Inside the Studio

When you think of techno and electronic dance music, you first think of clubs and festivals, ecstatic dancers and enraptured DJs. But in which spaces is this music actually created? Artists studios and writing rooms of authors and composers have long been the focus of public attention and research. The studios of DJs and electronic music producers, however, have so far remained largely hidden. They can be found in darkened basements, abandoned factories, garages, and backyards, in magnificently converted lofts, formerly squatted houses, shared flats or teenage bedrooms. Some exude the aura of monastic hermitages, in others production and party seem to merge into one another; still others look like rubbish dumps for electronic waste. Inside the Studio presents an inventory of this rich creative landscape in Berlin and Cairo. By interweaving photo documentation and interviews, the volume allows intimate insights into the hidden worlds of music production and becomes a surprising and touching portrait of one of the most exciting creative sectors of our time. The project is based on a research project of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) and was created in collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos, Cinthie, Frank Wiedemann, Modeselektor, Marcel Dettmann, Gudrun Gut, Westbam, Dr. Motte, Sarah Farina, Perera Elsewhere, Robert Henke, Roman Flügel, 3Phaz, Postdrone, Alva Noto/ Carsten Nicolai, and many others.

Gero Cacciatore (* 1974 in Torino) studied photography in Milan and worked as an assistant for Giovanni Gastel. He is a freelance photographer, particularly in the fields of corporate photography for fashion brands, still life, travel reportage and photography of urban spaces. He lives in Moneglia (Genoa).

Matthias Pasdzierny (* 1976 in Göttingen) is a musicologist from Berlin (University of the Arts/Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities). His main research topics are: music and migration, critical edition of (tape) music after 1945, history of techno and electronic dance music.