Quarion: Recent Episodes
Quarion
"Shades" 2LP/Digital: https://drumpoetcommunity.lnk.to/QuarionShades
Quarion releases on Drumpoet Community, Innervisions, Tamed and co-owns the Retreat label with Hauke Freer of Session Victim.
If you'd like Quarion to perform live or as a DJ, please get in touch with: james@sweatlodgeagency.com
Lacks « It’s Like That » BBE17) Lucy Pearl « Without You » (Remix) Virgin18) Busta Rhymes « The Genesis » J Records19) MED feat. J Dilla « Push » Stones Throw20) Ghostface Killa « Beauty Jackson » Def JamBlended by ianeq AKA QuarionOriginal Photo by B+Jay Dee Rest in Peace
This is the first episode of Q Radio, a series of DJ mixes showcasing tracks I've recently (re)discovered that particularly resonate with me.Episode #1 Playlist:Session Victim - Sometimes - Delusions Of GrandeurSebb Bash - Grade E (Q Edit)Lexx - Far AwayMr. Beatnick - Dance Of The Dolphins - International FeelBroke One - Gazelle Flip - Big BaitRoberta - Make It Right - Night Movesex_libris - #32 (Walrus)Metric System - Soul 440 - KontaktSoundstream - Show OffBelcampo - Love & Affection (Manuel Tur Remix) - Lazy DaysImpérieux - Cawuso - Hessle AudioAnthony Naples - Scanners - ANS/InciensoGenius Of Time - Kinetic (feat. Matinda) - AniaraBaikal - Baby You - MaeveQuarion - Broken Sword - ParaphePVNV - Intrasolaar (Shlømo Remix) TaapionStimming - Lucky Me
A groove that never ends atop a boomin' beat and washed-out dub effects.What started as an ambient piece while trying Ripperton's modular system in (you guessed it) Lausanne, evolved into a stripped-down, no-nonsense, "Dub House" gem back in Berlin.Mastered by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering
Hypnotic and reduced Techno but at a House tempo.Features a twirling riff from my trusted SH-101 while a deep bassline from the Moog Minitaur growls in the background.Mastered by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering
Last summer, I was fortunate to play a string of gigs in various clubs around Berlin and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. To be honest, I hadn't had so much fun behind the decks since the pandemic: it rekindled my love for Deejaying and reminded me why I was doing it in the first place.This mix is an attempt to somehow catch some of the magic that transpired through these summer sets and I'm very happy how it turned out!Featuring tracks that span 30 years of dance music across various genres (although with a strong emphasis on House), "Summer of 24" is my personal snapshot of this moment in time. Thanks to @mensch-booking for releasing it!Playlist in the comments
A little taste of my upcoming remix for the "Cosmic Society" collective, coming out soon on vinyl & digital formats. A true journey to the stars!
At the beginning of January last year, Iron Curtis and I played a memorable all-nighter at Paloma Bar for which we decided to dig deep in our Broken Beat and Dubstep collection so that we could try to stay clear of the four to the floor. Of course, we ended up playing House and Techno as well :-) This was a special night for multiple reasons, the most peculiar one being that this gig would turn out to be my last club performance before the pandemic... This edit of the original 10-hour recording covers roughly the first four hours of our back 2 back. Special thanks to Finn and the Palomas for the invitation (and the recording!) and all the friends who showed up that night.
A pumping set that I recorded while playing in one of my favourite Berlin clubs, Salon Zur Wilden Renate. Some rough mixes but so much energy! Picture by Skye Sobejko
Back in the summer of 2018, I was invited by my good friend Ripperton to perform for his "To The Blaze" party series in Lausanne's Folklor. Somewhere around 5 in the morning, we decided to play back 2 back and this resulted in one of my favourite moments of 2018. Merci Raph!
A little taste of my rework for Plasmik, coming out soon on their new Wronkey imprint! Relentless drive and a detroit-y chord progression.
I'm very happy with this EP that came out early july 2018 on Drumpoet Community... 3 tracks that showcase my definition of house music: groovy, hipnotic and emotional.
Vinyl: . https://www.juno.co.uk/products/quarion-cobblestone-ep/687266-01/ . https://www.phonicarecords.com/product/quarion-cobblestone-ep-drumpoet/154138 . https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/quarion-cobblestone-ep-579619?p=nRGS3e . https://oye-records.com/releases/quarion-cobblestone-ep . https://www.decks.de/track/quarion-cobblestone_ep/cck-gp Digital: . https://www.beatport.com/release/cobblestone-ep/2317792
The complete recording of my set for DEEP DEPOT in DAS LOKAL, a perfectly-sized club based in Wroclaw, Poland. I had a great time there and I honestly think I performed one of my best sets of 2017 that night... I definitely was in the proverbial "zone". Thanks again to the fabulous people that came out for a dance plus Rafal and the two Jakubs for the invitation!
A teaser of my upcoming collaboration with swedish maestro Joel Alter. Three sizzling tracks coming out on True Rotary on September 18th 2017! From the press release: ""Tabor Session" is a hypnotizing piece of modern techno fusing driving beats with a myriad of synths and eerie sounds in a complete balance. Like an ensemble of dancers on the verge of loosing control. While "Memory Lane" shows the melancholic mindset of the artists, "Sansui Cruise" is full of playfulness and raw bouncy beats in a tribal groove."
This is a teaser of my rework for youANDme, coming out in a few weeks on Drumpoet Community. Feel those bassbins rattle!
A little extract of my remix for Marbert Rocel coming out on Compost. I tried different approaches but somehow it ended up in a very dubby and trippy affair. Play this one at the right moment and it will have a mesmerizing effect on the dancers... Available here: https://marbert-rocel.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-beginning-remixes http://oye-records.com/sgl.php?id=157971&aplay=0 http://www.juno.co.uk/products/marbert-rocel-in-the-beginning-remixes/639169-01/ http://www.traxsource.com/title/747568/in-the-beginning-remixes https://www.beatport.com/release/in-the-beginning-remixes/1935696
A snippet of my rework for Sumo, one of the tightest funk/electronic band from my hometown Geneva. This is just a snippet so please make sure to check out the whole journey here: https://www.beatport.com/release/galactika-revisited/1877314 https://itunes.apple.com/ch/album/orion-quarion-remix/id1167677502?i=1167677810&l http://www.junodownload.com/products/sumo-galactika-revisited/3246816-02/
Inspired by my new neighborhood, this club mix is built on trippy, soulful, quirky and heavy tracks which I've been excited to play out recently. Enjoy!
Released on Ripperton's Tamed imprint, this EP contains two of my deepest excursions to date. At the time, I was making music in the Funkhaus, a huge complex that used to be the GDR Radio offices for East Berlin. The building would become rather eerie and spooky during the night, and this would be the time where I would come up with strange and hipnotic tracks such as these...
Vinyl: https://clone.nl/item40190.html https://hardwax.com/76141/quarion/funkhaus-phantoms/ http://www.phonicarecords.com/product/quarion-funkhaus-phantoms-tamed-musiq/138535 http://www.juno.co.uk/products/quarion-funkhaus-phantoms/609785-01/ http://oye-records.com/sgl.php?id=148986&aplay=0 http://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/quarion-funkhaus-phantoms-476288?p=lrzZAN http://www.decks.de/t/quarion-funkhaus_phantoms/c7m-jk
Digital: https://quarion.bandcamp.com/album/funkhaus-phantoms-ep
I've had a string of very inspiring DJ sets over the last few weeks but I couldn't manage to record any of them unfortunately. Hence my idea of selecting a few current favorites and blend them as if I was playing in a club. It's impossible to translate the energy of a party into a DJ set recorded at home... but I think this mix comes pretty close! Special thanks to Loe.Loe. (https://soundcloud.com/loe-loe) for the pic and Paul Kav (https://soundcloud.com/cousin-paul) for the extra gear.
Stagnation is one of my worst fears and for this reason, I love to set myself new challenges. So I recently chose to ditch the computer for live shows and started building a strictly hardware setup with the wonderful Octatrack as the main hub. Definitely one of the best decisions in my musical life ;-) From now on, I'll be performing live shows exclusively with this new configuration and you can get an idea of what it sounds like with this 20-minute one-take demo!
My grandmother embarked on her ultimate journey a few hours ago... I just felt that I had to give her a proper farewell with my medium of preference. Grazie per tutto nonna, ti amo.
Another sweet selection of boogie and disco tracks that I'm particularly fond of... There are many "classics" in there but it never hurts to hear them again and again ;-) Thanks to Volcov, Hunee and Sadar Bahar for making me discover some of these gems.
Here it is, a trailer featuring all 4 tracks from the "Busted Moniker" EP. It's quite a jazzy affair and I had a lot of fun producing these 4 tracks! Get all the info here: http://www.retreat-vinyl.de/39657/releases/quarion-busted-moniker-ep-rtr16/
In prevision of my performance at Cruquiusgilde this June (http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?713391), I've recorded a DJ mix for the Kommune crew. It features a handful of favourites that I've been playing for a while (Dorisburg, Aybee, Simon Haydo) as well as some new tunes from Session Victim, Lando and myself. The mix is more on the techno tip... although I don't think it goes beyond 124 BPM ;-) Enjoy!
This is a DJ set I recorded about a year ago for the LUVJAM crew in Wales and contains some of my all-time boogie favourites! Mega shouts to Hunee, Jules Etienne, Sadar Bahar, Theo Parrish, Force Of Nature and DPC for the inspiration!
They say nothing gets lost on the internet but for some reason this decade-old mix seems to have fully disappeared from all portals... so when someone recently reached out via Facebook and told me that he would like to listen to it "again during quarantine", I thought it would be the perfect excuse to finally upload that mix on my own page. Back in 2009, I recorded this selection for Mono_Cult, a cool and dedicated crew from Leeds who were running parties and a podcast series. The series had a strictly "no playlist" policy and I remember getting quite a few "Track ID?" requests via mail or myspace (LOL) when the mix was published... let's see if it's still the case now! Enjoy! Q ps: special thanks to the Mono_Cult crew and Ed for reaching out. pps: what RA thought of the mix back then: https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/48129 ppps: that pic was taken in Tokyo in 2009. I was proud that Retreat's second EP by Session Victim (featured in the mix) found its way over there!