Moritz Von Oswald

Prior to becoming one of the leading figures in electronic music in the 1990s, Moritz von Oswald was a Berlin-area percussionist who played in one of the last incarnations of <a href="spotify:artist:29VcQUPD3y6atruSOiNEbL">Palais Schaumburg</a> and worked on LPs by <a href="spotify:artist:4yr28XHlxD78C3diMbOsTs">Holger Hiller</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7GsdZ6T45uXudJ8Wsko9sB">the Associates</a>. By the end of the decade, he'd made the leap from drummer to producer, working with fellow <a href="spotify:artist:29VcQUPD3y6atruSOiNEbL">Palais Schaumburg</a> member <a href="spotify:artist:71GWL6ijlpTh7oGqYlMMpM">Thomas Fehlmann</a> as <a href="spotify:artist:2fWEYkCATvHOJNNt7zcUbl">3MB</a>, the in-house production team at Berlin's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor+Records%22">Tresor Records</a>. While involved with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor%22">Tresor</a>, von Oswald recorded with Detroit techno pioneer <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Juan Atkins</a> and remodeled one of <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Atkins</a>' <a href="spotify:artist:1sck8r81nA03Ch4xAW1G3w">Infiniti</a> tracks, "Think Quick," into one of the most sublime techno productions ever released. It was an intriguing Berlin-Detroit collaboration that signaled the continuing close link between the two cities. (In 1995, von Oswald again worked with <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Atkins</a> for the debut <a href="spotify:artist:2Djz8cbEv5rtrYrJYdzQ20">Model 500</a> album, Sonic Sunset.)

While still working at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor%22">Tresor</a> in 1993, von Oswald formed <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Basic+Channel+Records%22">Basic Channel Records</a> with partner <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Mark Ernestus</a>. The immediately recognizable <a href="spotify:artist:37um1uxI92g4ll61LzrtB5">BC</a> sound, a ruddy take on Detroit techno with minimal changes and maximum echo-chamber droning capacity, asserted itself with nine vinyl-only EPs during the next few years, recorded as various aliases including Cyrus, Quadrant, Phylyps, and Radiance, though all were presumably von Oswald and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a>. In the meantime, the duo's <a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a> project had begun recording in 1992, with the first release on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22M+Records%22">M Records</a>, the Ploy EP. After being remixed by <a href="spotify:artist:5HAtRoEPUvGSA7ziTGB1cF">the Orb</a>, it was reissued by the British <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22WAU%21%2FMr.+Modo%22">WAU!/Mr. Modo</a>, and even appeared on the second Excursions in Ambience compilation. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22M+Records%22">M Records</a> next released an EP by <a href="spotify:artist:3X6ixxUtf9bJr1aZbhFuia">Vainqueur</a>, then concentrated on <a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a> yet again with five EPs during the next three years. Understandably, the <a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a> sound was quite similar to that of <a href="spotify:artist:37um1uxI92g4ll61LzrtB5">Basic Channel</a>, though von Oswald and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a> were often more taken with pounding dub basslines and a somewhat cleaner production style, which gave their EPs a better chance on dancefloors.

Besides <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22M%22">M</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:37um1uxI92g4ll61LzrtB5">Basic Channel</a>, von Oswald and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a> also founded the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chain+Reaction%22">Chain Reaction</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5e5DeHuHjgcj0DbdrdYKMo">Rhythm & Sound</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Burial+Mix%22">Burial Mix</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Main+Street%22">Main Street</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Imbalance%22">Imbalance</a> labels, though they later turned over management of the latter to <a href="spotify:artist:5cSssfrNDzZdX1c5qVe30y">Robert Henke</a> (of the duo <a href="spotify:artist:4XvKzACpcdk5iiZbWNvfbq">Monolake</a>). Except for <a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a>'s "Ploy," none of the <a href="spotify:artist:37um1uxI92g4ll61LzrtB5">Basic Channel</a>/<a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a> material had appeared on cassette or CD, thanks to the duo's polemical stance about vinyl. Finally in 1995, a <a href="spotify:artist:37um1uxI92g4ll61LzrtB5">Basic Channel</a> sampler was released, though most of the tracks were viciously edited to fit more than three or four tracks onto a 70-minute CD. <a href="spotify:artist:7wuxcFzhQIFmPdZAOAZRro">Maurizio</a> released a similar compilation by 1997, followed by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chain+Reaction%22">Chain Reaction</a> compatriots <a href="spotify:artist:47yoe54A38qmHti0GlTPXR">Porter Ricks</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3X6ixxUtf9bJr1aZbhFuia">Vainqueur</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4XvKzACpcdk5iiZbWNvfbq">Monolake</a>. A <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Main+Street%22">Main Street</a> compilation that anthologized von Oswald and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a>' house-oriented singles under the guises of Round One, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Round+Two%22">Round Two</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Round+Three%22">Round Three</a>, and Round Four was released in 1999.

Across the following decade, von Oswald and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a> continued to release dub-rooted <a href="spotify:artist:5e5DeHuHjgcj0DbdrdYKMo">Rhythm & Sound</a> EPs that veered away from dancefloors and closer to the form's reggae origin. The duo paid a debt to Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes by reissuing numerous albums and singles from the producer's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wackie%27s%22">Wackie's</a> label and set up <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Basic+Replay%22">Basic Replay</a> to re-circulate releases by the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:7a6In9UVdQx5TpBGLZT2RZ">Keith Hudson</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4lhmJPOnaDwCmuJOjIdZMQ">White Mice</a>. At the same time, von Oswald polished his gleaming reputation as a mastering and cutting engineer for Berlin's trusted Dubplates & Mastering and became more involved with collaborative recordings. In 2008, he and <a href="spotify:artist:17dbJyUCrxh4I7iyUrjaHU">Carl Craig</a> "recomposed" the music of <a href="spotify:artist:17hR0sYHpx7VYTMRfFUOmY">Maurice Ravel</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:284mnx33IWcymQEpMxyfHl">Modest Mussorgsky</a> for the Deutsche Grammophon label. The following year, he established <a href="spotify:artist:2yRfLXpz7uqOPvmpMdBqL2">Moritz von Oswald Trio</a> with Sasu Ripatti (aka <a href="spotify:artist:5E3H2KyR31E2Dj3K6vIUe9">Vladislav Delay</a>) and <a href="spotify:artist:66xtPavg2eAxglfIKmPWHP">Max Loderbauer</a>. The group recorded the sprawling, improvisation-oriented studio albums Vertical Ascent (2009), Horizontal Structures (2011), and Fetch (2012), all of which were released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Honest+Jon%27s%22">Honest Jon's</a>. Von Oswald connected with <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Atkins</a> again and released Borderland (2013) on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor%22">Tresor</a>. Another <a href="spotify:artist:2yRfLXpz7uqOPvmpMdBqL2">Moritz von Oswald Trio</a> album, Sounding Lines (2015), featured Afro-beat giant <a href="spotify:artist:6JpZEemWmunccsrHXFUOgi">Tony Allen</a> in place of <a href="spotify:artist:5E3H2KyR31E2Dj3K6vIUe9">Delay</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Atkins</a> and von Oswald teamed up again in 2016, the 25th anniversary of <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor%22">Tresor</a>, for a second Borderland collaboration, Transport. The following year saw von Oswald working with <a href="spotify:artist:3SnKKOKMywsI29DK4qoIIe">Ordo Sakhna</a>, a group dedicated to the roots music of Kyrgyzstan. The resulting Moritz von Oswald & Ordo Sakhna was released in November 2017. ~ John Bush & Andy Kellman, Rovi