Biography
The electronic music project Air Liquide, unrelated to the chemical corporation sharing its name, comprises Cem Oral (Jammin' Unit) and Ingmar Koch (Dr. Walker). Operating out of Germany, the pair has delivered aggressive acid and techno under this banner from the early 1990s forward. Their initial output appeared on the Structure label collective before they joined Rising High in 1993. Further releases came via New York’s Sm:)e Communications, which put out the double-CD The Increased Difficulty of Concentration in 1994 and multiple 10" EPs, while side projects surfaced on DJungle Fever, Blue, and Oral’s Pharma imprint. American singer, songwriter, and poet Mary S. Applegate has appeared on several recordings.
Although their catalog stretches from beatless ambient to punishing gabber, most tracks cluster around gritty, midtempo acid and breakbeat techno built on dense 303 lines and minimal phrases. Over time they gravitated toward caustic electro laced with hip-hop elements and more approachable house cuts, as heard on 2004’s Let Your Ears Be the Receiver!. After years of inactivity, Air Liquide reconvened for live dates and issued the EP This Is a Mind Trip in 2018.
Koch began by issuing house and hip-hop singles on the German Hype! and Technoline labels until the latter collapsed in the early 1990s. He subsequently attended university to study electronic composition, where he met Oral, another figure from the German underground scene alongside Jörg Burger, Mike Ink, and Biochip C.’s Martin Damm. The group pooled efforts to create the Structure label collective, which encompassed Structure, Monotone, Blue, and DJungle Fever. Releases across ambient, house, techno, acid, and hardcore gradually coalesced into a shared aesthetic shaped by Chicago acid, early New York hip-hop, and 1970s experimentalists such as Neu! and Can.
After Structure fragmented among its participants, Walker and Jammin' Unit placed Air Liquide with England’s Rising High, resulting in albums including Nephology: The New Religion and Sonic Weather Machine. Sm:)e Communications issued the aforementioned 1994 double-CD along with 1995’s Red and its mail-order counterpart Black. A deal with EMI’s Harvest brought the two-part Abuse Your Illusions and 1999’s Anybody Home?. The tenth-anniversary set X appeared on Proof! in 2001. The trip-hop-leaning Music Is a Virus followed on Blue 2 in 2002, featuring Khan (Cem Oral’s brother) and longtime collaborator Mary S. Applegate. Both returned as guests on Let Your Ears Be the Receiver!, released by Multicolor Recordings in 2004 and marking Air Liquide’s most accessible album.
The duo disbanded after that release; Oral focused on his mastering studio Jammin Masters while Koch founded the artist collective Liquid Sky Berlin. Air Liquide reformed and resumed performing in the 2010s, issuing the EP This Is a Mind Trip via Intergalactic Research Institute for Sound in 2018.
Although their catalog stretches from beatless ambient to punishing gabber, most tracks cluster around gritty, midtempo acid and breakbeat techno built on dense 303 lines and minimal phrases. Over time they gravitated toward caustic electro laced with hip-hop elements and more approachable house cuts, as heard on 2004’s Let Your Ears Be the Receiver!. After years of inactivity, Air Liquide reconvened for live dates and issued the EP This Is a Mind Trip in 2018.
Koch began by issuing house and hip-hop singles on the German Hype! and Technoline labels until the latter collapsed in the early 1990s. He subsequently attended university to study electronic composition, where he met Oral, another figure from the German underground scene alongside Jörg Burger, Mike Ink, and Biochip C.’s Martin Damm. The group pooled efforts to create the Structure label collective, which encompassed Structure, Monotone, Blue, and DJungle Fever. Releases across ambient, house, techno, acid, and hardcore gradually coalesced into a shared aesthetic shaped by Chicago acid, early New York hip-hop, and 1970s experimentalists such as Neu! and Can.
After Structure fragmented among its participants, Walker and Jammin' Unit placed Air Liquide with England’s Rising High, resulting in albums including Nephology: The New Religion and Sonic Weather Machine. Sm:)e Communications issued the aforementioned 1994 double-CD along with 1995’s Red and its mail-order counterpart Black. A deal with EMI’s Harvest brought the two-part Abuse Your Illusions and 1999’s Anybody Home?. The tenth-anniversary set X appeared on Proof! in 2001. The trip-hop-leaning Music Is a Virus followed on Blue 2 in 2002, featuring Khan (Cem Oral’s brother) and longtime collaborator Mary S. Applegate. Both returned as guests on Let Your Ears Be the Receiver!, released by Multicolor Recordings in 2004 and marking Air Liquide’s most accessible album.
The duo disbanded after that release; Oral focused on his mastering studio Jammin Masters while Koch founded the artist collective Liquid Sky Berlin. Air Liquide reformed and resumed performing in the 2010s, issuing the EP This Is a Mind Trip via Intergalactic Research Institute for Sound in 2018.
Albums
