Heiko Laux

German techno producer Heiko Laux is prominently known both as a producer and also as the owner of Kanzleramt, a prestigious minimal techno label that has released tracks by other esteemed German techno producers such as Johannes Heil and Christian Morgenstern. Laux started his label in 1994, then still based in his hometown of Bad Nauheim (later relocated in Berlin). During the label's first year, Laux released 12"s by Patrick Lindsey, Ben Jamin, Notsignal, and himself. In successive years, Laux expanded his label's roster a bit to feature other producers such as Heil, Morgenstern, Voodooamt, DJ Slip, and many others. He continued releasing tracks under his own name as well as Item One (a collaboration between himself and Heil) and Sodiac (a collaboration between himself and Anthony Rother). Over the years, Laux's output became increasingly prolific. In addition to his releases on Kanzleramt, he released tracks through labels such as Richard Bartz's Kurbel (the Souldancer EP), i220 (the No Gain No Pain EP), Tresor (compilation appearances and remixes), and Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi (the Dedicated to All Believers EP). Furthermore, he expanded Kanzleramt, creating the sub-labels U Turn and K20, and released a few rare EPs as Apathism. In the late '90s he began releasing full-length projects that found him exploring different styles of techno: the untitled double-12" There Is No End collection (U Turn 8), the Old School Street album on i220, the Apathism compilation (U Turn 10), and a few traditional albums for Kanzleramt such as Liquidism (1998), Sense Fiction (2000), and Ornaments (2002). ~ Jason Birchmeier