Resident DJ at Berghain in Berlin.

Nothing but the Club as a musical and cultural lifeworld forms and defines the life of Marcel Dettmann, who was born in the GDR in 1977 and raised with east-german youth culture. Influenced by EBM and Wave he faces the offspring of virgin Techno in early nineties’s Berlin and gets socialized with this new-born subcultural scene, whose way of life he shall live and develop until today. On the one hand, he has spun records since 1994 including residency continuum at Berlin’s Ostgut/Berghain right from its opening in 1999. On the other, Dettmann started to produce and release tracks and remixes in 2006. Beside Ostgut Ton, first and foremost his self-run label MDR provides the necessary and appropriate outlet: no compromise, free, independent, facilitating the “quest for the optimal track”. His engagement at Berlin’s Technosaur Hard Wax also supports his innate quest: the continuous exploration of electronic music development.

Dettmann’s persistent reply to inquiries on his DJ-style – no doubts about its foundational and just natural club-oriented functionality – simply and sparsely reads “dark” and “the dark side”. At a closer look this brings to light a certain fascination in Techno: a futuristic medium inherently pointing towards the new and unseen, unexplored and unknown, undefined and unexpected.

For Dettmann Techno depicts a determination of both his life and music. At the same time it opens up the needed space to develop thoughts, actions and creations. Eventually Dettmann is having only this space in mind: Berlin, Berghain, the Club…
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