A fresh DJ and producer of electronic music, whose best years have only just begun. That's how it is! How do I know? Well, I've kept an eye on him …

At the beginning of the 21st century, there was a legendarily unsuccessful Cologne event night, which, in many ways, would be far from inconsequential. "Tristesse Royal" was a very fitting title: The round-about seven Sunday nights in the basement of the well-known "Hallmackenreuther" bar at Brüsseler Platz in the Belgium Quarter - the epicentre of the world famous Cologne electro music scene - hardly ever saw more than seven guests. One of them was usually me. I lived in the neighbourhood and often, I'd just come back from some wild and crazy gig on a Sunday night, but still in a sozializing mood. I enjoyed the fact that it never really rocked, as it gave me a chance to chat with the talented guys who started this basement session - the Karmarouge gang featuring the early Gabriel Ananda. Part of this gang was the young Maik Loewen from Düsseldorf who'd just been lured to Cologne.

Enrolled in the School of Audio Engineering, he and Ananda had just met and become friends. Loewen's first solo EP on "Tonsport" was one of many fruitful results of this connection. Mastering jobs for Riley Reinhold's label "Trapez" followed, and then another EP and remix, again for "Trapez". It was 2003, and Maik Loewen slowly became more established.

Another regular of this short-lived, yet highly important Sunday electronic session for music history, provided the next task for the highly motivated recording engineer. The famous painter and musician Walter Dahn, who also lived in the neighbourhood, equally enjoyed the vibe of the often exclusively presented electronic drafts in the Hallmackenreuther and the attitude of their makers. So he not only commissioned Maik to do a remix for him, but also to do the entire mastering and more for his album "Honig und Dreck".

Though after another remarkable EP for Karmarouge the friendly sound designer then turned to other relevant aspects of life, which temporarily slowed down his musical output… Luckily, since 2006, he's finally been focussing again on filtering and fading, compressing and composing. Who would have ever guessed…

…when he still sat in his kid's room in Düsseldorf and worked his way from piano to guitar and drums to finally end up with synthesizer: "I exchanged my drums for a 303 and a Roland XP",Loewen says. Music played a major role for him early on. "At first, I was into hiphop, of course." Through an animation job for a video of the Hardfloor project he met the Technobazillus. The mid-90s club scene offered plenty of options for the freshly infested, so he prepared for his A-Levels with a future perspective of becoming a Medienwirt (media management), while cruising through the post-rave world of the Steve Masons and Sven Väths, Tribe House and Ego Club. With more experience and synthesizers Loewen finally wrapped up and moved to Cologne to perfectionize his art of sound mixing …

…which brings us back to the beginning - his new beginning. With two EPs, one released on "Karmarouge" and one on "Poker Flat", he's finally back to mix and mingle with the latest in music, and he's here to stay. His housey, balanced post-minimal productions and DJ sets puts him among the top lead of next-generation track engineers: warm and friendly sounds, but intense, determined and gripping in the decisive moment. Music for better clubs, music which we will still dance to in a long time from now…

(by Hans Nieswandt)

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