Synth City

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009, Germany’s capital celebrated in a number of ways. Museums presented special exhibitions, people in giant puppet costumes roamed the streets, and on the anniversary day itself a “Festival of Freedom” brought a host of musicians (and a large, symbolic set of toppling dominoes) to the Brandenburg Gate. One of the most intriguing celebratory projects was the screening of 24h Berlin, a monolithic documentary that presented, in real-time, 24 hours in the life of the city today. The accompaniment to this Herculean effort—filming was carried out by 80 camera crews scattered throughout Berlin—was a lush electronic soundtrack, courtesy of veteran techno producer, former member of The Orb and Berlin resident Thomas Fehlmann. The countless hours of euphoric music that Fehlmann composed for 24h Berlin—made up of warm synths, dub-like beats, and a tapestry of delicate samples—are re-packaged this month as Gute Luft ("Good Air"), a more manageable, album-length offering, inspired by the incomparable spirit of the city and its juxtaposition of green and urban spaces. "Permanent Touch" is a preview track from the record, out March 29 on Kompakt.