DJ Love: Sven Vath

Photo: Sven Väth

German DJ and producer Sven Väth has in his career become one of the biggest names in underground music, particularly in techno where in the mid nineties he found his true calling.

Beginning his career in 1981, Sven's musical journey took an unlikely path as part of dance pop act OFF in 1985, which also featured future members of dance act Snap! A couple of hits later and OFF disbanded, leaving Sven to turn his attention to the fledgling hard trance scene in his hometown of Frankfurt.

He went on to found trance imprints Harthouse and Eye Q, on which he released his first album to immense critical acclaim - Accident in Paradise. Cited as one of the top 50 dance albums of all time in 1995 by Mixmag, Sven had put himself firmly in the consciousness of the underground dance music scene.

Gaining notoriety with his epically long DJ sets and his infectious stage presence (watch a bit of the Boiler Room set to find out what we're talking about), Sven moved into the number one spot on the European DJ circuit, with NME heralding him as ‘the big chief of European techno’.

And then in 1996, Sven began a small run of events under the name Cocoon. The rest, as they say, is history.

By the late nineties the German auteur was regularly DJing all around the world, from Latin America to Japan. As the turn of the century approached, Cocoon was not only set up in various venues around Germany, but now at the famous Amnesia in Ibiza, bringing Sven's carefully curated techno sound to the clubbing capital of the world.

The year after saw Cocoon Records come into play as a way to support up and coming talent and administer the music he loved to a wider reach. Today the label remains as one of the most highly respected techno imprints on the circuit.

With another season about to start, Cocoon Ibiza returns to Amnesia for the 16th time, delivering another action packed roster of Monday night techno fuelled goodness. Sven Väth’s notoriety as an electrifying DJ is more relevant than ever, as his passion and dedication to the techno scene continues to show no signs of letting up.

Back in the UK, the forthcoming Cocoon in the Park (watch some festival highlights above) will see Väth joined by the likes of Green Velvet, The Martinez Brothers and Eats Everything for a full day of cutting edge, world class underground dance music. The festival has in its seven year tenure undoubtedly become the highlight of Britain’s techno calendar.

A name synonymous with techno and electronic music, Sven is and remains one of the most important figureheads of modern dance music, a benchmark for the rest of the underground music scene to aspire to.

Get your Cocoon in the Park tickets here.

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