Avenue Red is proud to present a long-time favourite artist of ours, a man who for over 20 years has been lurking in the darkest, most shadowy lairs of the deep subterranean underground... enter German musical mastermind Stephan Laubner, better known to most down here as STL, also as Lunatik Sound System. Located somewhere amid the Harz mountains in northern Germany, he is well known as a talented and vastly innovative producer, especially in experimental electronic, ambient and deep, dub techno circles. But almost nobody, even in these tightest and narrowest of niches has ever heard a DJ mix from this rather mysterious figure (aside from a totally out of the blue RA Podcast in 2014). Today, that changes, as he has decided to unleash some real fury right here on Avenue Red.
His debut release was called "Portside Waves" and was the 13th release on Perlon in 1999, with this spooky, insanely hypnotic track coming with some bizarre infinite locked-groove loops on one side - the flipside featuring Ricardo Villalobos & Martin Schopf under their Ric Y Martin guise. This paved the way for a discography that, at time of writing, totals approximately 100 releases. As well as being the mainstay of his Something label (link below), his releases are scattered across the likes of Smallville Records, echospace [detroit], Echocord, Silent Season, Assemble Music, Phonica White, The Untold Stories and many more. We highly respect and recommend a visit to his hand-rolled Something Records website too, which is packed with soul and contains some amazing secrets waiting to be found.
This mix is a live DJ performance riddled with trippy effects and unusual mixing techniques. A mix like no other. It is alien, beautiful, strange, venomous, intoxicating and downright awe-inspiring, as with everything this rare Midas has touched.
"Since a while ago I have been in contact with Pierre AKA Caillou. His new label is Chateau Chépère on which I have an upcoming EP. We chatted about music and mixing and shared a few links to each other's publications (he made 2 Avenue Red Podcast episodes: 136 and 172). He was sending me a link to an Avenue Red mix he was doing and so I - or we - had the idea to send a mix from me to AR as well.
Since most of the music I make is usually within the studio I am not really a DJ - more a production head. Nevertheless, sometimes I dig out those old vinyls and record a tape. The mix provided was done pretty much out of the feel and almost desire to play some records again. I don't do this every day. I keep that for special times or at meetings with some friends or family. Actually this session turned out to be very much full of life and energy. I wanted to keep with a certain flow. Tightness was not the best. However I think it is still enjoyable. Not just a dead mix, but something coming from taking the action to create something enjoyable, at least for my side. For me the music and the mixing often is something that belongs together. I mean a dub techno mix probably would not have been done this way. Glad Alec is liking it and I hope you enjoy this one at your end too :)" Stephan Laubner, November 2021
https://soundcloud.com/synthonic-matter
http://www.something-records.com
https://www.discogs.com/label/17573-Something
https://www.discogs.com/artist/153541-STL
PS. Shout out to https://soundcloud.com/cailloulapierrequiroule and his awesome new label, on which STL - Partial Light EP is the second release following a debut with Rai Scott.
