Letters From Damascus (Remixes)

While FETSUM is about to take the US by storm (after a California tour, in March he’s going to perform at the SXSW Festival in Austin and at the pre-Oscars party at the Villa Aurora in LA) Sonar Kollektiv releases four seminal remixes of  his song “Letters From Damascus“. One of the centre pieces of his current album “The Colors Of Hope” is not describing the political situation in Syria, it’s more of an autobiographical tale about the golden voiced German-Eritean’s life.

These four remixes are irrespective to this fact. What Stuttgart based Johannes Brecht has done to the track is almost an imposition. A six minutes long intro packed with an arsenal of hi hats culminates in a shatter pated crescendo only to decay shortly after with an outro nearly as long. A brave hearted stroke of genius! The man with a Classical music education sounds like the new savior of techno. So it’s not really a surprise that none other than Henrik Schwarz released Brecht’s first original material on his own label Sunday Music last year.

A total different approach is taken by Jérôme Caron aka Blackjoy. The French, who is a devoted ambassador of emotional nu house for almost a decade, reconstructs a super deep shuffle beat and adds a stellar Jan Hammer-like synth line around FETSUM’s vocals. Magnifique!

With the digital release there are two further remixes to be enjoyed.

To find out where EnaWadan hails from you just have to listen to his sophisticated drum programming. The South Africa based newcomer also uses a mesmerizing saxophone hook to build a hypnotic, afrobeat inspired deephouse hottie.

You can’t really hear though that Sonar Kollektiv/Jazzanova member Alex Barck still lives temporarily on the Pacific island La Reunion. He takes his mix back to the pitch dark underground of his hometown Berlin and puts oil to the fire by adding synth stabs that sound wonderfully krauty. How good life on a paradise island can be to you!

Four remixes that couldn’t be more diverse, but every single one of them is setting a new standard on its own. The sound of Sonar Kollektiv 2013.

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