Roland Appel

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 (SK158), Unforgiven (SK168), Innersoul/New Love (SK178) 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 TRÜBY and CHRISTIAN PROMMER – TRÜBY 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 (SK188CD/Elektrish) 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 (SK188CD/elektrish) 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 (SK188CD/elektrish) 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.
With Talk To Your Angel (SK188CD/elektrish) 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.