Born in Frankfurt in 1997 and in time moved to Berlin, Perlon was established by Thomas Franzmann (better known as Zip), Markus Nikolai and Chris Rehberger.
With their low-profile attitude and pleasant colourful artwork, Perlon was able to create a unique and iconic style and set a landmark for other labels in the minimal scene, resisting with consistency for 20 years without ever disappoint their audience but instead renovating and embracing new talents that progressively became esteemed and respected members in the underground music scene.
If Perlon set a standard and is now considered as an influential model among professionals working within the electronic music industry, is surely because of the founders’ innovative vision. This is valid in every Perlon details, including their logo. In a recent interview with Resident Advisor, Chris Rehberger stated:
“It’s always more about raising a question than finding an answer. With the Perlon logo, the question was: what would happen if we put a design that reminds us of a construction company’s logo on a record sleeve? […] I like to make things more visible, rather than hiding or camouflaging them. I don’t like flimsy designs—I like it bold and strong.”
This sums up perfectly Perlon’s essence: direct, straight to the point, no-frills. Music is central, all the rest is only necessary to enhance and vehiculate it. Little to nothing self-promotion, zero self-reference, a raw and essential website and hundreds of quality releases. Miles away from nowdays culture and environment, Perlon stays unique as it was, with a simple and backdated but effective approach that makes it stand out in the present modernity.
The credit for this success belongs in equal shares to the founders, but for sure has been accelerated by the whole universe of artists and long-dated friends that collaborated and released on the label throughout this 20 years. Ricardo Villalobos is one of them. His name appears regularly on several EP and compilations, and his duo performance with Zip, both of them with an impressive music knowledge and experience, is something truly remarkable for whose attend. Other Perlon artists (in a random order) are Audio Werner, Binh, Akufen, Baby Ford, Cabanne, Cassy, Efdemin, Fumiya Tanaka, Luciano, Maayan Nidam, Margaret Dygas, Thomas Melchior, Sammy Dee, Wareika and Soulphiction, just to name a few. This perfectly represent the importance of Perlon in the scene and its influence on past, present and future of minimal music.
It was 17 of May of this year, and a breaking news came almost unexpectedly. Perlon unveiled a new 4-vinyl compilation named Superlongevity Six, out on 30th of June, that featured music contribution of all main artists in the Perlon universe, plus some interesting project (Pile: Zip + Markus Nikolai + Chris Rehberger, last seen in 2002) and rarities (a Sammy Dee solo track) and Dimbiman (Zip alter-ego).
Superlongevity infamous serie sees first life in 1999 and the latest edition was released in 2010: this explain enough the importance of this new release, that sees the old guard joined by more recent label affiliates like Binh or Spacetravel, creating an interesting link between glorious past and exciting present of the label.
However, a new compilation out was certainly not enough to proper celebrate the milestone of 20years of life, that is why it has been announced a 46-hours party that will be thrown at Funkhouse Berlin from 23:59 of Friday 4th of August until 22:00 of Sunday 6th. The lineup is quite impressive and shows almost all the biggest names and known faces part of Perlon: this makes it by far the biggest and more interesting event of the label, already famous around the world and especially in Berlin for their Get Perlonized parties on last Friday of the month at Berghain / Panorama Bar.
The event has been so far introduced by a small tour across Europe and US, creating a “road to” the main and biggest event of Berlin that closes the anniversary celebration:
01.07 at Closer Kiev with Zip, Fumiya Tanaka, Spacetravel and Sammy Dee
14.07 at Space Miami with Maayan Nidam, Fumiya Tanaka and Zip
15.07 at ReSoulte NYC with Zip, Fumiya Tanaka, Mayaan Nidam and Akufen
28.07 at Robert Johnson with Zip, Bodycode and Akufen
29.07 at Concrete with Half Hawaii, Fumiya Tanaka, Akufen, Cabanne, Sammy Dee and Zip
The venue chosen for this last act in Berlin is the Funkhouse Berlin, a 135.000m² buildings complex from 1956 located in Oberschöneweide, East Berlin in front of Sprea River. The original use it was intended for was the radio station of Rundfunk der DDR, the public radio of Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Inside the various studios and recording rooms, the shows were prepared and the records selected, to then be played in the Großer Sendesaal 1, a room acclaimed for the extraordinary acoustic. The studios has been used to record albums of artists like A-ha, Sting and Black Eyed Peas, and more recently Ricardo Villalobos and ambiq trio (Max Loderbauer, Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin) performed a rare live set exhibition that sees them playing modular synthesizer, clarinets, drums and electronics for a small selected public.
Some details of the Berlin event already emerged: a number of live sets are planned (DBX, Thomas Melchior, Maayan Nidam & Julia Koning, Half Hawaii aka Sammy Dee and Bruno Pronsato, Wareika and more), visuals will be from both Jorg Franzmann and Double Standards while there will be space for new projects like Darren and International Anything.
The line-up also has already been revealed, and what we expect are extemporaneous exhibition and spontaneous back to back, across the 2days rave. All the rest is still waiting to be discovered but, on our side, we are sure will be unique and more than remarkable, in full Perlon style.
Line-up /
Akufen
Baby Ford
Binh
Darren (live)
DBX (live)
Double Standards (Video)
Fumiya Tanaka
Half Hawaii (live)
International Anything (live)
James Dean Brown
Jorg Franzmann (Video)
Kalabrese
Maayan Nidam ft Julia König (live)
Margaret Dygas
Markus Nikolai (live)
Melchior Productions Ltd (live)
Ricardo Villalobos
Sammy Dee
Soulphiction
Spacetravel
Wareika (live)
Zip
Superlongevity Six: Tracklisting
A1. The Stowaway “A Suspicious Passenger”
A2. International Anything “When It’s Dark” (Moonlight Medley)
B1. Bodycode “Synchronized Sleep”
B2. Kalabrese “Düdingen”
B3. Pile “Noshow”
C1. Dimbiman “Turtle Gone”
C2. Margaret Dygas “Saasafras”
D1. Fumiya Tanaka “Standing North 6”
D2. Baby Ford “Dognosematic”
E1. Narcotic Syntax “Agents With Fatty Acids”
E2. Ricardo Villalobos “Gono Fuznk”
F1. Binh “Wochenbett”
F2. Darren “1999 / 2017” (Extd. Version)
F3. Spacetravel “No More”
G1. Soul Capsule “Them Yeah”
G2. Sammy Dee “Marvin Goes Savage Deep”
H1. Maayan Nidam “Trail Of Glitter”
H2. Melchior Productions Ltd “The Hope”
Resident Advisor – https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=39022
