Visionquest Night at Ampere with Lee Curtiss, Ryan Crosson and Shaun Reeves as your guides to cosmic enlightenment, supported by Ampere resident Laurens.
Master of the seductive synth, sensitive, pop-inflected songwriter, and all-round label visionary, Lee Curtiss knows how to straddle the dance industry’s many contradictions. In the process, he releases hits as exquisitely crafted and mentally twisted as they are in global demand. The musical engine room of Visionquest, Lee first made his mark as a producer with releases for Spectral, Get Physical, Supplement Facts, and Wolf & Lamb. Through DJ sets that mine the depths of dance music’s history and live PAs that pave the way to its future, Lee has showcased his inimitable sound in the world’s most esteemed clubs: Circo Loco, DC10, and Fabric London, among others. In addition to residencies in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Berlin, Lee has appeared at festivals like Glastonbury, Time Warp, and Creamfields. Two of his biggest hits, “Good Voodoo” and “Smoking Mirrors,” both made RA’s top tracks of 2011, and his 2012 EP, the naughty Lunatic Fringe, described as “DJ Deeon meets Phil Spector,” was Visionquests top seller.
His musical output is shaped by pioneering artists like Richie Hawtin, Kevin Saunderson and Moodymann in the US, in addition to European heavyweights like Pantytec, Ricardo Villalobos, and Thomas Brinkmann. Situated loosely between these two defining poles, alongside his partners in Visionquest: Shaun Reeves, Seth Troxler and Lee Curtiss, Ryan delivers a obsessive attention to the constant progression of his sound and embodies a ceaseless energy that carries itself from the studio directly into his live set and DJ performances. Whether it’s solo in the studio or as a guiding hand in the Visionquest label and DJ/production partnership, Ryan consistently chooses to steer away from the predictable circuit of so-called “underground” club hits, instead favouring a process of constant renewal, returning both to early influential material and to emerging sounds that depart from well-trodden trends. As a key member of Visionquest, Ryan is responsible for much of the concepting and day to day running of what has rapidly become one of dance music’s most cherished new labels. Between them, Ryan and his partners in Visionquest have honed a whole new landscape of lush, organic techno and more esoteric leftfield electronica, gambling against the predicable to introduce emerging talent like Tale Of Us, Maceo Plex, Footprinz, Laura Jones and Mathew Burton to the record buying public. Their efforts were rewarded when their label was voted number seven in Resident Advisor’s 2011 label poll, no mean feat given that it’s back catalogue has only recently hit double digits.
Shaun Reeves is an enigmatic pioneer who’s trailblazing quest to export his unique brand of cosmic underground house and techno from his hometown of Detroit to Europe and beyond has brought him international acclaim. Alongside best friends Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss and Seth Troxler he has helped put a warm, esoteric spin on the city’s musical heritage taking it away from clinical minimalism, back towards warmer, more spiritual party music. Together they have formed Visionquest, a genre-busting four-piece DJ combo, live act, record label and forward-thinking school of thought.
Shaun grew up putting on parties in and around Detroit, starting off in small bars and attic spaces, booking the likes of Magda, Dan Bell and John Tejada to play for him. During this time he started drawing deep inspiration from the early Perlon records and listening to sets from its label boss Zip, in 2004 Shaun decided to make the bold move to Berlin closer to the source of this sound. Since his move to Berlin, Shaun Reeves has been enthralling audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with his own highly distinctive mixture of American house, both classic and contemporary, and the deepest, most cutting edge aspects of post-minimal techno and tech-house. In addition to playing in Berlin’s celebrated Panorama Bar, Watergate, the legendary Beatstreet loft parties and holding his ‘Soul Shower’ summer residency at Club Der Visionaere, he has appeared at DC10 (Ibiza), Fabric (London), Robert Johnson (Frankfurt), Cityfox (Zurich), Sankeys (Manchester) and played for Wolf+Lamb at The Marcy Hotel (NYC).
LAURENS (Feiern, Ampere)