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.
