From The Stage To The Studio And Back Again

Yes, it’s been a while since you’ve heard from the Retreat HQ. We usually send a signal when a new release is in the press but it’s not the case this time. So while we’re working on RTR19, we thought we’d give you a little update on the Retreat core artists and what they’ve been up to since « Re-Treats Vol. 1 ».

Session Victim has become the epitome of touring musicians in the last months, playing all over Europe as well as rocking shows in the USA, Mexico, Australia and Indonesia. But instead of toning down their output, this constant life on the road has actually fueled the duo’s creativity. What materialized is undoubtedly their best effort to date, the colorful album « Listen To Your Heart ». Ripe with « Sun-soaked house music on the engaging side of deep, and at the clever end of funky » (Mixmag), the LP is already labelled as this summer’s go-to soundtrack. Get the full lowdown on how the album came to fruition here and be on the lookout for Session Victim’s hi-octane live show or energetic DJ sets coming to your town very soon!

Quarion has had an impeccable run of releases in the last year, including a stellar EP on Ripperton’s Tamed imprint and a contribution for Innervisions’ legendary « Secret Weapons » series. 2017 seems to be going even stronger with two bass-heavy remixes already in the can for Compost and Drumpoet Community as well as a very promising collaboration with Joel Alter that will definitely shake the floors this summer. There are more surprises in store from the swiss producer but in the meantime, make sure to catch Quarion performing in Asia and Europe in the following weeks !

After spending the first months of 2017 in the USA, Iron Curtis is back in Berlin and eager to showcase his flawless studio skills with an impressive string of releases. First up with « Industrie & Zärtlichkeit », a wonderfully quirky album as Moon (with Johannes Albert) that had Juno declare « it’s clear that the duo have worked up something of a beauty. ». Then there’s the club-ready « Maple » EP for the ever reliable Office imprint as well as hot remixes for Hudd Trax and Klamauk. But we’ve heard through the grapevine that this flurry of activity might be only the tip of the iceberg… we suggest you keep an eye on Iron Curtis’ profile or hear him out in the club for a sneak peek of what’s to come !

Thank you for the support and stay tuned!

Retreat Gets Re-Freaked

Tools of the trade

And we’re back! Test Pressings of RTR18 have been stamped while finished copies are being pressed right now on lovely vinyl. So what’s in store for the first release of 2016 from your favourite wax-only label? Nothing less than a brand new series entitled “Re-Treats”! Featuring cracking remixes by Nebraska, Session Victim and Quarion, “Re-Treats Vol.1″ is an ode to the art of the remix with each producer presenting his own take on classic material from our back catalogue. The 12” will be available from the 15th of April in all good record shops (via wordandsound) and of course on our dedicated website.

Thank you for the support and stay tuned!

Setting the Pace

download_20151215_152347As we wrap up another twelve months, we’d like to express our gratitude to the DJs, music lovers and fans who have made 2015 such an important milestone for Retreat.

Although our label was silent for more than a year, you’ve supported massively our “comeback” releases from Quarion and Session Victim, not to mention the repress of „Treats Volume 1“.

You’ve proved us once again the pertinence of our “quality over quantity” philosophy and we intend to pursue that route in 2016 and beyond.

As a small token of our appreciation, we’d like to offer a 10% discount on all Retreat-related articles in the Webshop if you place your order before the 1st of January 2016. Please note that with the xmas craziness in full swing, your package might arrive a bit later than usual…

Thank you for the support and stay tuned!

Ps: The next installment of the “Treats series” is up next and it will be a special one!

Communication Restored

IMG_20150504_054939~2
Slipmat 1: “Hey, let’s take a selfie with the Tokyo Skyline in the background!” Slipmat 2: “Have you grown a pair of hands?”

« The Rise And Fall Of Retreat »: what appears to be the title of a cheap gangster movie is actually the script that Hauke and I seemed to have unknowingly followed in 2014.

The rise was gradual and smooth : the label reached the small milestone of being five years old, we put out a compilation on double gatefold vinyl with exclusive music from some of our favorite artists and we went on tour around Europe to celebrate Retreat’s 5-Year anniversary. But the fall was sudden and abrupt : our distributor Intergroove filed for bankruptcy in july and this struck an almost fatal blow to our finances…

So for the first time in the label’s history, we took its name literally and folded back. Retreat moved away from the spotlight in order to heal and calmly prepare the next move.

Thus after consolidating our relationship with a new distributor (Word And Sound), sanitizing our finances and most importantly spending countless hours in the studio, Hauke and I are thrilled to announce that Retreat will be back in the summer of 2015 with the help of not one but two releases!

RTR16 by Quarion will be available in July while RTR17 by Session Victim is expected to drop mid-august. As you can imagine, there are still a few details to finalize but we thought it was important to get back in touch with all of you and announce that Retreat will be introducing year n°6 with a double summer slam!

More information to follow of course but in the meantime, thank you for your support and please stay tuned!

The Next Move

One way or another, Retreat wax will find its way to your favourite record shop!
One way or another, Retreat wax will find its way to the record shop of your choice!

Sorry for the long period of radio silence from Retreat HQ these last 3 months, but Hauke and I have been quite busy working on the “Treats Vol.5” compilation as well as promoting it via the Retreat “5 Year Anniversary tour”. Now that things have cooled down a bit (unlike the thermometer in Berlin) we wanted to give you some insight on the past, present and future of your favourite vinyl-only label.

First of all, Hauke and I were overwhelmed by the positive feedback of “Treats Vol. 5” and we would like again to thank all of the artists involved in this adventure: Jamie Lloyd, Session Victim, Johannes Albert, Reverend G, Kim Brown, Quarion, Mr. Beatnick, Iron Curtis and Robert Oh for the exceptional music plus Gesine Todt for the ultra-slick design.

A special thank you goes out to the promoters and bookers that helped set up the “Five Year Anniversary Tour”, it was a real privilege for us to be able to play in all these locations. There were many highlights and some will definitely stay ingrained in our memories, whether it was Kim Brown’s excellent live debut in Berlin, Session Victim’s mad DJ set in Leipzig or Quarion and Iron Curtis’ techno-fuelled b2b mix in Paris.

Finally our gratitude goes out also to YOU, the DJ/dancer/record collector/Fan who has supported Retreat one way or another during these five years!

But after so many highlights in the past months, the two last weeks have however been very difficult for us: On the 16th of July, the media company Intergroove officially filed for insolvency, thus making Retreat a label without distribution from one day to the next.

Our relationship with Intergroove has always been very positive and respectful. To this day, we still don’t know what was the cause for such a major company to file for insolvency and we would like to express our sympathies to the Intergroove employees in these difficult times.

But the future of our label was looking grim so Hauke and I had to take some fast and radical decisions: first of all, we managed to retrieve all the Retreat stock from Intergroove (about 400 records) and store it in a safe place. But more importantly, we managed to get in contact with different companies who had interest in distributing Retreat. After a bit of reflection, we decided to start the second phase of our label with one of the world’s most renowed distributor: Word And Sound.

So all the remaining records are on their way to the WAS offices in Hamburg as we speak and we’re very much looking forward to work with this prestigious company for promoting our entire catalogue and all our upcoming projects.

But in the meantime, since it might take a few weeks for Word And Sound to offer our releases to the shops, we would like to invite every person who’s in need of some Retreat Wax to visit our webshop or the one from Oye Records and place an order directly.

Needless to say, Hauke and I are more motivated than ever to continue our mission, which is to bring you quality dance music on the best-sounding medium. Rest assured that you can expect RTR016 to hit the stores in the near future…but more on that one next time!

Thank you for your support and please stay tuned!

A Few More Weeks To Go…

Hauke, the Kim Brown boys and Yanneck marveling at the freshly-cut Test Pressings.
Hauke, the Kim Brown boys and Yanneck marveling at the freshly-cut Test Pressings.

RTR15 is getting manufactured as we write and if everything runs well, Retreat’s first double-vinyl extravaganza will be available from the 23rd of April in all good record shops. Make sure to secure your copy with your favourite grooves merchant or better yet, you can visit our Webshop to pre-order a special version of “Treats Volume 5” which comes with an exclusive poster!

The Retreat tour is also shaping up nicely with now 7 dates confirmed, including new gigs in Leipzig and Hamburg:

April 11 – Prince Charles, Berlin (Kim Brown, Session Victim & Quarion)
April 19 – Sabotage, Dresden (Session Victim & Quarion)
April 20 – Conne Island, Leipzig (Robert Oh, Session Victim & Quarion)
April 26 – Zukunft, Zürich (Session Victim & Quarion)
May 09 – Golem, Hamburg (Session Victim & Quarion)
May 16 – Corsica Studios, London (Mr Beatnick, Session Victim & Quarion)
May 28 – Badaboum, Paris (Iron Curtis, Session Victim & Quarion)

There are still a couple of free dates so don’t hesitate to get in touch with David and Elie if you are interested to bring the 5-year Anniversary Tour in your club!

Please stay tuned!

RTR15 coming up!

Yep, 2 slices of wax, 9 tracks!
Yep, 2 slices of wax, 9 tracks!

 

„Treats Volume 5“ is officially ready to go! Hauke and I have received the Test Pressings a few days ago and thanks to the magicians at Calyx, the tracks sound precise, bass-heavy and just right! RTR15 is without a doubt our most important project so far and we are thrilled to have so many talented artists on board for this adventure. The release date has been pushed back for the end of April but we will soon give you the opportunity to pre-order your copy, so be sure to keep an eye on our webshop. In the meantime, you can already enjoy some extracts of the A-side here.

Our „5 Year anniversary Tour“ is also shaping up nicely and so far, dates in Berlin, Dresden, Zürich, London and Paris have been confirmed. Please get in touch with David and Elie if you would like to bring the Retreat Soundsystem to your town!

Thank you for your support and please stay tuned!

Gimme Fives!

 5-years-stickers

Unbelievable, it seems as if it was only a few months ago that Hauke and I came up with the idea of creating a vinyl-only label. It was in the first days of 2009 and we were having brunch at Bâteau Ivre… flash-forward to 2014 and Retreat is officially 5 years old!

 So we’re terribly excited to announce that our birthday present will take the form of a double 12“ named „Treats Volume 5“! RTR15 will feature exclusive cuts from the usual Retreat stable (Session Victim, Quarion and Iron Curtis) as well as new music from artists who, through the years, became part of our extended family: Jamie Lloyd, Kim Brown, Johannes Albert, Mr Beatnick, Roberto and the mysterious Reverend G. We won’t reveal more information for now but rest assured that the quality of the music will be up to par with the other “Treats” episodes, if not better!

And because such an anniversary only happens once, we made sure our celebrated designer Gesine Todt enjoys a big piece of the cake as well: the compilation will boast a full cover Artwork which will be presented in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes and photos.

We’re planning to have the records available in the shops for the middle of April but we’ll get back to you with an official release date soon!

 On top of that, you’ll be able to catch the Retreat crew on the road between April and May for a special „5 Year Anniversary tour“. So far, performances in London, Berlin, Zürich and Paris are confirmed with Session Victim and Quarion on the bill, plus Iron Curtis on selected gigs. There are still some dates available so get in touch with David and Elie if you are interested to bring the Retreat Soundsystem to your town!

Thank you for keeping vinyl culture alive and please stay tuned!