The new season of techno worship is finally upon us. And our first ceremony features the return of Sandrien behind the sacred decks of Technoon. Get ready to surrender to the bass and reach peak dancefloor enlightenment.
Belgium's Peter Van Hoesen has never been that typical techno artist. Although considered as one of the genre's tastemakers he is someone who sculpts sounds for many different environments - the club, the home, the gallery or museum.
He does so with a true sense of personality. On his own label Time to Express he releases textural compositions and he also records to great acclaim as Sendai alongside Yves De Mey.
In performance terms, Peter lays down dark and arresting techno sets as well as captivating, story telling live musical journeys. Because of that he is renowned around the world for his high quality, high creativity, high levels of consistency, constantly translating his personality into his music.
Being the founder of the Sonata Forma imprint and as a resident at the thriving Technoon parties in Brussels, A. Brehme symbiotically combines his two long standing passions of producing records and sculpting intense sets, which are grounded from the ambient, psychedelic and minimalist perspective of electronic music.
Whether elaborating a savant strain of hypersensitive deep techno in his Brussels studio or displaying his ability to kick up a veil of dust from the floors of dark rooms with metrically repetitive mixes, he embodies a purist approach to sound where measured intensity is key.
The mind begins searching for loopholes within loops, seeking out a tear in a tightly knit ambient soundscape that is rendered tangible by lengthened hypnosis, thoughtful control, and the eventual loss of all spatial and temporal coordinates.
Through the co-existing dynamics of inversion and introversion, a natural and ethereal vibe is coaxed into the club's dark mechanics. Genres coalesce, rules of time and space become irrelevant and as the grip on mundane realities loosen, an inner light appears and deeper self inquisition though sound is possible. In a perpetual forward motion, fogged textures mesh with brumous, reverb-drenched layers. Systematic beat patterns and sharp percussion threaten to break out and cause collapse, creating a fragile state of equilibrium; a seductive and inescapable hypnosis.
Sandrien is on a roll and looks to be truly unstoppable. Part of the reason for that was because her regular monthly night, Imprint, at Trouw, (where she was also resident) was the most successful the club ever saw, with only the finest international techno talents playing each party.
As well as that, her own firmly rooted, well informed techno sets have taken her to Berghain four times in the last year, with more of the same planned for this year. She has also played Tresor and Nachdigital, has toured Japan three times and made a great entry into the hallowed Resident Advisor podcast series.
Picking up props form the likes of Pulse Radio, Sandrien's music often gets played the big names like Danny Howells, who used one of her cuts on his Balance CD, whilst UK techno star Ben Sims also releases her music on his Theory label and used some of it for his fabric mix. A real mistress of long, tense, engaging sets full of carefully sought out treats from across the techno spectrum, Sandrine is truly dictating trends on a global scale.