Jesper Dahlbäck

Jesper Dahlback is one of Sweden’s leading DJ/producers with a lengthy back catalogue to his name. Recent productions include collaborations with Alexi Delano, Jori Hulkkonen, Tiga, Adam Beyer as well as remixes for the likes of Rex the Dog, Zoo Brazil, Arnaud Rebotini of Black Strobe, Thomas P Heckman, Pan Pot, Len Faki. Production also ranges into Tiga remixes of Depeche Mode, The Prodigy and LCD Soundsytem as well as remixes of Robyn and The Knife together with his cousin John. Jesper has music in his genes – his grandfather, father and uncle are all musicians as are most of his cousins – but it was the musical movements in Detroit, Berlin and London that inspired him to start producing techno, back in 1991 in his bedroom studio. Completely hooked, by 1993 he’d formed the Stockholm-based Globe Studios together with Peter Benisch and Adam Beyer following a chance meeting on the train to Love Parade. In 1996 Jesper started the imprint, Blank, mainly for his own material, and simultaneously launched joint venture DK with Thomas Krome - one of the first labels in Sweden with a techno house crossover approach and the home of producers Alexi Delano, John Sealway, Jori Hulkkonen and DJ Sneak, to name a few. In addition to making music for various techno labels around the world and working with Planet Rhythm, Jesper met up with Swiss-born Stephan Grieder who had just started the Svek label. The duo started to experiment with different sounds, drawing on house music’s roots, utilising vocals and acoustic instruments. Jesper now describes his sound as “ranging between the analogue sounds of the roland sh101 and the precision mathematics of my computer. I’m a researcher and developer of unheard sounds! Since the founding of Globe Studios, I have always been looking for new ways to bend the rules and test the unknown. When I DJ, I just play my own productions blending old classics with new unreleased demos.” A producer first and foremost, Jesper‘s DJ dates find him weaving a soundscape of his productions, remixes and collaborations with new material at every gig, as well as musical elements and sounds worked through the set. “The most exciting element is that there’s no genre boundaries in the music I make today. I like exploring different territories in sounds and breaking new ground. Sometimes I work only with my synthesizers, sometimes on collaborations with other people playing instruments or on vocals. Jesper is now also running his new label called International Sound Laboratory or just ISL. The label is part of the new movements bringing techno and music production in to the new century. So far artists like Alexi Delano, Tony Rohr, Cari Lekebusch, Jori Hulkkonen and Jesper himself has produced material for the label. The imprint works as a experimental platform for the new era in techno music.