At home in Berlin for three days before journeying for the weekend to Switzerland and Italy to play his dark, driving form of hypnotic minimalism to techno lovers, Ben Klock sounds as though he has a cold. In the last couple of weeks, he’s been to Paris, Miami, Portugal and London. Klock is most definitely a man in demand, not least of all down to his sheer diligence to providing the party, some of which roll on into Monday mornings.
His monthly sets at Berghain inspire awe, often going for an epic 11 hours, begging the question of where he draws energy from, let alone that many hours of fresh material on a regular basis.
“There is something magic about this place,” he says of the now legendary spot. “Maybe also I have such a special connection to the club and the people in the club. They appreciate what I do and I get so much energy back from them.
“Even two weeks ago when I played the last time, I had three massive shows before then and three nights without sleep and I felt like, ‘I can’t play today’ and then as soon as I get into Berghain all the tiredness is just gone and I play for ten hours.
“I don’t even look at my watch one time and I don’t even want to hear from people what time it is – as soon as I know the time I would get tired, but otherwise I will just play and play and all of a sudden, it’s been 11 hours.”
Known previously as Ostgut, the Berghain opened in 2004 with Klock scoring residency after just one go on the decks. “That was a life changing moment,” he says. “It’s a very special, place to me, yeah – my whole career started off there. Every place has a different energy and it’s really important for me to come back to my home club.
“With so many hours you can go deeper and you don’t have to do that festival set where you play one hour of banging high energy. In the Berghain you can really send people on a hypnotic trip – something that you can’t really do in a one hour slot.”
Being asked to perform the Berlin Boiler Room in February indicates his notoriety as one of the leading and most in demand DJ/producers from the home country of his brand of sonic art, but Klock is modest, without a hint of arrogance when this is put to him.
“I’ve grown into this step-by-step, really slowly, so now I’m at a point where I’m really confident of what I do. I don’t take anything for granted. Every show is important no matter if it is small or big and I’m always trying to make it a magical night and want to deliver every time, even if I’m really tired and exhausted.”
His latest release was his Fabric 66 mix compilation; not such an unusual platform as he plays in the London club around four times a year. The release follows his revered debut album One on Ostgut Ton and his Berghain mix.
“That was actually kind of a funny coincidence because I had this idea that it would be cool to do a mix for Fabric and Fabric had the idea that they wanted me on board but both sides were too shy to ask for quite a while,” he says of Fabric 66. “They thought I was busy with the Berghain and the mix series there and I thought they wouldn’t be interested because I’m a Berghain guy.”
The mix features tracks from Burial, Octave One, Mathew Jonson and Floorplan along with Klock’s own tracks and some from Dettmann and Klock’s prodigy, DVS1, who features on Klock’s own label, Klockwork. Klock is soon to be joined in Perth by the godfather of Detroit techno, Derrick May. Suprisingly, the two have never met, with Klock saying he’s never witnessed May’s set.
“He’s a big influence for all of us. I’ve never met him and I also have never heard him play live so I’m looking forward to that. His label was a big influence in the early days.”
BY JO CAMPBELL
