Apparat

German musician Sascha Ring, known professionally as Apparat, crafts ambitious and emotionally charged electronic music that spans an array of approaches, ranging from glitch-driven techno to elaborately arranged experimental pop. Early recognition arrived through abrasive yet tuneful IDM works including the 2002 release Tttrial and Eror, after which Ring started integrating vocals alongside acoustic instruments beginning with Duplex in 2003. Once the widely praised 2006 project Orchestra of Bubbles, a joint effort with Ellen Allien, appeared, he launched live performances of his increasingly vocal-centric material backed by a full band while simultaneously investing greater energy in Moderat, the project shared with German techno duo Modeselektor. The 2011 album The Devil's Walk marked Apparat's most overtly song-driven outing to that point, after which Moderat issued its second and third albums and sustained worldwide touring that established the group as a regular presence at festivals. Concurrently, Ring supplied original scores for both stage productions and cinema. When Moderat entered an indefinite pause in 2017, Ring resumed solo activity with the characteristically expansive and instinctive LP5 two years later.

Born in Quedlinburg, Germany, Ring moved to Berlin in 1997. Near the turn of the millennium he joined founder Marco Haas, aka T.Raumschmiere, in operating the experimental techno imprint Shitkatapult. His debut album Multifunktionsebene emerged on that label in 2001, soon followed by the limited EP Algorhythm on the Jetlag imprint. Shitkatapult next issued the Tttrial and Eror EP in 2002 and then Duplex, Apparat's second full-length, in 2003. Though retaining the tense and noisy character of earlier recordings, Duplex incorporated guitars and woodwinds along with sporadic vocal appearances. That same year Ring contributed to Ellen Allien's well-regarded Berlinette and issued the club-focused Koax EP on her BPitch Control imprint. The abstractly funky Can't Computerize It appeared on the same label in 2004, whereas the more cerebral Shapemodes EP, tracked several years prior, surfaced on Neo Ouija.

Silizium, Apparat's 2005 EP drawn from reworked 2004 Peel Session material, fused indie-rock-inflected vocals and warm guitars with glitch electronics. Ring shifted back toward dancefloor-oriented fare with the 2006 Berlin, Montreal, Tel Aviv EP, compiled from live sets in each city, then promptly delivered the Ellen Allien collaboration Orchestra of Bubbles, which merged rave, dubstep, and electro elements. The widely celebrated album preceded Apparat's third solo effort, Walls, in 2007. Ring began touring with a live ensemble featuring Raz Ohara on piano and drummer Jörg Waehner. During 2008 Apparat appeared on Luomo's single "Love You All" and issued Things to Be Frickled, a two-disc set of remixes, while also departing Shitkatapult to concentrate on his own projects.

In 2009 the self-titled Moderat debut arrived, following an earlier EP the duo had released in 2003. More approachable than prior work by either participant, the album achieved indie crossover success and turned Moderat into a sought-after live act, earning the readers of Resident Advisor recognition as the best live act of that year. Apparat delivered his first mix CD in 2010 as a volume in !K7's long-running DJ-Kicks series, then signed with Mute and issued the more restrained The Devil's Walk the following year. Krieg und Frieden (Music for Theatre), derived from a score composed for a stage adaptation of War and Peace, arrived in 2013. Ring subsequently suspended solo work to prioritize Moderat. II appeared on Modeselektor's Monkeytown label (and Mute in North America) in 2013. Following three years of intensive touring, Moderat unveiled III in 2016 and Live at year's end. The trio declared an indefinite hiatus once their world tour concluded in Berlin during September 2017. Apparat and Philipp Thimm jointly composed the soundtrack for the 2018 historical drama Capri-Revolution, which received Best Soundtrack honors at the Venice Film Festival. Thimm later supplied strings for Apparat's Grammy-nominated LP5, released in 2019.