ostgutcd04/lp01

Prosumer & Murat Tepeli
Serenity

Here it is: Ostgut Ton’s first artist album by Achim Brandenburg, aka Prosumer, and Murat Tepeli. If you know both it won’t be unexpected that ’Serenity’ is a flawless house album in the truest sense. Rather than a bunch of dance tracks stuck together, it’s been compiled carefully to form a union of tracks and songs – emotions and excess are laced with a good measure of sexiness. For Achim and Murat, house is a universal language, a matrix for different atmospheres and moods. Their tracks deal with fury and mourning, they illuminate both moments of calm and pandemonium. To cater for different listening situations, both at home and in a club, ’Serenity’ will be released with two different tracklistings. The CD contains seventeen tracks and songs, where as the double 12“ has eight DJ friendly, extended versions of the CDs most danceable tracks, as well as some exclusive to the vinyl.

As a Panorama Bar resident, Achim especially has a lot of experience in how to move a dancefloor. His sets display the full spectrum of house: playing classics as well as newer productions with a timeless quality. Over the last few years his pumping style has become a fixture in the manifold sounds of the club, a style that by now has a lot of friends.
The production process has been a matter of true team work. Inspired by their live gigs Murat, who is based in Cologne, started some tracks, that he played to Achim, based in Berlin, who then selected from them and suggested vocals, lyrics, drum patterns or different arrangements. Subsequently, they finalised the ideas together, recorded the different drum and synth patterns to finish the tracks. Because ’Serenity’ also contains solo tracks of both Prosumer and Tepeli, they sent everything through a big analogue mixing console onto a tape machine to give it a homogenous and warm feeling. Achim summarises their work, “It makes me very happy to do music with Murat. I think he’s immensely talented. We are simply soul mates! Having found this in something as intimate as making music together, it’s really precious for me.“

And it really shows: Prosumer and Murat Tepeli love the sound of analogue machines, as well as the rough and direct qualities of Chicago house by producers and labels like Ron Trent, Chez Damier, Armando, Trax, DJ International, DJ Pierre, Cajmere, Fingers Inc. and Dancemania. Names oozing with deepness and sex in equal measure! In times like these, when house is making anyone tired of minimal dance again, these references couldn’t be more apt. Thus ’Serenity’ also features grass-roots tracks like ’Go Silla’ and ’Makes Me Wanna Dance’, but the cd isn’t dominated by swirling acid lines. Instead it heavily relies on Achim’s and Elif Biçer’s vocals. The threesome know each other well, as Elif works for the Ostgut Booking agency during the day, managing Achim’s and Murat’s gigs. When the duo played their first ever live gig at Berlin’s Weekend club in September 2006, Elif spontaneously joined them on stage marking the start of their creative relationship. “So far, we’ve only played a few gigs together“, says Murat, “but it’s been magic every time. When we met to record the album, Elif contributed her vocals completely out of the blue, but perfectly capturing the mood of those moments. She’s an unbelievably attractive woman with a strong personality.“ Attributes that also go for ’Serenity’.