Posted on: November 2, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

“With Talk To Your Angel you can be certain that ROLAND APPEL has been
blessed by the Gods of music. Just listen to it and like JAZZANOVA and the
Sonar Kollektiv crew, you will instantly fall for it and you will give
ROLAND your benediction without a doubt.” -Rooftop Promotion

– Please be so kind and request only if you want to give us your feedback or
reply upon receiving our message for our label report!!!!!
“..if you have time for request, you will have time for feedback too…”
(thanks for understanding -Rooftop Promotion & Sonar Kollektiv)
The new collection of Sonar Kollektiv entitled elektrish is entirely
dedicated to fresh and innovative electronic music. It is the new platform
used by JAZZANOVA to release the work of artists that push things forward
and bring a breath of creativity in that field. After such releases like
SOULPHICTION or the Member of The Trick compilation CD of TRICKSKI that
featured the hottest newcomers in Electro and House such as SOLOMUN, SKWERL
or FUTURE BEATS INVESTIGATORS, it is about time for the Berlin label to
break new sound barriers once again! In 2007 another excellent Sonar
Kollektiv artist distinguished himself and got the props of all the best DJs
around the world with his music. This man was the Munich-born DJ and
producer ROLAND APPEL. Indeed his ace track Dark Soldier was the secret hit
at the 2007 Miami Winter Music Conference, found its way in the bags and the
charts of the biggest DJs in the world such as DJ HELL, LAURENT GARNIER,
PETE TONG, TIEFSCHWARZ, MICHAEL MAYER, EWAN PEARSON, DIXON, GILLES PETERSON,
AGORIA, KIKI and DJ T amongst many others. Even UK’s most important music
magazines like Mixmag, Fact and I-DJ acclaimed it and made it track of the
month last summer! But this was just the beginning for ROLAND APPEL, since
all the tracks he wrote are framed in the concept of a cutting-edge debut
solo album called Talk To Your Angel and proudly brought to you by Sonar
Kollektiv on the new Elektrish collection.
ROLAND APPEL gained recognition from his peers and from a growing audience
of soulful deep-house of lovers thanks to the 3 EPs Dark Soldier / Changes ,
Unforgiven, Innersoul/New Love that recently came out on Sonar Kollektiv. He
is nevertheless no newcomer in the world of music production. He started
spinning records and producing music in the early nineties. As a member of
FAUNA FLASH with his long-time partner and friend CHRISTIAN PROMMER, he
pushed his fame with 3 full-length albums, many 12″s, remixes and
appareances on very famous labels such as Compost Records, G-Stone
Recordings and !K7. Both of them also teamed up with PETER KRUDER and
produced as VOOM:VOOM sublime pieces of electronica on the labels Compost
and K7!. ROLAND’s career peeked up with the band he formed with RAINER TRÃœBY
and CHRISTIAN PROMMER – TRÃœBY TRIO -, whose album Elevator music has been a
great success that crossed over the german broken beats and dance music
scene. With those music projects he made a name for himself, toured all
around the world and played in the best clubs such as Fabric in London,
Cielo in New York or Yellow in Tokyo. He also had the opportunity to be on
stage at the biggest music festivals such as Roskilde festival, Sonne Mond
und Sterne, Sunflower, Big Chill Festival, 10 days off and Montreux Jazz
Festival. ROLAND gained a lot from all those team-projects but he also felt
the need to work on his own.
Talk To Your Angel is ROLAND APPEL’s most intimate moment to date. As he
says : “It’s all very pure, from my heart and that feels sometimes strange,
especially when you are used to work in teams.” The title Talk To Your Angel
also has a very personal meaning for him : “For me it’s a picture of
self-reflection. When you are working alone, you sometimes wish to talk to
someone, but on the other hand you don’t want to talk to a person, because
you really enjoy to be alone. At this moment when you come clear with
yourself, you can talk to your angel.” The concept behind his debut album is
to find a new way to combine the rules of the dance floor and the feeling of
a song. ROLAND delved deep into very diverse influences from Detroit Techno,
to Folk over to Soul, Disco and House and tried to bring song structures to
his music. For him there are no DJ tools and floor fillers on the album. All
the tracks are proper songs carrying a strong personal meaning but with a
very subtle house groove that will make your heart and your body move.
ROLAND produced them all in the studio of JAN KRAUSE. JAN is a member of
BEANFIELD of Compost Records fame and has a long experience in
sound-engineering and an impeccable musical ear. He worked for 20 years in
the studio with JUERGEN KOPPERS, the legendary engineer of GIORGIO MORODER
and DONNA SUMMER. Working in a place that holds so much disco-history was
very inspiring for ROLAND and it helped him to focus on his aim of making
timeless musical compositions. Moreover ROLAND worked on remixes for ROBYTEK
(Rebirth Records), FREDO VIOLA (Because), SIAN (Simple), YELLOW SOX
(Freerange), AUDISION (Mule Musiq) and 2 BANKS OF FOUR (Sonar Kollektiv)
while progressing on his own solo project. It was also very inspiring for
him to try and give another dancefloor perspective to the work of other
artists and it really helped him to find the missing link between the vibe
that people feel on the dancefloor and their inner feelings when they listen
to intimate compositions of singer-songwriters.
The result is a beautiful and all-rounder album of 9 tracks unifying
perfectly the feelings of a song with the energy of the dance floor. With
its soothing atmospheres, dreamy layers of pads, strings and voices and its
irresistible house grooves, Talk To Your Angel will satisfy the most
demanding deep-house lovers. Moreover ROLAND’s debut solo album will equally
please all the listeners interested in soulful music that tells you a story
and that carries strong emotions through the lyrics of singer ARABA WALTON
and the beautiful arrangements that he created. Talk To Your Angel includes
his masterpiece Dark Soldier and his other great numbers such as Changes,
Unforgiven, Inner Soul and New Love that has been charted and chosen by
DENNIS FERRER for his Mixmag mix CD in UK. ROLAND new tracks like Secret,
Angel and Lost Valley also cross that invisible barrier between a house
track and real song through elegant strings orchestrations, intense
harmonies and tight drum parts in a very nice Chicago-Detroit style.

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