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Supersonic: Âme's Frank Wiedemann Despises Futurism

The man behind Innervisions, Âme, and "The Howling" talks about 909s, living in the now, and the thinking behind his lush techno.

Supersonic explores the challenges of taking electronic music from the studio to the stage. Interspersing compelling live footage with artist interviews, we reveal the ideas, process, and inner workings of innovative artists operating in the space between the technological and the organic.

As everyone who's seen High Fidelity knows, lots of shit can go down in sleepy record stores. You could walk out with a 12"… or you could befriend the owner, and two years later, both of you could give birth to a hit that lithe Japanese waifs boogie down to at Air. That's essentially what happened to Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer of Âme, the techno duo who met a decade ago in a record store tucked in the quiet town of Karisruhe in Germany.

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As these stories tend to go, Frank and Kristian started out spinning at parties together before they locked down their first self-titled album for Berlin-based label Innervisions. But Âme remained critically underappreciated until their breakthrough single "Rej"—a track with one of the most majestic build-ups we've ever heard. For a stretch of 2005, you couldn't pop in a mix CD without hearing its trademark prickly beats.

Most recently, Frank has been working with Ry X on some beautiful acoustic-organic techno-pop, the perfect thing for the afterparty comedown cuddle. (Go listen to their track "Howling" and tell us it doesn't make you want to spoon.) We snagged some time with him after his gig at MUTEK, and he told us how he and his partner, Kristian, craft their orchestral techno… and why, unlike the majority of DJs out there, Âme despises futurism.