Roman Flügel

Roman Flügel established himself during the early 1990s as one of Germany’s most consistently active figures in electronic music. At first he gained notice through numerous joint efforts with longtime associate Jörn Elling Wuttke, among them the projects Acid Jesus, Alter Ego, and Sensorama, yet he simultaneously issued dozens of solo recordings under his own name and under the guises Roman IV, Eight Miles High, and Soylent Green. Across these aliases and partnerships the material spanned acid techno, deep house, and electro while also encompassing more experimental excursions that incorporated elements of jazz, Krautrock, and ambient music. Cerebral, exploratory, and at times abrasive though much of this work has remained, Flügel has nevertheless pursued a pop-oriented dimension as well, delivering remixes for Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, and Daft Punk. Beyond these activities he shares ownership of the Frankfurt-based imprints Ongaku Musik, Klang Elektronik, and Playhouse. Roughly twenty years into his recording history he began issuing solo albums under his given name, commencing with Fatty Folders in 2011; two further full-lengths followed on the Dial label, after which the mix Fabric 95 surfaced in 2017. The ambient and Krautrock-leaning Themes I-XIII arrived in 2018, and the experimental techno album Eating Darkness appeared in 2021.

Born in Darmstadt in 1970, Flügel studied piano during childhood before taking up drums and performing in several bands while still in high school. By the mid-1980s he had encountered electronic music through the EBM scene; after immersing himself in Chicago house and Detroit techno beginning in 1987, he started producing his own material on inexpensive drum machines and synthesizers. He subsequently frequented club nights at Sven Väth’s Omen in Frankfurt, where exposure to the heavy basslines of English techno act LFO and other early Warp artists proved formative. A demo tape he sent to Wuttke initiated their enduring partnership. Heiko Schäfer and Atanasios Christos Macias, both DJs and colleagues at Frankfurt’s Delirium record store, reacted strongly to the pair’s recordings and consequently launched their family of labels. Acid Jesus placed its self-titled album on Klang Elektronik in 1993 and followed with several additional singles, yet the experimental electro unit Alter Ego became the duo’s most active outlet, generating half a dozen albums for Harthouse and Klang Elektronik plus numerous singles and EPs. The more laid-back, lounge-oriented Sensorama project also proved prolific, releasing three albums on Ladomat 2000. A self-titled ambient techno recording issued under the name Primitive Painter appeared on Klang in 1994. The duo’s single “Surprise,” credited to Holy Garage, inaugurated Playhouse in 1995.

Working independently, Flügel concentrated most heavily on the Eight Miles High project, whose Klang Elektronik EPs were later compiled as the 2002 album Katalog, and on Soylent Green, which yielded several EPs for Playhouse along with the 2006 full-length La Forza del Destino; a handful of singles appeared as Roman IV, and the self-titled Ro70 album surfaced in 1995. Apart from a pair of late-1990s collaborations with Schäfer under the MSO moniker, Flügel refrained from releasing under his own name until the 1998 track “Mankind Must Put an End to War.” Multiple volumes of the Tracks on Delivery EPs emerged on Ongaku Musik in the early 2000s. In 2004 Cocoon issued the single “Geht’s Noch?,” which, after an international re-release the following year, achieved substantial club success and exerted considerable influence on the Dutch house style that later contributed to the mainstream dance genre known as EDM in the 2010s. Even amid this commercial breakthrough, Flügel continued to explore jazz-inflected techno alongside vibraphonist Christopher Dell; their album Superstructure appeared on Laboratory Instinct in 2005.

By the close of the decade Flügel had set aside most of his pseudonyms in favor of material issued under his own name. After a 2009 EP on Tiga’s Turbo label he entered an extended association with Dial, beginning with the 2010 EP How to Spread Lies; that same year also brought the mix CD Live at Robert Johnson, Vol. 5. The solo album Fatty Folders followed on Dial in 2011. Subsequent singles on labels including Live at Robert Johnson and Clone Jack for Daze, together with a collaboration with Simian Mobile Disco on their Delicacies imprint, preceded his return to Dial for the 2014 full-length Happiness Is Happening. The EP Sliced Africa appeared on the label in 2015, while the double EP Monday Brain arrived on Technicolour later that year. Verschiebung EP came out on Die Orakel in 2016, and Flügel’s third Dial album, All the Right Noises, was released in October of the same year. Fabric 95 followed in 2017. Although he continued to issue club-oriented EPs such as Black Acid, the 2018 album Themes I-XIII on ESP Institute recalled some of his ambient and downtempo work from the 1990s. The single Fun Fort surfaced on Mule Musiq in 2019, and Garden Party appeared on Running Back in 2020; Apollo reissued the sole Primitive Painter album, and Sister Midnight compiled Flügel’s earlier Tracks on Delivery material. He also formed the duo Noun with Daniel Avery, whose debut single “Meeting of the Minds” was released on Live at Robert Johnson.

Running Back issued the 2021 EP Anima and the full-length Eating Darkness, the latter another of his more exploratory statements. The abstract Ro70 album received its first reissue in 2022. Mega, an evocation of 1980s dance music, appeared on Running Back, and Yes People was released by Rekids.