Bleep

Berghain’s in-house label Ostgut Ton celebrates 15+1 years of their activity with a boxset, Fünfzehn + 1, an awaited triumph entwining the club’s transformative space with the restless vision of its artists. Working in pairs to create tracks dedicated to specific rooms, Berghain’s affiliates - cult-rave headliners including Marcell Dettman, Barker, Luke Slater or Ben Klock - rally a collaborative spontaneity in focused, sonic tributes.

Across five twelve-inch disks, the compilation’s 20 track lineup illustrates the manifold layout of Berghain’s expanse, whether the hammering uptempo techno of its main turbine hall or refined house music palpitations coming from the upstairs Panorama bar. The assault kicks off with MMM, iconic duo of Errorsmith and Fiedel, rousing ravers with buzzing, metallic sequences in Rimba7. Taking on its impact, Avalon Emerson and Roi Perez follow with echoes and dynamic synth collisions in Champu Princess, before Tama Sumo and Lakuti take pleasure in a funkier, abstracted take. The compilation mellows in the submerged feel of Substance and Soundstream’s Session 2 or the whispering electronica of Len Faki and Honey Dijon, then glides up into celestial realms with JASSS and Silent Servent. Charging rhythms with concrete strokes, Barker and Luke Slater, Ben Klock and Etapp Kyle, Marcel Dettman and Norman Nodge guide us through the industrial marathon. As the album oscillates - through playful bleeps, hypnotic spectrums, and always without a lapse, grinding, silvery kicks - it reveals the club’s intensified attempts to examine the collective efforts that pushed it forward.

Since the initial anticipation of Fünfzehn + 1’s release in 2020, the release has come to represent an unprecedented moment of reflection, ruminating through flashing memories amidst the blackout of its temporary closure. Dancefloors were momentarily sealed, but still, the output of its overseers summoned dark liquid magic into full-fleshed glory.