VA - Archive – A Frankfurt Catalouge 91-94 (2020)

Frankfurt am Main has been on the german map of electronic dance music for arguably a handful of decades, characterized by vibrant scenes of emerging artists and DJs, and a (more often than not) industrious habit, which became notorious over the course of the 1990s. The crucial years of 1991 thru 1994, in which genres increasingly became sophisticated and attributed with regional sound signifyers, saw many protagonists getting into gear for international careers, while others ditched middle-class life perspectives for making a living with music related activities.

Archive – A Frankfurt Catalogue 91-94 is a selective, rather cerebral sonic cross section of Frankfurt am Main. Unlike other compilations based on cities, Archive does not claim to be representative—it is hyper-specific and curated to emphasize the emergent sound of an era, which became a topic of special interest in recent years. Experimental, bleepy acid and techno, science fiction house music with trance seeping in around the edges—the protagonists featured on this curated Compilation represent many of Frankfurt’s burgeoning scenes back then.

The tracklist might as well be read as a rhizomatic, yet partial analysis of the Frankfurt scene around that time. The first track sees two pioneers of Frankfurt’s pre house and techno tape scene, Pink Elln (aka Tobias Freund) and Atom Heart team up as Phobia, followed by a short-lived triad called Ongaku which consisted of Atom Heart and the DJ duo of Ata and Heiko MSO. Those DJs were to co-found the Delirium record store and start their own family of record labels soon after, joined by two guys hailing from close-by Darmstadt: Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke. Roman and Jörn initially created their Alter Ego project as an outlet for releases on Harthouse; an infamous label, run by Sven Väth amongst others, which also released countless productions created by Ralf Hildenbeutel. Redeye’s and Solar Eclipse’s tracks had been released on after 6am point, a label that had once been run out of the lively and creative hub at Delirium record store. The project Sieg Über Die Sonne had been started by Tobias Freund and Martin Schopf (aka Dandy Jack) in the late 1980s, both close friends to Atom Heart, who completes this compilation with a rare house track.

The compilation Archive – A Frankfurt Catalogue 91-94 is supported by Kulturamt Frankfurt am Main.