Thursday, September 11, 2014

Der Klang Der Familie

"In March 2012 Suhrkamp published Felix Denk and Sven von Thülen's oral-history Der Klang der Familie about Berlin's emergent techno scene to high critical acclaim... The English translation of ‘Der Klang Der Familie’ will be published on 9th November 2014, which is the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. One of the main catalysts that kickstarted the culture that Berlin is praised and known for today". 
More information here. See the documentary here.
"Post-reunification Berlin was a big playground seemingly filled with infinite possibilities. In the former no-man’s-land that covered the city, places suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, often lasting only for a few weeks, where history was going to be written. Techno, the new youth culture that would unite East and West Germany spread out from here at 180 beats per minute.
"After the fall of the wall, Berlin was full of disused spaces and abandoned buildings, just waiting to be filled with new life. It was unclear who owns any of this, which allows the techno scene to take over these new empty spaces in both halves of the city. Clubs, galleries, ateliers and studios spring up – only to disappear again a few weeks later. Soon Berlin has become the epicentre of a new culture, attracting enthusiastic followers from all over the world to clubs like the Tresor and the E-Werk. Wearing gasmasks and welding goggles they dance the night away to the jackhammer sound of previously obscure Detroit DJs. Among them are writers, artists, photographers, musicians and designers. Techno quickly develops into a mass movement, finding its most exhilarating expression in the Loveparade.
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DJs, club-owners, music producers, bouncers and scenesters, people from the centre of the movement and from its peripheries – in Der Klang der Familie they all get to have their say and paint a vibrant picture of a time when it felt like everything was possible."



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