Wolfgang Voigt

Wolfgang Voigt ( born 1961 in Cologne) is a well known under pseudonyms such as Mike Ink and gas German musician and label owner in the field of electronic music.

Life and work

Together with his brother Reinhard Voigt (known by pseudonyms such as Sweet Reinhard, Kron and Pentax ) Wolfgang Voigt is considered the founder of Minimal Techno in Germany and one of the most important representatives of the Cologne techno scene. The musician Jörg Burger (The Bionaut, The Modernist ), he was influenced by the onset of acid house boom during a stay in London in 1988. Voigt and Burger then founded the label in Belgium Trance Atlantic. Among his first publications is published under the alias Mike Ink Acid - sheet The Dialogue EP. Many of his records from this early period, such as Transatlantic Excess, rosary, New Jack City and RESPECT apply in the techno scene today as classics. Along with burgers and Ingmar Koch and Cem Oral, members of the band Air Liquide, founded in 1991, the Voigt Acid Techno label Structure.

In 1993, Voigt and Jörg Burger with his brother and Jürgen Paape in Cologne the record store Delirium, which was later renamed compact and thus laid the foundation stone for the same label.

Also in 1993, founded the label Voigt profane. In the following years many of his publications in domestic and foreign labels appear. Inform the style of the German minimal techno and direction for his own musical development there were particular from 1995 published on Profane Studio 1 plates. The musical elements were then severely reduced in avant-garde manner, especially bass drum and bass line and percussion elements were used, in particular the now standard repertoire of minimal techno belonging "click" sounds. The influences of reggae dub were audible. The Studio 1 releases were grouped thematically by color and formed a self-contained series. A visually similar designed series of minimal techno releases, musically now reduced almost entirely to the level of bass and " sub-bass " was the outdoor series, published Voigt on a specially founded eponymous label from 1998 to 1999.

1996 Voigt produced under the pseudonym of Love Inc. Album Life's A Gas, which appeared on the Frankfurt label Force Inc. Music Works and documents the roots of his work through countless samples of the Bee Gees on T. Rex to Queen. In the same year he released on the label Mille Plateaux, the first album of his much-publicized gas project, which experimented especially with ambient sounds and sound surface compositions. Since Voigt for the album cover of the gas - albums used pictures German forests and also in the names of the plates very " German " terms such as " King forestry " or " Magic Mountain" is used, it is sometimes criticized as a supporter of a German national sentiment, sparking not only within the techno scene a harbinger of patriotism debate from. Voigt himself emphasizes in this context that it does not go to him to promote German national feelings, but rather " to create beyond the usual clichés such a thing as genuinely German pop music. '"

For the 2010 released album free country piano music Voigt reactivated his label profane, on which he had published no more records for 10 years. For the production of the album, on the combined Voigt pianola sounds and minimal techno beats, he was inspired by the Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow.

Besides his work as a musician and DJ Voigt is now mainly active in the environment of the Cologne record shop compact, where he released his music on numerous labels such as Kompakt, founded by him, 99 or centrifugal buoyancy.

Wolfgang Voigt has published since the mid- 1990s, more than 160 albums, EPs and singles and countless remixes more than 30 different pseudonyms.

Pseudonyms and collaborations

Voigt is known to publish his music always under new name. He uses different pseudonyms for the design and publication of different sorts of electronic music. Several occasions he works with other musicians - mostly from the Cologne environment - together. Among his most important projects:

• All (Ambient project)
• Buoyancy (compact sub-label for brute " Sägezahntechno " )
• Burger / ink (later Burger / Voigt; trance project in collaboration with Jörg Burger )
• Open Land ( series of minimal-techno - posts)
• Gas (a combination of ambient sounds and minimal rhythm elements, see Magic Mountain )
• Grungerman (combination of pop samples and minimal techno rhythms )
• Love Inc. ( pop interpretations of minimal techno tracks)
• M: I: 5 ( Abstract Minimal Techno )
• Mike Ink ( Acid and Minimal Techno )
• Poppy ( slow-motion techno with and without bass drum, in collaboration with Jörg Burger )
• Popacid ( Acid House and Disco with affinity mainly to the Hamburg label Ladomat 2000)
• Studio 1 (series of minimal-techno - posts)
• Aquarius (combination of rave elements and minimal production )