Reinhard Voigt

Cologne-based Reinhard Voigt has formed a cornerstone of the Kompakt imprint from its earliest days, crafting experimental techno across an array of guises and approaches. In 1993 he opened the Delirium record store with his brother Wolfgang, Jörg Burger, and Jürgen Paape; five years afterward the shop and several pre-existing labels coalesced into Kompakt. His first solo recordings, issued chiefly on Wolfgang’s Profan label under the names Pentax and Sweet Reinhard, deliver abrasive rhythms and demanding structures. As Sturm he supplied Mille Plateaux with swirling, darkly atmospheric material whose self-titled album is occasionally cited as an under-appreciated landmark alongside Wolfgang’s Gas work. Output under the Kron alias appeared on the EMI-linked Harvest label—originally a prog/folk outlet that had housed Pink Floyd and Kevin Ayers—and ranks among his most immediately appealing. Forever Sweet, a joint effort with longtime Kompakt colleagues Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas, shares that buoyant, club-oriented character. S.R.I. channels the harder, more relentless facet of his sound. He has also issued numerous singles and a full-length with Wolfgang as Voigt & Voigt, as well as a single with Burger under the Echo Club name.

Beyond these various projects, Voigt has issued a steady stream of material under his own name. After several singles in 1999, Profan released the ambient album Premiere World in 2000. The next year Kompakt put out Im Wandel der Zeit, a collection that alternated high-energy tracks with the label’s customary understated textures. Since that point his solo catalog has consisted primarily of singles, compilation contributions, and occasional remixes. Multiple entries in the Speicher series bear his name, among them split releases and collaborations with Mayer, Terranova, and Burger (as the Modernist). Following the 2007 singles “All In” and “Charge Your Dreams,” he stepped away from solo releases until “Rachanee” appeared in 2014. Time Is Running, another Mayer partnership, and a single on Kompakt’s KX sublabel both surfaced in 2015, while later titles include Kontraste, “Reisen & Speisen,” and “Apokalypse Mau.”