Joachim Spieth

Photo: Sandra Schuerlein

When Joachim Spieth asked me to write his biography, I knew I would have to be a bit creative in order to write something different. You see when writing a biography, there are things you have to speak about, even though you know it has been said many times, and you fear it will end up looking like any other biography, with the usual and righteous amount of name droppings. For instance, I couldn’t avoid saying that Joachim Spieth has released a numerous amount of records, on labels as renowned and diverse as Michael Mayer’s Kompakt, Traum Schallplatten, or Paso Music to name only few. And that some of those releases, such as « Under Pressure » have been, and are still hits. How could I pass on the fact that some of his compositions have been charted by Martin Gore and Sven Väth, played by Juan Atkins and Derrick May, licensed by The Orb or remixed by Rolando? And I couldn’t possibly forget the label Affin he has successfully been running for seven years, with 150 releases added to its catalogue.

I also had to mention that he has been involved in the electronic music scene for the past fifteen years; that he used to play in a band as a teenager. I had to name the clubs in which he has played during the last decade. Tresor Berlin, Tunnel, Culture Box or Hive Zurich being his regular meeting points with the crowd. But I did not really want to speak about all of the above. Because what matters at the end is who he is, what he wants to express by producing music and what he has been giving to the scene. Being a shy character, he is not the type of person searching for the spotlight but someone that is evolving on the scene by pure passion, and wants to communicate this passion to the others. He created his label Affin to be as independent as possible and focus on discovering new talents.

But most importantly, what Joachim Spieth does not put into words, is translated into sounds. Deep, solemn and at times enraged, his productions represents Techno in its purest expression. They are made to occupy our dying cathedrals of concrete, to crush the reality of our everyday life under an assumed individuality. The elaborated basses and the echoing melodies grab our minds to throw them in a far away world, leaving the silence of a doomed society behind.

written by Chloë Le Bian