Sven Vath
The Sound Of The 12th Season / WAS Distribution

Sven Vath mixes the universal hits and hidden gems of this year/s club music into a 160-minute trip into the now of electronic music. The 12th volume of Vath/s “Sound of the Season”-Series is a unique listening experience for electronic music afficionadas and innocent bystanders alike. With the Cocoon Heroes, Sven Vath/s techno tribe entered a new stage in its never ending metamorphosis. Fuelled by the communicative energies of the social networks of the internet the Cocoon is opening up, declaring ravers and performing artists, dancers and helpers part of the Cocoon as well. Within the concept of the Cocoon, this is something entirely new: As the nineties, techno/s groundbreaking decade, came to an end, Sven Vath realized a fundamentally new path had to be persued. Calling longtime fellow travellers and new acquaintances together to form a Cocoon: a remote safety zone and a exciting playing ground, a highly productive agency and a weird tribe of electronic music freaks and party animals. With the Cocoon club, Vath and his companions created a new type of club which fused sound and space into one immersive experience. Having realized that the daily life in the big cities compromises partying without limits, they set up a second home each summer at Club Amesia on the Mediterreanian island of Ibiza. The “Sounds of the Season”-Series is an aural photo album and an a compressed culmination at the same time. The love for electronic music is the driving force of all Cocoon/s endevours. Yet they closely watch what is going on outside their Cocoon. Exited about the chatter about musicans and night life going on services like Facebook or Twitter, the concept of the Cocoon heroes was created. Serving as an arena for gossip and discussion, there is even a Facebook app to create the most unlikely avatars, desolving the border between performer and listener. In the first part of “The sound of the 12th season”, Vath melds the crowd into an orgiastic techno feast. Being bold in its outcome, the beginning is quite subtle. Efdemins and Kozes surprisingly slow grooves lure the dancers into their unique electronic sounds. With their demanding beats and heavy basslines, Dense & Pika set a different, energizing tone. Suprsingly quick Vath reaches a first peak with Boys Noize/s „Adonis“ - an unlikely encounter of a 80s-Chicago-House-bassline and a seductive arabesque melody. But Vath doesn/t give it all away just now. With the elegant techno soul of Justin Vandevolgers he lets the crowd take a deep breath. Then, when you don/t expect it at all, Todd Terjes accoustic space disco sets in. Terjes Tracks is as an unexpected exposition of the hammering bass and nasty acid sounds of Mark E/s “Belvide Beats” as well. Entering with unexpected force, the gates are open now. The contradicting forces of the dancefloor are finally in sync. Only Vath/s longtime favorites Chateau Flight manage to bring this orgiastic mess back on a managable level. With their stripped down funk, they create a perfect stage for the electronic fusion jazz of Aufgang. The final sequence of the first mix is a journey into melodic electronic sounds: Gary Beck takes us into a clowd of allien strings. Benoit Sergio/s processed voice sounds like Indiepop from a parallel world. Acquiesence/s cloudy soundscapes let us dive into an ocean of pure electronic grace. With tracks by Steffi, Gerd and Anthony Collins, the House grooves of the second mix set an entirely different mood. It is a set for those moments when the party goes on for hours or even days, when the dancers are completely lost in the elyptic electronic sounds. Move D puts us into a deep trance driving our ever moving bodies into accoustic territories yet to be discovered. A tiny vocal sample is endlessly repeated until the human voice is stripped bare of all humanity. Osunlades shockingly beautiful voice is enriched by Ame/s multilayered House sound which encounters Alli Borem rough “Scotch Your Mind”. Borem funnily mocks senseless afterhour conversations bare of any sense. Maceo Plex sets a driving disco groove which desolves into Roman Flugels subtle, analytical approach to classical Chicago house. With tracks by Philip Bader, Matt John and Re.You the grooves and voices disssolve into those poetic moments when everything but the music is forgotten. The groove, like life, never ends. But this mix has to. And it does, with Mark E./s longing synth-pop. There are many Cocoon Heroes, but there is only one Sven Vath. With his unique curiosity and courage, he gives us a chance to surrender to the music completely. Finally we realize that the beauty and the beast are two faces of the some creature. It is always the electronic trip that you was hoping for. But it never comes the way you expected it to.