Michael Mayer (Kompakt)

Over the past four decades, Michael Mayer has done many things: maintained an internationally  renowned DJ career; co-steered the Kompakt record...

Over the past four decades, Michael Mayer has done many things: maintained an internationally renowned DJ career; co-steered the Kompakt record label, physical store, and online shop; and produced a slow but steady stream of singles and albums, both solo, and in collaboration with the likes of Superpitcher, Reinhard Voigt, Kölsch, Barnt, and on his 2016 album ,&’ - a plethora of talents from dance music and beyond. He has way over 100 remixes under his belt, for artists as diverse as Depeche Mode, Solomun, Pet Shope Boys, Apparat, Energy 52 or Kaspar Björke, many of them have turned into classics in their own right. He’s also released several ground-breaking, legendary mix discs, from 1998’s gorgeous Neuhouse, to the epochal Immer mixes, plus contributions to both the Fabric and DJ-Kicks series. Key to all of this, though, is the decorous drive of his clear, yet open-minded aesthetic, and a wide-eyed, thorough-going appreciation for music in all its variety and complexity. When talking about this deep love of music, Mayer’s eyes light up: he’s clearly got the spirit in him.“I enjoy digging in all kinds of genres.What I’m trying to excerpt from all that is something that could function within the realms of Kompakt or my DJ sets. I’m constantly trying to find inspiration somewhere to take the label or my DJ sets to the next level. My life is hunting down tracks, identifying them, and trying to bring them to the world somehow.” You can sense this broad aesthetic purview in the a