Dial / Naïf / Curle / Berlin

Efdemin behind the decks: permanently in motion, wildly gesticulating, chuckling,dancing, sweating and going through his records over and over again. His DJ-sets area lecture in tightrope walking. From being lost in reverie, total seriousness, puredelight, wit and grit, reduced house tracks, straight and dry techno, the Berliner bychoice serves it all – peppered with breaks and surprises. Expose yourself to this tourde force over the course of a few hours and you certainly will never forget it. Due tohis output and particularly his constant and remarkable DJ presence, Efdemin is surelyone of the most independent, versatile and inspiring characters in today’s club scene.That’s as striking as it’s conflicting with his production work. Calm, cool andcollected, Efdemin’s music is infused by elegant darkness, discreet beauty and thecomplete lack of jittery. With long players and 12-inches for Dial or Curle, his remixes(e.g. Depeche Mode), his Pigon project together with RNDM or his drone andambient pieces under his original name Phillip Sollmann for instance, Efdemin isequally at home in very different circles. In the world of art as much as in the technorealm, and while moving from intelligent pop quotes into the universe of Sun Ra, hedoes the splits effortlessly and without overstretching it. A sonic thesaurus like hissecond album Chicago finds his place in Efdemin’s body of work as well as thestripped down funk of “Just A Track”, the urgency of “Acid Bells” or thestraightforwardness of “Bergwein”. Going well along with all those gestures anddesires is his own Label naïf. Accordingly named and vinyl only, it’s his outlet torelease music from friends and allies that is close to his heart.Having come a long way from the character defining Hamburg (with the cornerstonesthat are the Golden Pudel Club and his Dial Records family) via a university stay atVienna (music and performing arts) and even working as a music journalist, Efdeminhas been a mainstay during the days and nights at Berghain since his arrival in Berlin.But it’s not only there where his work as a DJ is characterised by melodic techno fromthe Detroit school of thinking, classic US-American house music and its currentrenaissance. Equally important for his turntable art were the European feedback fromProfan to Perlon, spartan pulsating techno and the way you present all of it.Sometimes each in one box, at other times continuously connected, but always in oneflow and cast, offered with the right daredevilry. Efdemin and his music areconsiderately adapted to time, place and certain moments, but never lost in between.