10 years on

For the past decade, Cologne's Kompakt has been the pre-eminent techno label in the world. Emerging in the late-1990s -- at a time in which techno itself was the province of a cabal of Detroit devotees with a conservative, narrow definition of their scene -- Kompakt used the 4/4 thump of the dancefloor as a means rather than an end. Label owners Wolfgang Voigt (Gas, Mike Ink), Michael Mayer, and Jürgen Paape created a central, branded imprint willing to release any and all sounds that took their fancy. Over the years, that has included ambient washes, hands-in-the-air electro-pop, thumping floor-fillers, and above all microhouse, a minimal take on house in which elements of rhythm are often glitches, whirrs, and clicks rather than more traditional mechanistic drums.

Today, Kompakt is a mini-empire. Its "act local, think global" approach has resulted in a 16-person company that runs not only the label and website but also handles distribution, one of the world's largest techno record stores, a booking agency, and a publishing arm. In addition, compatriot Tobias Thomas handles a monthly Total Confusion residency in the label's hometown of Cologne. Meanwhile, the label is home to an international all-star team of dance artists, from not only Germany (the label's owners, as well as Superpitcher, DJ Koze, Justus Köhncke, Jörg Burger, Thomas Fehlmann, Sascha Funke, Dettinger, and many more), but also Sweden (the Field), Brazil (Gui Boratto), Chile (Matías Aguayo), Japan (Kaito), Iceland (GusGus), and the UK (Rex the Dog, the Orb).

We're celebrating the label's first 10 years with an interview with Mayer, in which he discusses the organization's humanist approach to techno, its willingness to use vocal samples and performances, and the shifts and developments within techno over the past decade.

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Pitchfork: You also started around a time that the cult of progression dried up in techno and electronic dance music. From the mid-1980s in Chicago and Detroit to the late 90s, electronic dance music was about new sounds, to the point that those who wouldn't or couldn't keep up felt excluded. Do you still consider techno to be like a future music or do you think it's now just existing in a constant present?

MM: I still think it's the most modern music we've got. Nothing more modern has evolved since the acid house explosion. Of course, techno suffered from the fact that there's nothing new-- nothing kicked techno in the bum and said, "Go away, this is the old stuff, where's the new stuff?" I don't think it's going to happen at all.

But techno always managed to find a way. It's very evolutionary music. The changes might not be very radical or very easy to detect, but there's lots of change happening all the time and it's always in constant development and it's really amazing to follow.

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full interview here. MM is one of my faves. i think he really gets at the heart of what kompakt has done when he talks about "humanizing" techno music.