Tresor (German for safe or vault) is an underground techno nightclub and record label. The club was founded in March 1991 in the vaults of the former old Wertheim department store in Mitte, the central part of the former East Berlin.
Almost 20 years on, Tresor continues to be a popular club to this day, having expanded and reconstructed continuously several times to include an outdoor garden area, and a second "Globus" floor.
Tresor Records was founded soon after the club first opened, in October 1991. Featured artists on the label include Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Robert Hood, Stewart Walker, Joey Beltram, Pacou, Blake Baxter, Cristian Vogel and many others.
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2LP
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TRESOR 379LP
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A long-dormant signal reactivates from Hamburg's hidden places: Helena Hauff and F#X return as Black Sites with R4 on Tresor Records -- their first full-length album and the first release under the moniker since 2014. Like a hieroglyphic recently discovered and translated, R4 feels more like a long-awaited resumption than a comeback. Recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production the record is a classic example of the symbiotic relationship that can come from the interaction of human and machine. This punk ethos isn't invoked through distortion alone, but through method; in the album's breaking from the received wisdom of hardness tethered to speed as most of the tougher pieces are lower BPM and vice versa (with one notable exception in the mind-melting stomp of "BLOKK"). Across ten tracks, Black Sites traverse a landscape where genre dissolves into intention. It migrates through electro's danceability, acid house's corrosion, and into the liminal realm of machine funk -- a genre coined by Andrew Weatherall, which sounds like the results of technology dreaming of soul where the emphasis is on live execution, on immediacy over perfection -- a sound forged in the act of creating, not polishing. In a 2013 interview, around the time of the first Black Sites EP, Hauff was quoted as saying that she wants "things to fit together properly, but on another level, I really want them to make sense together." That principle animates R4: The album's form reveals itself in time, with each movement echoing and amplifying the others to create a synergistic whole. From the opening crawl of "C4" (a name that like the music foreshadows the explosions to come) to the end-of-the-night bliss of "MOTHERJAM" via the intense peaks of "BLOKK, 707," and classic acid track "3D," it's clear that R4 is a work made with serious intent; a refutation of a world where streaming has made the two-minute single the dominant musical form again. R4 demands immersion, not just attention. It is not a collection of tracks, but a singular, recursive experience: a mirror in which sound and listener repeatedly rediscover one another.
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TRESOR 002X-EP
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Throughout 2025, Tresor Records is reactivating Detroit house and techno originator Blake Baxter's vast Tresor catalogue digitally in chronological order, starting with 1992's Dream Sequence. To inaugurate and celebrate this retrospective of one the genre's true founders, an artist whose connections to Tresor go back to the very beginning, the label announces a special 12" release, Dream Sequence X, featuring remastered tracks from the early days and highlighting the harder side of his output. Initially inspired by post-punk and funk, Baxter started making music as early as 1985. By 1991 he had already released several seminal records on classic labels like Underground Resistance, KMS, and Incognito, as well as providing multiple tracks to the groundbreaking UK compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit, which was many European listeners' introduction to the genre, solidifying the term techno, and launching the international careers of many of the contributors. 1992 saw Baxter make the first trip to play Tresor, on the first UR Europe tour ever, thereby pioneering the now legendary Berlin-Detroit Connection. This visit led to a long and fruitful partnership with the club's new-fledged label beginning with Mills', Banks' & Hood's X-101 and Baxter's Dream Sequence, from which the first four tracks on the new 12" come. Whilst he would become more renowned for his signature seductive vocals and a smoother music style closer to house music, these early tracks are heavier, classic '90s techno, revealing the influence of industrial, post-punk and pop of the time. Indeed the collection is something of a time capsule: jacking 909 drums, intense, ravey synth stabs, samples from classic soul breakbeat and the Speak & Spell voice synthesizer; classic sounds and styles of the era all make appearances on the record. All tracks have been remastered by Manmade Mastering breathing a new vitality and sharpness for the modern dancefloor. In a world where longevity is difficult and superlatives are too easily deployed, it is still difficult to overstate the long-lasting influence that Blake Baxter has had on modern music. His visionary output can be heard across modern electronic and pop to this day and with this series of remasters, there has never been a better time for the world to hear it at source.
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TRESOR 375EP
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Tresor resident DJs LNS and DJ Sotofett have for some years been developing a style at the club's Globus floor, and their new EP is a die cut of exactly the classic techno, electro, and house music they play. Here are no productions drenched in reverb, no hi-fi obsessions or generic algorithmic patterns -- this is Globus Trax, the duo's third release on Tresor Records, four tracks consisting of real TR-909 workouts, rude and driving basslines, live runs through the mixing desk, and a Blake Baxter cover version with LNS on vocals. LNS & DJ Sotofett programmed an EP to perfectly fit their warehouse style of DJing, bringing out color and variation in a spectrum more similar to a club compilation than a dogmatically reduced concept. With a single repeated vocal sample, Globus Trax opens bombastically with "ClickClickClick," a dub -infused UK garage house track anyone in the world can easily describe in the course of a second. Following this comes "Gearbox" which is a hefty slab of big room electro featuring a centerpiece arpeggio and the warmest harmonic pads on the EP's four tracks, which not-so-subtly makes reference to the pioneering band that shares a name with Globus and Tresor's home, the Kraftwerk. The house vibe returns on "Destination 909," which is nothing but a manifesto for the TR-909, where the beloved drum machine's jacking beats meet galactic strings and synthetic bass, only to be ripped apart in a slamming break that sees the machine take center stage as it cuts in-and-out of the mix, again a clear nod to the duo's sets in the club. LNS steps up on vocal duties and DJ Sotofett keeps the 909 running for their final cut, taking a deeper dive into the realms of classic techno and paying tribute to "The Prince of Techno" Blake Baxter by covering his "Reach Out" originally released on Tresor Records in 1995. The 12" was cut by DJ Sotofett himself at Manmade Mastering, where he resurrects the lost art of late-'90s loud cuts with sonic presence and punch, optimal for the club-focused 12" format, and is the first to come in the new Tresor Sleeve, boasting an embossed logo on either side.
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TRESOR 373LP
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Two years after releasing the acclaimed Crash Recoil, Anthony Child aka Surgeon returns to Tresor with new LP, Shell~Wave. Retaining the minimal equipment list and studio-version-of-live-show-sets approach of the previous album in order to focus on the work itself, Shell~Wave is a deeply personal document of both where Surgeon is and has been, converging three decades of experience with a continued curiosity in the untested. From the complex, twisting track "Infinite Eye" to the caustic "Soul Fire," the eight tracks that make up the body of the album are single-take explorations of the vast, hard yet minimal techno "Child" is synonymous with. Neatly dividing the record in two, the emotional center of the record comes in the form of "Dying," a vibrating, beatless piece that with a mantra-like vocal loop steeped in reverberating effects. Further echoes of dub production appear throughout the record as tracks like "Divine Shadow," and "Empty Cloud" have an almost ever-present mist of reverberation, driven by the appearance of a new delay unit in the equipment list; while much of the philosophy of Crash Recoil's creation is present, the process and the instruments have changed as Child again switches up his approach to studio work. This insistence on trying novel techniques doesn't preclude returning to old ones, as this use of modern digital machines with live, hands-on takes that are as inspired by '60s producer Joe Meek and '70s reggae as they are by this year's synthesizer expos. This philosophy of 'time travel' is inherent to the music itself as the synchronized loops repeat while the delay and effects branch out, forming unique eddies; distinct quantum moments within the circular whole; the future leaking through the spaces between the sounds. All of the concepts on the album are perfectly communicated through the painting by Taiwanese artist Jazz Szu-Ying Chen which suggests the movement of water, sound waves, and the chitinous shells of sea creatures.
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TRESOR 374EP
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To speak to Luca Daniel Schwarz aka LDS about his music is to be enthusiastically guided into a complex world of his own creation: clean and powerful techno which pulses with life from the textured patterns and drum sequences that have fills and accents that would make anyone who's picked up a set of drumsticks envious. Yet this ecosystem of noise is deceptive; Schwarz's process for making music is very different to how a live drummer would create the same subtlety of performance. Forever researching new technology, Luca got deeply interested in different programming languages, and created a series of probability-based music tools for maneuvering sounds and sequencing. Manipulating those probabilities takes a skillful alchemy, needing understanding of both musical structure and how the tools he devised work. To return to the drummer analogy, if the drummer is focused and intentional in the moment of playing, then the method used in LDS tracks is almost diametrically opposed, with all of the intention coming in the assembly of the instruments, potential paths, and gateways; once play is pressed the music flows, following all the rules that were set in advance, not unlike a domino run or Rube Goldberg machine. And like a domino run, the results are fascinating and, ultimately, fun: staccato vocals pop in and out in "zipp prompt"; laser-like synths pulse; background noises sweep across the aural plane of the dub techno of "diff, blockmix" and "pow" adding texture that brings vitality all-too-easily missed out when complex mathematical processes become entwined with music creation. The high sensitivity to texture and rhythmic detail in "Stadion Progg" is multiplied further on Jean Redondo's remix -- whose track, "Hypersonic," was the backbone of 2023's yet compilation on Tresor. The balance between technology and a sense of fun might also come from the maker; it's not easy to overstate Schwarz's passion for what is now his favorite way to make music, "it never gets boring. There's always a moment of anticipation to see what actually emerges." And the true Power Of 2 comes into play when the resulting music can be fed back through the system again and again, potentiating the music in exponential ways.
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12"
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TRESOR 376EP
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Donato Basile AKA DJ Plant Texture always wants his music to tell a story, and with his debut EP on Tresor Records, entitled Life, he's now trying to tell the biggest story there is. According to the artist, "Life is about the fear of growing up; both the anxiety itself and acknowledging and moving past it." This narrative seems to have struck a chord with those who have heard the track. Having used an MPC since the early 2000s, Basile feels an intuitive connection to the hardware he uses, and so the creative process is very spontaneous. This immediacy, and familiarity with his equipment is apparent on the A-side, where Basile's previous life as a drummer comes to the fore and tracks like "Cycles" and "Ripetivo" display his native understanding of groove but also how to stir things up -- the three A-side tracks find classic techno rhythms seemingly falling apart only to snap back into place even stronger. The B-side finds Donato exploring more of his melodic side with "WTT" and the aforementioned title track showing Plant Texture's love of breakbeat and classic techno.
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2LP
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TRESOR 027X-LP
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This album holds an undeniable significance, serving as a cornerstone of both techno and Tresor's legacy. Its story is deeply entwined with that of the label, following Robert Hood's Waveform Transmission 2 (TRESOR 017LP) under his The Vision moniker, released just one year earlier and reissued on Tresor in 2023. On Internal Empire, Robert Hood perfected his signature sound already present on Waveform Transmission 2, marking a pivotal moment in techno's history. It elevates its maker as master, sharing an irrefutable singular magic, sounding as present and indispensable as when first created. To understand this work fully is to stand back and celebrate its impact. Originally released in 1994, the album marks a point of transition for Robert Hood moving on from his previous collaborations within Underground Resistance. Robert Hood advanced, uncovering the power of true minimalism. Deep soul through a simplicity that showed how much could be done with so little. The devastating rhythms of this album forge the unmatched spirit of this sound, influencing generations to come. Says Hood: "I was faced with the challenge of following up on Minimal Nation. I cancelled all my tour dates for that summer, set up my studio in the living room and began to work on Internal Empire. My intention was to create something distinctively different. Looking out my living room window in Detroit watching people go by gave me a new perspective. It made me look at the world within myself. Years later I am still discovering." Red solid 2LP vinyl, full printed sleeve. Includes 60x60cm folded artwork poster, limited to 500 units. Includes download code.
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TRESOR 129XX-LP
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2LP, 180g white/grey vinyl, pantone printed sleeve, UV spot varnish. Includes download code with digital bonus tracks. In honor of its 25th anniversary, Tresor Records presents a white and grey vinyl edition of one of the most seminal albums in the label's catalog: Drexciya's Neptunes Lair. 2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label had commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalogue. These editions were released sequentially, bimonthly, starting early-September 2022. The series started with Neptune's Lair, first released in 1999, and the "Hydro Doorways" single arriving shortly after, followed by Harnessed The Storm and Digital Tsunami. In the beginning of 2023, Transllusion was released. The series was completed by the long-awaited re-release of Shifted Phases. These records, individually and as a catalogue, represent some of the most crucial moments in the Tresor label history, with the sound and mythic world of Drexciya undoubtedly inspiring generations.
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2LP
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TRESOR 057X-LP
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Patience is a virtue well-rewarded in techno; finding the right groove to build on then holding your nerve long enough to pay off the wait at the optimum moment is a much more skillful endeavor than it would seem for such a minimalistic style. And few display this talent better than Detroit originals Scan 7. Part of the hallowed Underground Resistance family, Scan 7 first broke out in the mid-'90s with a series of jacking machine funk 12"s that showcased their savvy for self-control -- a faculty they have demonstrated in releases year-on-year since. Highlighting this continuous font of vitality, Tresor Records has returned to the source and is proud to announce the reissue of Scan 7's debut LP, Dark Territory. First unleashed on the label in 1996, the album has been remastered from the original DATs by Mike Grinser, augmenting already powerful tracks such as the snake-like, teasing "Unusual Channel" (mixed by the master Blake Baxter), and the harder-edged "VII" resulting in music that will, without doubt, provoke an enhanced response when the pressure is finally released. Repressed on vinyl with updated artwork, these tracks still sound like a blueprint for the future, testament to the prescience and assurance Scan 7's leader, Trackmaster Lou, clearly had when writing "I hope you enjoy my records in the phuture to come" in the sleeve notes nearly 30 years ago.
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TRESOR 372EP
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With Multiply Your Absurdities, Helena Hauff delivers her long-awaited 12-inch debut on Tresor: a multi-colored inauguration, masterfully crafted by the inimitable Hamburg producer and DJ. The title track "Multiplying My Absurdities" opens the record, with a slow burn of magnetic synths and numbing acid drops. Through its simple yet thrilling dynamics, it occasionally falls into playful skepticism, creating something truly unique, uncompromised, and beautiful. "Punks in the Gym" is named after an infamous climbing route in Australia. As its namesake, the track mercilessly rises to a techno summit. It gets steeper and steeper with every bar, resembling a volcanic dance where 303 earthquakes shake the ground before eruptions. Once you're halfway in, there's no turning back; all you can do is keep moving forward. The closing track, "Humanoid Fruit," transports to an even darker prehistoric landscape. Synths bursts remind of fossilized Pterodactyls revived -- a challenging but rewarding trip through acidic rain and the alleys of your mind. Originally released as the soundtrack for Teslaism by artist and filmmaker Bahar Noorizadeh, a third person musical racing game featuring Elon Musk and his self-driving car/lover and life coach, as they drive towards a shareholder meeting in a post-gamified Berlin landscape. It premiered at the Tresor 31: Techno, Berlin und die große Freiheit exhibition in 2022 and deals with stimulating skepticism about the emergence of a new era after Post-fordism that she calls Teslaism: "an upgrade to the system of production and consumption predicated on advanced storytelling, financial worldbuilding, and imagineering 'the look of the future.'" What has been once inspired by Helena Hauff's dystopian sound has now been made into an official music video for the track. Much like the video, Multiply Your Absurdities represents a journey into futuristic uncertainty.
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TRESOR 371EP
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Growing up on the north Atlantic-island of Iceland bestows one with an unusual and often intense relationship with light and color: Summers come with endless days, Winters with scant sunlight yet increased sightings of the Aurora Borealis; the mysterious and awe-inspiring glow across the sky. Channeling these energies, Exos comes to Tresor with his Green Light EP, a five-track collection of the sort of spectrally rich techno synonymous with the Northman's 27-year career. Across the EP, the five tracks fizz and pulsate driving ever forward, making the release's title a three-way play on words referencing the continuous travelling of photons, the verdant warping of the Northern Lights, and the universal color for Go, for forward propulsion. Smart wordplay can also be found in titles like "Grátt Silfur," a term in Íslenska (literally "grey sliver") which signifies a tension between two parties, further extending the color metaphor and dark/light dichotomy found elsewhere. Green Light EP continues 2024's blazing return from an artist who, similar to his output, is never stagnant: ever changing form yet ever moving forward.
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TRESOR 346EP
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Writing about techno is quite difficult without falling into cliché: there are only so many ways that you can say something about a music whose core elements are forged on deliberate repetition; where real talent is attributed to those who can find the perfect groove where nothing needs added or subtracted to hold the listener's attention for upwards of five minutes. Such tracks are the hallmark of Tresor's catalogue, and this joy in repetition can be found in works from Detroit, Berlin, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and more. And it is through this lens that Parisian artist, UFO95, focuses his output, resulting in Backward Improvement, an EP that sits perfectly in the spectrum of techno found in the Tresor chronology. The title itself makes an abstract reference to the influence of the classics of the genre, inspiring him to take a distinct less-is-more approach to production for this collection of stripped-down yet unrelenting techno chiseled from the live set which has fixed UFO95 as one of the next holdfasts for the future of the scene. Perhaps it is the fact the UFO95 only performs live that had led to such crisp and focused studio productions; each of the tracks showcase the artist's burgeoning talent for creating the essential foundations of techno; perfect, looping, instinctual grooves that are counterbalanced by an apprehensive tension from off-key tones. Backward Improvement marks the addition of a new name in the list of techno's best producers and proves that while the genre may now be in its 40th year there are yet sonic explorations to be made and variations that are worth unearthing.
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TRESOR 367EP
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The word "resistance" is deeply embedded in the ethos of techno. For her debut release on the Tresor Records, the British artist and Tresor resident, Imogen, explores the concept of resilience; a related and equally vital concept. Taking its name from a theological term meaning a fundamental change of mind or spiritual conversion, Metanoia is fueled by Imogen's processing of what she describes as one of the most challenging years of her life. Any struggle against injustice or misfortune takes time and effort which requires finding a fortitude within, not only to surpass the hardship itself but to not lose oneself to despair or bitterness in the process. Imogen's journey is summed up in the lead track, 'The Way She Moves' -- resilience is, after all, a persistence to continue, to move forward. The struggle against hardship is laid out in track titles like 'Tired Bonesand Growing in the Dark' before a sense of catharsis is reached in 'Breathe Again' and 'Melancholy Flower.' The music similarly mirrors her experiences, passing through sadness, anger, before ultimately landing at acceptance and a newfound drive for self-actualization and greater interoception; after all, the end goal of any resistance is liberation.
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12"
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TRESOR 337EP
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DJ Stingray 313's Industry 4.0 EP is a sonic exploration into modern manufacturing concepts and the impact on humanity. Moods and titles across the EP cover artificial intelligence ("Large Language Model"), the internet, and robotics ("Multi-Functional Robotics" and "Sensor Data") -- all set to his signature high-energy, industrial, cyborg-style productions. Together, the tracks on Industry 4.0 work as a striking and current introspective of humanity's uncertain evolution, moving as fast as the technology it creates.
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TRESOR 360EP
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030313 -- Berlin/Detroit, the fundamental techno union. Now Carhartt WIP, whose roots can be traced to Detroit, Michigan, join forces with Tresor for a collaboration that celebrates the enduring spirit of two music metropolises. Referencing the early '90s compilations like Tresor II -- A Techno Alliance, they present a 12" mini compilation with exclusive material from both cities. The compilation opens with "I.D.L.E.," a lost Model 500 track, of essential funk that touches the techno soul of The Motorcity, with trippy melodies and cosmic drilling traversing electrified Mojo freeways. It's followed by another true Detroiter: Ectomorph's "Searching (Live At Globus)," a first extract from their live set at Globus in 2021, which BMG and Erika played on borrowed equipment after Erika's case was lost on a flight. The A-Side stays in Detroit and finishes with "Your Body," an exclusive track by AMX, also known as The AM, one of Detroit's freshest funk techno sensations. She carries on the mentorship mindset by having learned from two of the greatest: D.I.E. and Scan 7. "Your Body" is a classic techno feel swinger, where subtle chords meet drum machine funk in the spirit of early Detroit techno. DJ Stingray 313 opens the B-Side with a bang. Precisely hacked techno, full of dark funk and that special industrial jack, that the man in the mask has made his own. A total "Dynamic Instability." Magic and furious. The thrill continues with "Metal Goat," by JakoJako, one of Berlin's brightest synth sensations. She provides an introspective grower that slowly evolves into a fast-paced techno grinder, laden with micro shifts and magic twists. The final tune comes from Erik Jabari, a newcomer from the 030 zone, emerging from the Hard Wax peers with haunting modular synth techno -- a feverish minimalistic trip of motorized kicks. DJ Pete performed as spiritual guidance on this one. It's floor proven. An overall cachet of 030313 -- the small compilation with a huge techno heart.
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TRESOR 365EP
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As with their three previous releases on Tresor (Dualism, Refreshing Part 1, and Dreams) for Love Letter, Fireground have created a heady melange of styles of techno synonymous with the turn of the century with such outrageous elan and jubilation that they practically embody the musical term giocoso: "We had the 'summer' concept in mind from the beginning, this pushed us to create a message in our sound making it uplifting and engaging, capable of conveying a positive, romantic and warm vibe. In our productions we always give priority to the harmonic parts such as melodies, pads, piano and guitar riffs, the peculiarity of this EP is that all the tracks were born first from these elements, and only at the end the groove was crafted, not due to a difference in importance, rather to ensure that the rhythmic part paid as much respect as possible to the harmonic part." This decision to build upwards from the harmonics has paid dividends: the entrance of a string section provokes visions of a rapt club crowd cheering with exultation; a looped groove stimulates a connection to such gleeful nostalgia that is almost certain to be heard at many festivals in coming months; a blissful pad sweeps over a track like the first rays of sun in the morning; a filtered synth rises to be met with a xylophone-like countermelody -- every track has a moment where the music overflows with some form of happiness. Together the collection promises, and perhaps even delivers, a summer both ecstatic and joyful.
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TRESOR 370EP
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At what point does a new tool or technology become so integral to a process as to be intrinsic? And what happens if that technology starts to subordinate its user? By reflecting on these questions, Machine Alliance, the new EP by Irish producer Kerrie on Tresor Records, connects her music to the sci-fi origins of techno and electronic music in general. With inspiration from classic books and films of the genre such as The Machine Stops, The Matrix, and Blade Runner, as well as modern explorations in art and philosophy like Free Your Mind and Techno poly, the EP's title takes on two opposing but intersecting meanings. One, based on the potential for machines to take over or replace humans, is a key idea of sci-fi that seems closer to reality with the arrival of machine learning and real artificial intelligence. The second has a much more positive view, one where the "alliance" is between the artist and machine to create the music, a process she places immense value on, being both cathartic and therapeutic, whilst also being a vehicle of addition and expansion: "I feel that it's a collaboration -- the machines are precise in their timing and I add the human touch (literally) in the live performance which adds natural imperfections, so we both provide something the other can't. There's also an element of growth; the machines get updates and so are always expanding in terms of their musical capabilities. And the more I push my own technical abilities I feel we are growing together in a constant synchronized dance." This "dance" results in four tracks of classic machine funk which combine the aforementioned ideas in sci-fi with a deep lifelong affection for techno. Tracks like "Ode to the D" and "Technopoly Dream" display this love through her choice of sounds and structure, both intentional and subconscious, while "Replicants" and "Human in the Loop" project into other genres to fully round this release off as a contemporary example of music rooted in both past and future.
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TRESOR 364EP
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Datashader emerges from the shadows with a striking breaks and bass-heavy debut release that challenges the fabric of digital existence. Replete with a Dopplereffekt remix, it nods to the legacy of revered anonymous acts such as Scopex, Drexciya, and Underground Resistance, pushing the boundaries of both electronic music exploration and its conceptual underpinnings. As a critique of the erosion of genuine human connection in the digital age, Datashader delivers a barrage of billowing subs, infectious electro, recon textualized jungle, and techno, serving as a poignant counterbalance to current dance floor-centric norms. It's a contemporary anti-soundtrack that offers a haunting mirror to the societal costs of technological convenience. Musically, Datashader's practice confronts dystopian reality, highlighting the alarming consequence of people becoming mere nodes in a network, reduced to a collection of data points. This is manifested sonically by a blistering assault of breaks, recontextualized IDM, abstract electronics and otherworldly synthscapes, conceived as the aesthetic counterbalance to much of contemporary electronic music's dancefloor focus. Datashader dives deep into genres and influences which stand for a form of sonic resistance.
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TRESOR 362EP
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Repressed; R.I.P. Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant is a figure in techno history that needs little introduction. As a member of the Sandwell District collective and the label's art director he collaborated on works that were responsible for a global focal shift in the genre as their label adapted and challenged the paradigm of minimal techno, taking influence from other sources such as dub, post-punk, and even classical minimalism. But Mendez's relationship with music goes back much further than these seminal releases. With In Memoriam, Silent Servant's latest release on Tresor Records, Mendez writes a deeply personal memoir of a 30-plus year career spent exploring and absorbing the shadowy side of music; a carefully crafted elegy to people, places, and times past and the lasting effect they have on the present. Across the four tracks, Mendez pays tribute to the earliest Detroit techno and electro, the Belgian EBM movement and the wave music that followed, the monumental dub techno sound from Berlin, and the harder, abrasive sound of the UK at the turn of the last millennium; exploring and referencing the genres that informed his later work. Each track name gives a hint to the timeframe he is revisiting and re-contextualizing as the EP repurposes the styles that exerted an influence on him. This EP represents a pure distillation of Mendez's memories whilst also cementing his place in the current and future sound of 21st century techno.
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CD
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TRESOR 339CD
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What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light and ethereal and dark and dissonant. As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus's influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald's repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms. The compositions were written in von Oswald's Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city's Kreuzberg district, only few meters down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them. The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter's Dream Sequence in 1991 -- which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland (TRESOR 262CD, 2013).
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2LP
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TRESOR 339LP
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Double-LP version. What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light and ethereal and dark and dissonant. As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus's influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald's repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms. The compositions were written in von Oswald's Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city's Kreuzberg district, only few meters down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them. The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter's Dream Sequence in 1991 -- which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland (TRESOR 262CD, 2013).
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12"
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TRESOR 358EP
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Argentinian producers Oscean return to Tresor with Chronium Radiance, their longest release so far, in which the duo continue the evolution of their sound, coalescing the elemental ideas explored in their first two releases and yielding sublime results. This landmark release will no doubt be seen as the point at which Oscean crystalized a trademark sound, balancing complex percussive rhythms with pulsing and cadenced music in which a universe of often oxymoronic ideas can be found, melded together with a deft touch to create a blissful sonic whole. There is a sense of space and airiness to side A of the record as synth parts drift across the more solid-feeling landscape of the basslines and percussion. Opening track "ChronoRebel" is a propulsive trance induction that brings forth cinematic images of billowing clouds. This nebulous quality is continued on "Neon Harmonies" where the highly syncopated drum track weaves through a haze of colorful synths that while lower tempo than the previous track somehow has an energy of a faster piece. The flip side has a denser, darker quality to it beginning with "Blaster Imploder," a deep and funky track that continues the convention-defying theme by being powerful and frenetic whilst also having a soft and exultant sheen. This is followed by "Echoes of Chaos" which closes out the 12" with a dynamic beat and spacious, sweeping synths that feel as though we are passing through the atmosphere heading towards some distant nebula. Alongside the tracks on the vinyl release, three digital tracks expand on the universe Oscean have built with a truly ecstatic love theme, a retelling of "Neon Harmonies" that unveils a river of dub, and a low tempo, drifting yet no-less affecting piece acting as the closing titles to our voyage to this Osceanic world. 180g 12" vinyl, full pantone printed sleeve. Includes download code featuring three tracks: "Random Destiny," "Neon Harmonies (The Other Version)," "Who Holds the Key?"
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3LP
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TRESOR 196XB-LP
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Triple LP version. Green color vinyl. 180 gram vinyl; silver pantone artwork; includes download card. Tresor Records presents a reissue of the sole output from Shifted Phases entitled The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope. Initially released in 2002, soon after James Stinson passed away, this LP plays a mysterious and compelling role in the Drexciya journey. While other records of Drexciya and related projects have received numerous reprints and editions, The Cosmic Memoirs... has remained out of print since its release. This rarity leaves it more open to interpretation with its place in the Drexciyan storm series, as it became increasingly hard to find and underexplored. This reissue does not merely close the loop on Tresor's reissue series of the Drexciya catalog but brings Shifted Phases to fresh ears more than other records. Accompanied by newly commissioned artwork from Matthew Angelo Harrison, the reissue also features the tracks "Crossing Of The Sun-Ra Nebula" and "Alien Vessel Distress Call", which were previously only on the original CD release. Track titles "Solar Wind", "White Dwarf", and "Lonely Journey of the Comet Bopp" reveal a focus on cosmic realms, suggesting a link with the Drexciya LP Grava 4 that moves from the underwater to the galactic. As it launches with mechanical blows on a precise orbit, each repetition entrenches the gravitational pull in the galaxy of Shifted Phases. In many places, it sounds like the readout of frequencies harvested from outer space, pockmarked with packet loss from the millions of kilometers distance travelled. The music is hard to contain, intuitively restless in motion through its unfolding universe and achingly resonant. It shapeshifts across affectedly melodic sequences such as in "Lonely Journey...", to the sparse, hard-hitting timbres found in "Alien Vessel Distress Call" and the mangled reverse vocals in "The Freak Show", somewhat reminiscent of another Drexciya side-project, Glass Domain. The mythology of Drexciya is evident in how keenly James Stinson and Gerald Donald created their imaginary worlds. In "Crossing Of The Sun-Ra Nebula", there is an indisputable reference to another Afro-futurist who delved deep into a galaxy of their own making.
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12"
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TRESOR 032EP
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2023 repress. Twenty-five years after its initial release, and accompanying the re-release of Internal Empire (TRESOR 027CD/LP), Tresor present a 180 gram pressing of Robert Hood's Master Builder. "25 years ago, I was faced with the challenge of following up on Minimal Nation. I cancelled all my tour dates for that summer, setup my studio in the living room and began to work on Internal Empire. My intention was to create something distinctively different. Looking out my living room window in Detroit watching people go by gave me a new perspective. It made me look at the world within myself." --Robert Hood
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12"
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TRESOR 356EP
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Tresor presents the debut split 12" from Chloe Lula and Ireen Amnes. Meeting in the darker, harder-edged side of the Berlin techno scene in 2019, the pair have regularly collaborated and performed together, but Synergy marks the first time they've shared a record sleeve. Amnes describes Synergy as "the world we built while thinking about our journey as friends and the connection we share as people and artists," and while the record highlights their relationship and shared influences, it also showcases how each has grown into their respective lane. Amnes's tracks lean into significantly more distorted territory, characterized by a dense fog of grainy pads punctured by sharp, expertly-programmed percussion. On "Our Bodies," these fragments are sculpted into driving hardware gear, replete with distant vocals and acidic squelches, where "Fragments of Desire" makes space for a more somber attitude, descending into murky, psychedelic electro. In counterpoint to Amnes's deep atmospherics, Lula's contributions are driven by intricate sound design and a focus on dancefloor impact. Taking cues from Regis and the Birmingham techno sound, she reins in the distortion of 2021's Errant Bodies for aufnahme + wiedergabe in favor of rolling techno and breakbeat-inspired rhythms that nod to her EBM influences. Making use of the extra space, she builds tension through heaving, textured basslines and crescendos of noise, and on EP closer "Event Horizon," she carves through the beat with her own metallic vocals. Synergy includes a digital bonus track from each artist.
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