On The Floor! - Live at Melt! Festival

Michael Mayer

Kompakt, Cologne

Born and raised in the south-west German black forest area, Michael Mayer had his first encounter with music due to his mother's kitchen radio and some fine German Schlager, just one day after his birth. Afterwards, the obligatory classic musical education (piano, clarinet, saxophone, school choir et al) was followed by the dream to become a DJ and the purchase of his first mixer and a turntable (age: 14). A long lasting odyssee later, Mayer arrived in Cologne, got involved with Delirium Records (soon to be the Kompakt store), teamed up with Tobias Thomas as Friends Xperiment, started playing at parties in Cologne and having guest gigs in Berlin at infamous places like Tacheles and Bunker. His first careful steps in producing music with Reinhard Voigt and Tobias Thomas were dubbed as Forever Sweet, who got signed by Hamburg's prestigeous Ladomat imprint. From then on, there was no stopping him. No matter if you talk about his 8 years longing party "Total Confusion", his first and genre-defining mix "Immer", the Kompakt label and distribution or his numerous productions ("Touch") and remixes (e.g. Superpitcher, Depeche Mode), Michael Mayer is on the apex of German electronic music.