously grooving to the four to the floor beats.

But other than one might expect in face of this scenario, we are neither in the trendy capital of Germany nor in another metropolis. Just the opposite, ideas of urbanity are fairly uncommon in connection with the small North German city of Lueneburg. But nevertheless it is just here where dance events take place frequently, whose high and stable quality level is everything but natural in certain big cities despite their much larger selection.

The reason for this remarkable characteristic is Sonic Fiction. Since 2001, this party collective represents the creative crystallization point of the small city surrounded by the famous heath named after it and despite its inconspicuous environment, it sparkles in exotic beauty. From the very beginning, the creative demands of the small crew have been very high so that Gameboy- controlled sound generators or noise experiments with tortilla chips have been just as usual on their events as a bass guitar or a drum kit beside the DJ booth. Combined with a conceivable relaxed approach, that was driven by the emotional outcome of the mutual party experience rather than by the monetary one, the events of Sonic Fiction met with the approval of the student scene of Lueneburg very quick. In 2003 an own label was founded as a musical launch pad to catapult the increasingly high creative output of the crew and their friends also beyond the frontiers of the Lueneburg Heath. And just from here another sound satellite has been launched into the sound cosmos recently, whose name equals the motto of Sonic Fiction: As long as there is electricity!

Representing an entertaining portfolio, the recent Sonic Fiction compilation gives a musical impression of the work of the crew and in this way also an idea how varied their parties are. The spectrum reaches from the light and bouncy Tech House beats of mister Patlac, well known throughout Europe for his releases on Liebe* Detail by now, to the forcing groove of the newcomers Wagner & Großmann to the refreshing hearty bang of Sonic Fiction’s progressive thinker Harm. But as always when it comes to the description of complex sensory perception, words come up against limiting factors pretty fast. That’s why dedicated listeners are advised just to give a listen to the attached CD. Extensive information about all the Sonic Fiction artists is included in the following biography texts.

As long as there is electricity! And since this is obviously the case and obviously not only in picturesque, little Lueneburg, you get finally involved now: We discovered you as a similarly passionate party promoter who knows his craft very well. And since birds of a feather flock together, we would be really happy to work together with you on our recent Sampler Release tour!

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A PDF version of this text is available for download here.