Abstract, ambient and classical music from the legendary Cologne-based electronic label.

In 2001, electronic music was at a crossroads, one that felt more like a massive highway interchange than a four-way stop, with tributaries curving up and around in myriad directions toward who-knows-where. At that moment genres including breakbeat, drum & bass, trip hop, techno, proto-juke, progressive house, IDM, clicks & cuts, chop & screw, British 2-step, dancehall, Miami bass, trance, dub techno, EDM, and others seemed to be exploring every possible rhythmic angle.

In Cologne, Germany, two brothers with the last name Voigt plotted an avenue that connected synthetic ambient music with minimal electronic dance music. Started as a record store, Kompakt opened 1993 as acid house and proto-techno hub for Voigt siblings Reinhardt and Wolfgang, who across the decades have produced music under pseudonyms Sturm, SRI, and Kron (Reinhardt Voigt) and Gas, Mike Ink, Love Inc., and Studio 1 (Wolgang Voigt). Responsible for some of the deepest, dubbiest European techno, Kompakt has issued stellar tracks and albums by artists including Michael Mayer, DJ Koze, the Orb, the Field, and dozens more.

Kompakt’s compilation series are as relentless as their rhythms. Starting in 1999 with its landmark Total series and continuing two years later with its influential Pop Ambient run of collections, the label has crafted its own singular aesthetic.

In 2018 interview with the Quietus, Wolfgang recalled establishing himself with harder tracks, what he called “mostly techno and bass-drum music.”

But, he added, “At the same time, and since I was very young, I have been fascinated by this rustic, pastoral German mythology. This imagery has found its way into the works of Goethe, Nietzsche, Mahler – and while I in no way model my work on theirs, or even aspire to it, these ideas have proved to have a sort of timeless resonance.”

What he then described captures the essence of the Pop Ambient series: “So, behind the curtain of discourse around the so-called ‘minimal techno boom,’ I had been working on this different, more abstract, ambient and classical music-based material which led to the first Gas releases on [Kompakt sub-labels] Profan and Mille Plateaux.”

It’s easy to keep track of how many Pop Ambient volumes there are because the first one was issued in 2001. Twenty-two volumes later, the annual release is as consistent as it is hypnotic.

Neither Wolfgang nor Reinhart appear on Pop Ambient 2023 (Reinhard seldom produces tracks these days), but their longtime compadre Jorg Bürger makes a few different appearances. He’s one-third of Blue (with Thore Pfeiffer & Max Würden), whose track “Gen Pop” is a standout. As Triola, Bürger’s “Kupferblüte” suggests a slower, chopped-and-screwed take on his productions as Modernist.

In addition to the above, Pop Ambient 2023 features Morgen Wurde, Tetsuroh Konishi, Sono Kollektiv, Jens-Uwe Beyer, Reich & Würden, Joachim Spieth / zakè, Thore Pfeiffer / Kinbrae, and Blank Gloss.

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