It all began with one of those Chicago-Trax compilations on DM/STREETSOUNDS. As a reaction to the craving for crazed beats from abroad while taking into consideration fans with less money, the biggest hits of these expensive import 12” records were soon released as a compendium.

This opened Pandora's Box for the very young Roman Flügel. Given to him by his unsuspecting older brother (“He probably didn't know what he was doing and just wanted to introduce me to some new music”), the luminous power of the unrefined and feverish dance music merely decked with a few drum machines and cheap synthesizers turned the world upside down for the humanist cultivated music pupil from Darmstadt. A few evenings and a few kilometres further up north in Sven Väth's celebrated Omen added the finishing touches. Memories of the atmosphere at the legendary Warp or Underground Resistance label nights will probably put a smile on filigree Flügel's face till the end of his days. And mind you, he'd also make a pretty good literature lecturer or writer or thinker. “LFO's bass - they'd set up everything they had in the way of equipment - was just incredible,” he laughs.

Before long, the trained ear wanted to try more than just classical music. A laboriously built-up collection of machines resulted in the first sound experiments and the courage to give indie fan (that's what music journals like Zillo used to call such people back then) Jörn Elling Wuttke a demo tape. The latter was a well-established figure in Darmstadt's music scene and was often thrilled by new electronic music. He had thus found the right ally and Wuttke hardly dared to believe his spellbound ears.

It was similar for the Frankfurt DJs and Delirium record sellers Ata and Heiko MSO. At first they thought it was a hoax. What Flügel and Wuttke presented their label Ongaku and Klang Elektronik as Acid Jesus and Alter Ego sounded too authentic and unique to come from the little neighbouring town Darmstadt. In Frankfurt, you'd first think of Detroit when you heard such sounds. The rest has long gone down in history and explains an almost holy alliance. Speaking of holy, a hot and sticky summer's day, a crate of beer and a studio in a garage were sufficient to found a new label called Playhouse for Holy Garage and “Surprise”, which still causes a commotion in today's house clubs. Collaborators such as Isolée, Don Disco alias Losoul and Ricardo Villalobos made the label the number one address on the block. Things progressed, history was made and the 90s flew by. His degree course in music was in the way at some point: “Somehow it seemed obsolete to me to keep having to just analyse church sonatas while so many things were happening around me that were far more interesting. When, to top it all, the only seminar on modern music was cancelled, I made up my mind to leave this academic path.”

Lucky for us, really. The electro-intellectual's productivity is virtually unrivalled and Roman Flügel as a producer, DJ and label co-owner of Ongaku/Klang/Playhouse has blossomed into a gentle giant in the German electro scene. With his own personal style and the privilege of having set himself apart from the music scene's usual material constraints. A freethinker instead of someone who follows the herd. His solo project as Soylent Green (see the latest compendium “La Forca Del Destino”) is just as obligatory as the Alter Ego project with Wuttke that says yes to techno down to the very last detail. Together with Wuttke, he is also one of the favourite producers of techno Teuton Sven Väth who subscribed the duo as producers for his own music. Roman's work as Eight Miles High and Ro 70 form the quieter end of the spectrum, while the remixes (e.g. for The Human League, Primal Scream, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue) and tracks under his real name (just think of the Arcade Rave of “Geht's Noch”) are pure dancefloor affirmations.

Roman also attributes this to his job as an entertainer. As evidenced by the stadium-filler and pop-hit-tested “Rocker”, Flügel and Wuttke can boast being able to rock every auditorium anywhere in the world with their live set-up. The same thing can be said of DJ Roman Flügel. Be it in the form of his sets near home in Offenbach's Robert-Johnson, at the Amnesia on Ibiza or in Berlin's mad house Berghain/Panorama Bar: instead of disappearing into trivial and insipid elevator clicks and clacks, he prefers to fight through 20 years of “rave”. Contemporary music that consists of bleeping house or cracking techno coupled with futuristic Italo disco and electro that is anything but provincial. There was a time when one used to call such music acid house, released by the dozens on compilations. And so the story comes full circle.

Clubs:

Robert-Johnson, OFFENBACH/FFM
Berghain/Panorama Bar, BERLIN
The Rex, Pulp, PARIS
Fabric, T Bar, LONDON
Club Nitsa, BARCELONA
Mondo, MADRID
Womb, Yellow, Unit, TOKIO