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That Time When // Christian Wünsch
When it comes to the Spanish Techno scene, you don’t have to do much digging before the name Christian Wünsch appears on your radar. Despite the fact the Monaco born producer has clocked up a staggering seventy plus releases over his two decade long career, it’s only recently that he has taken up the challenge of releasing an album, which comes in the form of Internal Conversion, a sweltering amalgamation of warped industrial timbres and long-playing warehouse techno. Released at the beginning of the month, the LP comes to light with the assistance of Wünsch’s close friend Oscar Mulero, who put the LP out on his legendary Pole Group imprint.
With the album having been in the public domain for a couple of months now, we decided Wünsch would be a fitting candidate to inaugurate our new ‘That Time When’ feature - a series discussing five of the most memorable gigs (either as a DJ or a punter) with a range of different electronic artists.
1# ##Detroit_2005##
"2005 was the first year I played in Detroit - it was one of the Movement Festival after parties. This was one of my favourite gigs ever; everything was as it should have been. The name of the event was "Substance Detroit" and it was ran by the people from ‘Friction Detroit’, who today also own the label Blank Code - they are really good friends of mine. The location of the party was awesome, it was in the first skyscraper that was ever built in Detroit; the building was totally abandoned, but the organisers did such a great job cleaning and decorating the place. I remember the walls were covered with black plastic and with very few lights - it had a real underground vibe. There were four rooms and an amazing sound system, all was perfect and the party was astounding! Difficult to forget."
2# ##Sala_2001##
"Another great gig was the first time I played in Slovakia back in 2001 at the Metroklub in Sala. When I arrived at the party it was already crowded, the atmosphere couldn’t have been better, the sound was awesome and the people were going mad for the music, reacting to every record I played. The DJ box was like a cage, with metal bars separating me from the people. Slovakia was a fantastic discovery for me. Definitely one of my best nights!
I can’t talk about Slovakia and not mention the best club in the world that was the infamous Uclub, located in a bunker left over from World War II, in the centre of Bratislava underneath a mountain were there was an old castle - an amazing spot. The club is still running. It used to be open every weekend, but the guys currently only do their parties one night a month. I’m not entirely sure why, it’s a shame it isn’t every weekend. Best crowd, best sound, best collectives running the club. It was my second home.
I’ve never lived there, but back in the day I used to go over every two or three months. I’ve played almost every town in Slovakia and the Czech Republic - that’s why I consider it my second home. I made some very good friends there that I’m still in touch with today. A real techno crew!”
3# ##Berlin_2005##
"The closing party of the old Tresor was another one of my favourite gigs; sixteen nights with great line ups, with all the DJs and producer that had played before or had something to do with the label, and I was invited to play one night together with my friend Oscar Mulero - we had a wicked time. Tresor was one of my favourite clubs in Europe and playing at the closing party was super!
That was the last time I played at Tresor - the old Tresor used to be my favourite club in Berlin, it was a very special club. The new one is also one of my top locations in Berlin, as well as Berghain of course.”
4# ##Rio / São Paulo_2005##
"I have some really fond memories of the tour I did in Brazil. It was part of a mini-tour that I went on with Oscar [Mulero] called "The Damage Done". We played in Rio and São Paulo, both gigs were excellent, totally different but both very cool - I think it was the beginning of 2005.
In Rio it was a small club but with a really nice atmosphere, while in São Paulo it was a big open-air festival in a beautiful location surrounded by nature. The festival was packed out and had some really nice Brazilian vibes. We had an incredible experience and enjoyed the amiability of the people from the country. I also did a gig alone in Campo Grande which was very good too!
Me and Oscar have been friends for about eighteen years now, I used to be a big fan of his (and still am today). I moved to Madrid to work in a record shop, this was when I started to sell Oscar’s records, and that´s how we met. Two years later I left the record shop and began to produce electronic music. After a few years, we started to collaborate on EPs and remixes and we’d often tour together, then finally we decided to start a new project. We decided to write some tracks together in the studio, and this is how “Spherical Coordinates” was born. Touring with Oscar is great, imagine traveling with one of your best friends.”
5
##Tokyo_2008##
"Finally Japan in 2008 (I think). The first time I played Tokyo was a night to remember. Japanese people are so hospitable, I met a lot of cool, very nice people that took me to some wicked after-hours and looked after me very well. To play Tokyo was one of my ultimate goals so you can imagine how excited I was when this gig came though. My visit to Japan surpassed all my expectation, everything seemed fairly similar to Europe, nightclubs and afterparties running late into the days/nights."
- Published
- Jun 29, 2014