Christoph de Babalon

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Christoph de Babalon (* as Jan-Christoph Wolter in Hamburg ) is a German musician , DJ and label owner . His electronically produced music can mainly be assigned to the genres drum and bass , dark ambient and breakcore .

Life

Jan-Christoph Wolter was born in Hamburg and grew up there. In the 1990s he was a singer in a youthful noise rock band. His early influences included metal, rock, and hip-hop bands like Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys . He later became enthusiastic about the Earache label's early releases such as Napalm Death and Godflesh . The latter in particular inspired him to deal more with electronic music. He bought an Amiga and soon started producing his own music.

1994 saw his first release with the Love Under Will EP as Christoph de Babalon on Fischkopf Hamburg . The piece I Own Death contained on it was played by the British radio presenter John Peel on his show and landed on Peel's annual hit list, making de Babalon known to a larger audience. In the same year de Babalon founded his own label Cross Fade Enter Tainment (CFET) together with Martin Kränzel in Hamburg. Kränzel left the label in 1996; Paul Snowden got on board .

After de Babalon met Alec Empire , he started releasing Digital Hardcore Recordings on Empire's label in 1996 . There his album If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It and the EPs Destroy Berlin! and Seven Up . In 1997 a split 7 "single was created with Tocotronic , which was released on L'age d'or .

After the turn of the millennium, no more solo publications appeared for a few years. De Babalon had moved to Berlin and during this time mainly produced music for the theater . In 2001 he appeared on Radiohead's Amnesiac tour as a live act in the opening act, which de Babalon described in retrospect as "surreal" and which also cost him money because of poorly negotiated contract terms. Together with guitarist Christian Haudej, he started producing new music under the project name transition from 2003 , performed several times with the project and released the EP Fear Leader on Low Res Records. Due to different ideas about the further direction, the project was dissolved in 2006.

After that, de Babalon began to produce new pieces of music, supported by Alexandra von Bolz'n and Hanayo . In 2008 he released the result of this work, the concept album Scylla & Charybdis , on his revived label Cross Fade Enter Tainment. In addition to the regular release, a collector's box with 20 “miniatures” on a CD as well as a mixtape and other merchandising was created.

From 2010 further EPs and albums appeared on various labels. In the meantime, de Babalon published three compilation albums with the title The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. I – III with pieces from his early creative phase from 1993, some of which were previously unreleased.

In January 2018 If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It was remastered in three different colored vinyl versions and re-released as a download. The compilation album Exquisite Angst with early works from 1993 to 1998 was also released in 2018 .

Discography (selection)

Albums
  • 1995: File Already Exists. Continue (Y / N)? (Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
  • 1997: If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It ( Digital Hardcore Recordings )
  • 2008: Scylla & Charybdis (Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
  • 2012: A Bond With Sorrow (Tigerbeat6)
  • 2015: Short Eternities (Love Love Records)
  • 2017: Live At Dance Affliction (Dance Affliction)
  • 2018: TEYAS (with WIDT ; Bocian Records)
Compilations
  • 2014: The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. I (Self-released)
  • 2017: The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. II (Self-released)
  • 2017: The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. III (Self-released)
  • 2018: Exquisite Angst (A Colorful Storm)
Singles and EPs
  • 1994: Love Under Will EP (Fischkopf Hamburg)
  • 1995: We Declare War (with Paul Snowden ; Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
  • 1996: Destroy Berlin! (Digital Hardcore Recordings)
  • 1997: Seven Up (Digital Hardcore Recordings)
  • 1997: Split (with Tocotronic ; L'age d'or )
  • 1998: In A Bad Mood (Ghetto Safari)
  • 1999: Rise Above This (Zhark International)
  • 2000: Split (with Kid 606 ; FatCat Records )
  • 2008: Scylla & Charybdis (Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
  • 2010: A World of My Own (Restroom Records)
  • 2012: Dream game (Tigerbeat6)
  • 2015: Invocation of the Demon Twin Vol. 1 (with Triames ; Giallo Disco)
  • 2017: Grim Zenith EP (VIS)
  • 2019: Hectic Shakes (Age)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Tim Wilson: Introversion and Terror: Christoph de Babalon Talks . In: theransomnote.com, accessed April 3, 2019.
  2. ^ A b c d e Lizzie Davis: The Art of Production: Christoph de Babalon . In: residentadvisor.net of March 4, 2019.
  3. ^ Mean Gray Value: Christoph de Babalon . In: straylandings.co.uk, accessed April 3, 2019.
  4. ↑ Philip Sherburne: Christoph de Babalon - If You're Into It, I'm Out of It . In: pitchfork.com of February 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Babalon, Christoph de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolter, Jan-Christoph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician, DJ and label owner
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg , Germany