Michael Mayer is a German techno DJ, producer and remixer from Köln, born in 1971. He is closely associated with the Cologne label Kompakt, where he works as a co-owner, helps decide releases, works with the label’s artists and oversees Kompakt Distribution, which is described as the home of more than 50 record labels. He also releases on Immer and Kompakt Distribution.

Career

Mayer begins DJing as a teenager after meeting a neighbourhood DJ and light designer who gives him mix tapes and helps him get into a local club. He saves money from working as a paperboy to buy turntables and a mixer, then starts playing school dances and birthday parties. At 18, he becomes a Saturday-night resident at Why Not in Achern, then moves towards more underground dance music.

In the early 1990s, he forms a DJ team with Tobias Thomas and two other friends under the name Friends Xperiment Sound System. After the group dissolves, Mayer and Thomas continue in Cologne with a straighter house-and-techno approach. They build a reputation through club dates and a residency at the IZ club. By 1993, Cologne becomes his second home, helped by the record shop Delirium, where he initially criticises the selection and is then taken on as a buyer and later becomes a co-owner.

As Cologne’s minimal techno scene develops, Mayer continues DJing in different cities and begins producing his own music. In 1998, he helps found Kompakt with Delirium colleagues Reinhard Voigt, Jürgen Paape and Jörg Burger, as a label, record shop, distributor, recording-studio and booking-agency operation aimed at creative independence in electronic music. That same year, he records the album Geben und Nehmen as Forever Sweet with Reinhard Voigt and Tobias Thomas. He also works on the party series Lichtblick with Thomas and Riley Reinhold before it ends with the launch of the weekly Total Confusion night at Studio 672.

DJ work and residencies

Total Confusion becomes an important platform for Mayer’s international DJ career. From there, he takes residencies at clubs including Nitsa in Barcelona and Weetamix in Geneva in 1998, and later at Robert Johnson in Offenbach, Fabric in London and Berghain/Panorama Bar in Berlin. His sets are known for combining techno, house, ambient and elements of pop and R&B, with an emphasis on progression and contrast rather than a strict genre boundary.

Recordings, mixes and productions

In 2002, Mayer releases the mix CD Immer, which becomes one of the best-known mix compilations of the decade. He follows it with a 2003 mix CD for Fabric. After a number of 12-inch releases, he issues his debut album Touch in 2005. The album brings together house, techno and cosmic disco influences, including links to early italo-disco.

His remix work includes music by Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Foals, Rufus Wainwright and Miss Kittin. He is also known for transforming the feel of original tracks, including a version of Sade’s “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” turned into a darker schaffel techno track.

Supermayer and other projects

In 2007, Mayer and Superpitcher form Supermayer. Their first full-length album, Save The World, is accompanied by an audiovisual live show that takes them to festivals including Coachella, Fiber Fib and Primavera Sound. Mayer also appears under the name Zimt.

He remains identified with electronic, microhouse, minimal techno, tech house and techno, and with a style that links club play, label work and production.

Selected associated names

Friends Xperiment Sound System, Friends Experiment, Forever Sweet, Supermayer, Zimt.