Paul Kalkbrenner: The King of Live Techno

Despite being born in Leipzig, Paul Kalkbrenner’s life has been forever been entwined with the city of Berlin. In 1989 when the wall fell, Kalkbrenner and his adopted city changed forever. On that historic night, a 14-year-old Kalkbrenner accompanied his father into the west of the city, where, for the first time, father and son shared a McDonald’s.

After their meal, the future techno superstar would bring the burger wrapper back to their home in East Berlin as a souvenir. 25 years later, Kalkbrenner played at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate as 500,000 people celebrated a quarter-century of German reunification. That night he also got a souvenir - a thank you note from the German Government, which he keeps framed on a wall in his home.

Starting DJing at just 14 years old, Kalkbrenner would play local youth clubs from 6 pm-midnight on Saturdays. Afterwards he and his friends would try to get into legendary 90s techno rave Bunker – a feat they’d achieve “maybe one out of every four times”.

It wouldn’t be long until the switch from DJ to live act. Having borrowed a range of equipment from friends, Kalkbrenner taught himself how to perform techno live and by 1999, he would be transporting a full live set up around Berlin to gigs for “about 300 deutschmarks.” These formative years, though impractical, were a necessary step on his route to becoming probably the most famous live techno act in the world today.

After releasing his 2004 ‘Self’ LP, Kalkbrenner was approached by German director Hannes Stöhr to produce the soundtrack for his latest movie, about a fictional Berlin-based DJ. The film would be Berlin Calling, and Kalkbrenner would end up not only writing the soundtrack but starring as the title character, Ikarus.

The movie and the soundtrack were huge successes and left an indelible mark on Berlin’s club scene, both documenting and turbocharging it. “Sky & Sand”, produced for the film in collaboration with Kalkbrenner’s brother Fritz became an enduring techno anthem, and the movie spent 145 weeks at Berlin’s Kino Central Cinema.

Despite being cast in the central role as rave-loving Ikarus, Kalkbrenner has stated that he couldn’t be farther from the character in real life, preferring to focus on the music than the trappings of club life. Indeed the world can be thankful for this outlook as Kalkbrenner’s dedication has led to a prolific output, with an incredible seven studio albums released among a myriad of EPs, remixes and compilations.

With so much incredible music to choose from, we’d encourage you to deep-dive into Kalkbrenner’s back catalogue, but today there are two projects we’d like to highlight. Firstly his 2016 project 'Back to the Future'. This three-volume mix series saw Kalkbrenner catalogue techno’s arrival in Berlin from 1987 - 1993.

Beginning as a 5,000-strong playlist on YouTube, Kalkbrenner cut this list down to 65 tracks - many of which he had to personally remake - to create an aural history of one of the most pivotal eras in electronic music.

The second project worth an immediate investigation is his 2018 album Parts of Life. “I feel it’s the best album I’ve ever produced.” Kalkbrenner told DJ Mag soon after the album release. The 15-track album showcases Kalkbrenner’s signature cinematic sound, whale exploring a depth of output that would be the envy of many producers.

Paul Kalkbrenner joins us for an epic live set at Ushuaïa Ibiza on Saturday, 17th June and 16th September. Celebrating 10 YEARS STRONG, we’re thrilled to have a true icon of underground techno join us at our Ibiza home to mark a decade at the forefront of underground electronic music.