AKA006 featured the highly respected German record label Compost Records. To mix things up a bit we negosiated with Compost our first two month, three track remix competition.
Compost are very interested in releasing the winning remixes, another first for Akanda. More details to follow after winners have been announced. A self-taught drummer, keyboard and bass player Ben Mono started going out to Into Somethin' club nights at the age of 16 and his friends were involved in the early Compost releases. By age 23 he had released two 12 inches under the monniker of Force & Paul on Compost Records (CPT 036, 053), tunes that earned him a reputation as a breakbeat sharpshooter and made magazines like the British I-D shout out: "Irresistable!".

He soon progressed working with a wide range of local and regional people releasing music on labels such as Spinning Wheel (Space Clique, Druckwelle, Sonic Surfer) and Sonar Kollektiv (Space Clique remix for Micatone). He also studied bass at the Converatorium of Music in Munich, and has been involved in creating various professional movie soundtracks. And the motivation for this? "I'm trying not to cocoon myself too much. People pass by my studio every day, at least one person per day. The atmosphere changes all the time." An atmosphere that indeed could be described as open source.

Ben Mono is a great fan of the internet as way to exchange sonically ideas and software plug-ins. "In my case, my daily work of updating is based on the internet." The sound of Marsmobil is very emotional and personal and has the potential to reach a real large audience. On the new LP "Minx" you can find many references like the lascivious power of Air, the warm family feeling of the 70s band America, a little of the fragileness of Talk Talk and much more. Roberto Di Gioia, the musical mastermind behind Marsmobil, embodies a new kind of idealistic and creative artist: musician, producer, frontman, multiinstrumentalist (piano, sitar, guitar, bass, drums, programming) and songwriter in one person. He was born in 1965 in Milano and started playing piano at the age of 4. His favorite band were The Beatles. After high school he moved to Munich and began a career as professional and award winning musician.



This man is a mystery to us.



Compost Records evolved in its 8 years of existence from a small one-man bedroom label to a very productive and creative business located in a Loft-style office in East-Munich. Today Compost Records has about 20 artists under contract covering a wide variety of different musical styles: House, Electro, Brazil, Drum & Bass, Downbeat, Nu Jazz, (2-Step Remixes).

Due to its renown and quality Compost managed to get remixes from great well-known underground producers as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Peshay, DJ Krust, Recloose, Ian Pooley, Patrick Pulsinger, Pole, Cinematic Orchestra, SWAG, Attica Blues for Compost tracks since the very beginning. Michael Reinboth always keeps an eye on upcoming underground stars, as this time Zero db and their killer-remix of Trüby Trio's "Galicia" on this compilation.

Besides Compost's artist releases, the label is also very well-know for its high-quality and forward-thinking compilation series "Future Sounds Of Jazz" and "Glücklich". They are always state-of-the-art musical extracts.

compost-records.com/sections/labels/cpt_arti/

pending download the AKA006-1 Ben Mono sample pack here
download the AKA006-2 Marsmobil sample pack here
download the AKA006-3 Mualleum sample pack here Compost Records - compost-records.com
Compost discog - compost-records.com/sections/labels/cpt_arti/
Ben Mono - ben-mono.de
Marsmobil - marsmobil.net
Mualleum - forceboutique.com