Alex Barck‘s rise to world wide fame was as a member of Jazzanova in the late 90‘s. Also as the A&R manager at Berlin based label, Sonar Kollektiv, he was, and still is, responsible for some of the finest ever releases, spanning the horizons from soulful pop to witty dance music. There is, however, no need to elaborate on the mighty Jazzanova and Sonar Kollektiv‘s output here. We are here purely to pay homage to Alex Barck‘s own illustrious career.
He was born and raised in Prenzlauer Berg back when there was still a wall dividing Berlin, making it exceedingly hard for East Germans to have a real sense of with was happening music wise around the world. This did not deter young Alex though. He was an eager music lover who listened to everything he could find in the East Berlin libraries, devourde magazines smuggled into the east and listened to every thing he could find on the airwaves (especially a radio show by disc jockey Monika Dietel on SFB, which still informs and influences him even until today). Just as he came of age, and was old enough to stand behind the decks himself, the wall came tumbling down and an 18 year old Alex Barck found himself in what was to become, almost instantly, the most influential city and scene of the early 90‘s. Here he learned to play eclectic and elusive DJ sets which blended everything from techno to wave, disco, soul, hippie folk, hiphop and, yes also jazz. Whilst the other newly liberated East Germans raided retail stores to finally buy what they couldn‘t before, Alex Barck went crate digging. A hobby he devotedly pursues to this day (his record collection encompassing more than 10.000 records to date).
His first gigs were at the Club Akbar Lounge followed by the infamous Delicious Doughnuts. Only ten years after his beginnings he has played at almot every renowed club on this planet as the likes of Tokyo‘s Yellow to Zouk in Singapore, Trouw in Amsterdam, Goa in Madrid, Dachkantine in Zurich, Plastic People in London, Elephant Festival in Croatia, and of course the Berlin landmarks WMF, Cookies, Weekend, Watergate and Panorama Bar - just to name a few. He has also played alongside an endless list of luminaries including but not limited to Francois K., Gilles Peterson, Norman Cook, Andrew Weatherall, Carl Craig and Basement Jaxx.
As well as being a passionate, challenging and, oft times, revolutionary DJ for over twenty years, Alex Barck has also worked as a selector, compiling several acclaimed and trendsetting series (Secret Love, Computer Incarnations etc.). He hosts a number of radio shows on different German radio stations and is also revered for his remix work (e.g Jeremy Glenn‘s „New Life“, Jazzanova‘s „Little Bird“, Vindahl‘s „Question“, Little Dragon‘s „Ritual Union“). As of 2011 he and producer extraordinaire, Christian Prommer, have been recording together as Prommer & Barck (check out their first album „Alex & The Grizzly“ on Derwin Records) and have been touring as a club/live act all throughout Europe. And if that isn‘t enough for you, Barck and Prommer also have their own label, Derwin Records (named after Alex Barck‘s favourite creperie in Bretagne) which releases their own music as well as edits and tracks by new artists (e.g the late 2011 underground Balearic hit „Night Flight“ by Quintus Project with edits by Lexx and Psychemagik). Writing about Alex Barck you can really see how hard it is to pin him down to one distinctive style or any one endeavour. So busy is his schedule and so explosive is his constant creative output. There‘s probably only one leitmotif to his career (and his life as well): A deep, honest and never ending love for music. Music is love, and Alex Barck is music.