Timeless By Lawrence

01. Lawrence - Floating
02. Melchior Productions - Zukunft in Englisch
03. Chez Damier, Ron Trent, Stacy Pullen - Forever Monna
04. Soul Capsule - Overcome
05. Smallpeople & Rau - Life Aquatic
06. Schatrax - Overcome
07. RVDS - Another Track
08. Morphosis - Silent Screamer
09. Aril Brikha - On & On
10. Delano Smith - My Life
11. Baby Ford & The Ifach Collective - Ambo
12. Isolée - Thirteen Times An Hour
13. Pigon - Koto
14. Mike Dehnert - Beatmatching
15. Robert Hood - The Realm
16. Roman Flügel - Brian Le Bon
17. Plaid - OI

Being Germany's Gateway to the World, the port city Hamburg always had a special affinity to America. So, it's not surprising that Peter M. Kersten aka Lawrence has a deep musical and spiritual relation to the Detroit Techno aesthetics for more than ten years now. His label Dial Rec, which he runs together with Carsten Jost, stands more than almost any other European address for the value-conscious cultivation of high-quality melancholy Techno. After seven albums under his producer aliases Lawrence and Sten, Kersten now continues the perfection of his sound vision also as a DJ in a congenial way.

"Timeless" is far away from the dictate of the dogmatic obligation to currentness that DJs have to face nowadays, but celebrates electronic dance music as a timeless sensual component. With instinctive certainty, Kersten covers 16 years of living club history without ever losing the sight of the acoustic 'here and now', or even becoming the slightest bit anachronistically nostalgic. Instead, under his sensitive hands, milestones of minimalized Deep House like "Forever Monna" by Chez Damier, Ron Trent and Stacey Pullen (1995) or the 1999 club hit "Overcome" by Thomas Melchior/Baby Ford come together with contemporary and intensive hommages to Detroit Techno like Smallpeople & Rau's "Life Aquatic", Delano Smith's "My Life" or Pigon's fantastic Dub Tech romance "Beatmatching" from the 10-Years-Anniversary compilation of Dial Rec in a wonderful way.

Besides that, the mix features such well-known names like Aril Brikha, Isolée, the Ifach Collective and Robert Hood, before Roman Flügel sets a wistful final chord with "Brian Le Bon", a track based on Duran Duran's masterpiece "Save A Prayer", and Plaid finishes the mix with the crystalline "OI" from their classic album "Not For Threes" (Warp). Lawrence's mix literally breathes the serenity of a light-flooded Sunday morning somewhere between a modernist city and a wood glade, and thus gives his global artistic approach a suitable dimension.

Lawrence - Jill

01 Jill
02 Jill (Reprise)
03 Hamtramck
04 Sunrise

Lawrence has made a career out of the minor key, his epicend-of-the-night deep house for depressed clubbers is now a cottageindustry. His formula for the title track here is much the same as it has seemingly always been: "Jill" is a slow-moving tune that languidly lays out a soft beat perfect for the starry-eyed, tinkled synths that interweave with one another. Its yet another fully-formed song ripe for the warm-up.

Kersten knows his audience, which is why its followed immediately on the A-side by a reprise of the same, taking the kick out and showcasing how well his melodies hold up without a steady thump behind them. Its reminiscent of Kaitos beatless album for Kompakt and the effect is the same: Light, airy and perfect DJ tool fodder.

Things pick up as much as they can on a Lawrence EP on the B-side with "Hamtramck," which plys a similar tone as "Jill" with a tiny bit more urgency behind the beat. Ultimately, though, the track falls into the trap that much of his output has recently: Its easy listening house, with melodies too simplistic to give it a specialness that extends it beyond its modest aims. Far more successful is the bell-laden ambient work "Sunrise" which again takes Kaitos sound and runs with it. If Mule and Lawrence arent plotting a release of more ambient-driven material they ought to: Painting Lawrences sound in a new light, it offers up proof that theres life in his sound yet.