News

OUT: album 'The Day I found out that my Cat only has one Life' by DJ Pirna

The 'The Day I Found Out That My Cat Has Just One Life' LP by DJ Pirna is released on Former City and brings together a focused selection drawn from a much larger creative pool. With this record, DJ Pirna delivers a conceptual framework that balances between house and deep-house productions while pushing narrative motifs to the foreground: the character Eric, his childhood full of music, Lego and snacks, and the turning point when a tractor turned his pet into a memory, form the album’s guiding thread.

Musically, the release stays rooted in the house and deep-house universe; DJ Pirna uses atmospheric grooves, warm basslines and subtle percussion to mirror the mood of the story being told. The record features 14 carefully selected tracks - supposedly the distilled essence of an original set of 122 compositions - opting for succinctness rather than excess. Former City presents the LP as a clear statement by the artist, one that fuses narrative depth with dance-floor-oriented elements.

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Crunchy Freihfn reception at RBF 2026

new signing: Roland Jones

Roland Jones is a Phonk and hip-hop producer from Ukraine who now lives in Spain. He played a key role in shaping the early Phonk and underground hip-hop communities with his dark, lo-fi-inspired Memphis rap sounds and has collaborated with well-known figures in the scene such as Soudiere, DJ Smokey, and Tenngage.

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bankleer with Patric Catani at Ars Electronica

At Ars Electronica, visitors can admire another collaboration between Patric Catani and the artist duo Duo BANKLEER: „Echo sagt Bodensatz“ @ Underpass Ars Electronica Center / Rudolfstraße 

bankleer lead the Department of Plastic and Environment at the University of Arts Linz. Their works are situated somewhere between discursive media and the aesthetic transmission of emotions and speculation, explored through the use of situative sculpture, performance, text and video. 

Patric Catani, who has been active in various bands since the 1990s (EC8R, Candie Hank, E de Cologne, Flex Busterman), has also composed numerous theatre scores and most recently attracted attention for his award-winning music for computer games (Battle Block Theatre, Pit People, AHI).

Patric Catani and bankleer share a long-standing artistic friendship; most recently, they screened the film „TAUMELNDE LEERE“ at the Kulturforum Berlin.

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Freibank acts @ RBF 2026

We're excited to present several Freibank acts at this years Reeperbahn Festival:  

PORT NOO @ 25 Club                               
Wednesday, 16th 22:00 

CHARLOTTE COLACE @ Schmidtchen     
Wednesday, 16th 21:00

SUN ATLAS @ Nochtwache                       
Friday, 18th 16:00

DJANGO DJANGO @ Bahnhof Pauli         
Friday, 18th 20:00

CHARLOTTE COLACE @ Resonanzraum     
Friday, 18th 21:20

TR/ST @ Uebel & Gefährlich                     
Friday, 18th 23:05

Enjoy!

Wolfgang Tillmans to receive Haftmann Prize

German photographic artist Wolfgang Tillmans has been awarded the 2026 Roswitha Haftmann Prize. The award, which comes with a prize of 150,000 Swiss francs, is considered the most lucrative art prize in Europe and honors Tillmans’ entire body of work as well as his social commitment.

With this decision, the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation honors an artist who has significantly shaped and expanded the field of photography since the early 1990s - far beyond traditional documentary or fine art photography concepts.

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Roedelius @ Berlin Sounds Inside

It took a mountain of chocolate for the UFA film crew in 1938 to persuade little Hans-Joachim to play a sick child alongside Willy Birgel. He didn’t see the point—after all, he wasn’t sick at all. Since then, says the 92-year-old forefather of electronic ambient music, he’s been good at telling tall tales.

His life is straight out of a movie: He deserted from the NVA, served time in Bautzen, worked as a butler for a Berlin industrialist family, later became a hippie in Paris, a physical therapist at the Charité, and a massage therapist at a nudist camp in Corsica. And his career as a musician hadn’t even begun yet. How things unfolded from there, how he came to collaborate with his band Cluster and Brian Eno, what his connection to Kraftwerk is, and how he still makes music today - Roedelius reveals it all in a conversation with Anja Caspary. Listen and watch --> HERE <-- (german only)

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new signing: 1 9 0 5

1 9 0 5 is a music producer, DJ, and co-founder of the independent music label Former City Records in Dresden. His music primarily falls within the genres of ghetto tech, booty bass, and underground electronic music.

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