Live-Set

As a musician, DJ and co-founder of the Leisure System label, Sam
Barker has helped push the boundaries of dance music in Berlin,
looking beyond the realm of 4/4 techno to explore left-field sound
design and rhythmic complexity. His musical approach – both solo and
in the duo Barker & Baumecker with longtime Panorama Bar resident
nd_baumecker – unselfconsciously combines bass music tropes,
breakbeat, dub and ambient elements while still maintaining a strong
connection to the dancefloor.
This broad musical vision has not only guided Barker & Baumecker’s
various EPs, LPs, and remixes for Ostgut Ton (most recently the 2016
LP Turns), but also Barker’s curatorial direction for Leisure System,
which now boasts one of the longest club night residencies at
Berghain. Having put out records by the likes of Dopplereffekt, as well
early EPs by Objekt and Visionist, Barker has proudly operated on
techno’s periphery – and, in the process, sought to shift its center. His
EP Debiasing marked his solo debut release with Ostgut Ton, taking a
hard look at the musical elements often considered necessary to
maintain dancefloor momentum, offering four distinct, driving,
hypnotic and unlikely dancefloor tools. His solo debut album Utility –
out September 2019 on Ostgut Ton – is a playful but non-ironic
musical approach to a whole spectrum of utilitarian and transhumanist
ideas.
A classically trained musician, British-born and Berlin-based Barker is
also an active instrument designer and builder who combines coding
skills with analogue, electric and acoustic instrument construction
under the name Voltek. Most recently he worked together with
Underground Resistance’s Ray 7 on a sonic architectural exploration
of empty factories in Detroit using self-programmed analogue
percussion instruments.