Monika Kruse

DJ Wiki: Monika Kruse

Wikipedia

Monika Kruse (born 23 July 1971) is a German techno DJ/producer and record label owner, with a career in electronic music spanning more than 25 years. She played an influential role in the early Munich rave scene during the early 1990s and was among the first wave of German techno artists to tour internationally, before moving to Berlin at the end of the decade where she founded her Terminal M record label. Kruse remains a prominent fixture on the international house and techno scene, with regular appearances at major European events like Awakenings and Time Warp, and is also known for her long-term commitment to social justice via her No Historical Backspin charity that she founded in 2000.

Biography

Kruse was born in 1971 in West Berlin, but grew up in the Bavarian capital of Munich after her parents moved there when she was a baby. She began classical training in piano at the age of four*, and during her teens began accumulating a record collection that saw her cultivating a love of music that spanned funk, soul, hip-hop and house. After her final exams she took various apprenticeships in the music industry, before later commencing a role as a product manager for Chrysalis Records, working with bands including Gang Starr and Monie Love. Kruse's involvement with the Munich scene began in 1991 when she began DJing at Germany's first afterhours club Babalu Club in Munich. While her early sets featured hip hop and funk, she was also influenced by the early emerging sounds of Detroit techno and Chicago house. Her first residency in the Parkcafé Club followed next, and her involvement with the blossoming techno scene deepened at the end of 1993 when she became a member of the Ultraworld Crew which began organising techno events in Munich and opened up Munich's Ultraschall techno club in 1994. Kruse was a Resident DJ at Ultraschall from the start. In the mid-1990s, Kruse organized illegal techno parties in empty houses, decommissioned power plants, old World War II bunkers and on tank training grounds. In the summer of 1995, she organized her first "Housetram" party in an operating tram. The middle of the decade saw Kruse performing alongside Sven Väth regularly at his club Omen in Frankfurt. It also marked the commencement of her career as an international touring artist, seeing her DJing alongside Carl Cox at Global Gathering in the UK, Limelight alongside DJ Pierre in NYC and Chicago as well as her residency at Belgium's Fuse nightclub later in the decade. At the end of 1997, Kruse moved to the German capital of Berlin to join the city's renowned techno scene, where she began her Terminal M record label in 2000.

Recording career

At the end of 1997, Kruse released her first solo production on a compilation and moved to Berlin, where she released her first mix CD. Around this time she met Patrick Lindsey, and together they collaborated as producers over several years under the name Monika Kruse @ Voodooamt. Their first release came in 1998. In 2000, Kruse founded her first label Terminal M. 2001 saw the release of the first Monika Kruse @ Voodooamt album, Panorama, with Patrick Lindsey. In 2003 she founded another record label, Electric Avenue Recordings. In summer she had a hit in Europe with her track "Latin Lovers", which reached #1 in the Dutch dance charts the top 20 in the Spanish sales charts. Passengers, her second LP, was released in autumn 2003. In 2007 Monika Kruse began a productive cooperation with Worms-based Gregor Tresher. Their first production "GTMK, and more..." came out in July 2007, followed by another 12" GTMK, Panchakarma on Dutch label Intacto. In 2008 Kruse released her acclaimed debut solo longplayer, 'Changes of Perception', which clocked in at number 2 on Raveline Magazine*'s 'Best Album of the year 2008' Kruse's follow up album 'Traces' came four years after 'Changes of Perception' and is an expression of Kruse's personal and musical influences over the years, "It's a combinations of different electronic styles which have all had a big impact on me" Though she began working on 'Traces' in February 2011, she took a break during the course of creating the album due to the death of her mother. She returned to the studio in the autumn and completed it in February 2012, finding catharsis in her love for music, "When my mother was sick and died, that was not easy, but when I start to spin I immediately, when the first record is playing, I forget everything about me and I just hear the music".