Pole

In 2022 the Düsseldorf-native musician, producer, remixer and mastering engineer Stefan Betke looks back on a steady 24-year career in abstract electronic club music. In particular, the 8 albums that he released during this period under the Pole moniker have lastingly shifted the coordinates of electronica. Beginning with his dark blue debut album “1” from 1998, Pole laid a foundation of bass, dub and a defective pole filter as the point from which to explore and implement new sonic architectures. Up until the turn of the millennium, these expeditions grew into a trilogy of albums entitled “1”, “2” and “3”, appearing in the colors blue, red and yellow. The three albums are now considered milestones of electronic music.

Reissued by Mute in 2020 to celebrate the 20th anniversary, the trilogy reaffirmed its game-changing status in contemporary music. In their 5* review, The Observer called it “calming, abstract, minimal genius.” In 2007 pole released his album “Steingarten” on ˜scape Records. This was the first release on Pole´s own imprint and inspired by long walks through various forests. The compositions “Wald” (2015) do not deny their inheritance within the continuum of dub, yet they bring an entirely new vocabulary to Pole’s sonic and spatial universe. Although it was with the now-legendary, defective Waldorf 4-Pole filter that Pole initially realized his signature sound, over the years Pole emerged as a sonic architect who increasingly drew from internal sources – finding inspiration in the city as well as in nature.