In 13 tracks Jan blomqvisted his own musical journey: a pinch of Portishead, a dash of r ’n’ b, Radiohead of course, and the minimal sound of the noughties: Breathy melodies, souly vocals, clear and obscure lyrics. Only to realize that you’ve already started nodding along long ago. Bleep, bleep! To dance on a rooftop terrace while the sun’s setting behind dark clouds. Radically democratic world hugging electronics. With it’s immediate deep and characteristic JB feel. For him, being in the studio is/means to draw from his experience playing live (live experience).Īnd now, bang, there’s REMOTE CONTROL. He loves half beats but hates half measures. Jan remembers them all: New York, Moscow, Paris, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Rome, San Francisco, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Athens, Budapest, Beirut, Tunis, Naples, Bucharest, Warsaw, Zurich, Marseilles, Montpellier, Thessaloniki, Munich, Vienna, London… For his first album he’s taking as much time as he needs. “The more the merrier.” In 2012 a rooftop concert at weekend club the YouTube clip is going to be seen by millions. Everything kept simple with finesse en detail.”Īnd then, boom: In 2011, a gig at fusion festival in front of 3000 people, releases on the Dantze and Stil vor Talent. Someday it’ll work: “to shatter the boredom in the clubs, to bring a concert feel to their dance floors, with simple vocals and minimal beats. He earns (is earning) money as a bartender at weekend club and spends it on ‘educational trips’: Radiohead open-air concerts, Bar25, After Hours. At night, he constructs his tracks for hours on end. “Being a teacher is riskier if you don’t like to get up in the mornings.” It dawns on him that music could be a profession. At the age of 21, being an aerospace technology student, he gets acquainted with techno. The school band didn’t want him as a member. Then comes Punk: “musically rather destructive, but more or less character-building.” The first money earned was spent on an amp. He formed/founded his first band in a little village in lower Saxony, Germany. Just as he had learned to play like Keith Richards, he realized he’d rather be like Mick Jagger. His hippie parents approved and bought him his first guitar. With his band BLOMQVIST he’s into dancy electro-pop, as a solo-artist, he plays clubsoul.Īs a kid Jan never cried, just sang. It was him who invented concert techno: dreamy vocals and simple beats. due to the music production process and the remixes i have made for monolink or jan blomqvist a friendship was created, and it's beautiful that we've created these tracks together.Jan Blomqvist, born in the 80s (not in Sweden) is a Berlin-based solo-artist and bandleader. I absolutely loved it to work with him and all other collaborators of the album. it’s a sweet sensation to leave it all behind. i like those similarities, I guess it’s what makes us feel alive.
a similar thing can happen when you lose yourself in a person, when you fall in love or into something else. a black hole is interesting in so many ways, as it turns laws of physics and everything we think we know upside down, the closer we get to it. pain, joy, hope and fear and love are part of the shared identity.īlack hole was written the day a scientific breakthrough was released, having taken the first actual image of a black hole. The main inspiration of hunting is a shared identity between people who understands themselves without any words. Finding a sense of hope and optimism in uplifting emotions and euphoric melodies, Ben's debut album ‘Breathing’ marks the closing of a chapter in Ben’s life, the culmination of a period of heartache and recovery, and a coming of age as an artist. The moody and reflective sounds of Ben’s early work made way for brighter and more melodic music, keeping the depth and texture, but changing the tone from darkness to light. Whilst overcoming this loss, Ben found solace in music. Not long afterwards, Ben lost a close family member, and both his life and his music changed course. In addition to running his own fledgling label Tön Töpferei, Ben has put out singles on Anjunadeep and acclaimed remixes for Monolink and Jan Blomqvist, both of whom now feature on Ben’s debut LP.īen’s early releases on tastemaker labels Bade and Keller drew comparison to revered producers Recondite and Francesco Tristano - dark tracks dotted with classical influence, featuring haunting piano lines and discordant strings. Berlin based producer and live artist Ben Böhmer has risen through the Anjunadeep ranks to become a breakout star of the past 18 months, amassing almost 40 million streams, picking up BBC Radio 1 support from Annie Mac and Pete Tong, including an ‘Essential New Tune’, and being featured in Billboard’s ‘Ones To Watch’.