A Tribute to Johannes Heil | Call it Heilstyle (1995 - 2015)

Johannes Heil, born on February 3rd 1978 near the town of Bad Nauheim is a German Techno producer and live performer. He took his first steps towards becoming one of the most prolific producers of the scene at the tender age of 14 in Heiko Laux’s Techno Bistro “Kanzleramt” in Bad Nauheim.Laux recognized the young artist’s potential and took him under his wings.

His new label and its sub-label “U-turn” offered the perfect opportunity to feature Heil’s first productions. His debut single “Die Offenbarung” in 1996 took the scene by storm. Two years later, he launched his own imprint JH-Records with “Die Eigene Achse” as the opening release.In the same year, he engraved his name with his album “Reality to Midi”.

Techno experienced a revolution: Raw and menacing beats combined with sweeping basslines and hypnotic soundscapes defined a sound that was literally unheard of. The album and foremost the track “Paranoid Dancer” filled record cases around the globe and is today regarded as one of the all time classics of techno. Johannes, a regular guest in Frankfurt’s legendary night club “Omen” met local legend Sven Väth there, who valued his productions so much, that he teamed up with him for the all time classic “Dein Schweiss”.

Johannes is a complex character, both as a person and as a musician. He simply doesn’t fit into any conventional pattern. His thoughtfulness manifests itself in his music, every album is a reflection of his very soul with musical experiences as diverse as Techno, Electro, Dub or Ambient. The feelings of his tracks are just as diverse, ranging from pure dancability to deep musical journeys, dark and mysterious on one hand, but bright and full of life on the other.

Over the years, Johannes has explored many faces of electronic music and featured them on his labels Metatron and JH-Records, other important labels like Cocoon Recordings, Break New Soil, Klang Elektronic, as well as Len Faki’s label “Figure”, which features him regularily since 2013. Aside from his own releases on Figure and Figure SPC “Lifesigns”, “Transition 1&2″ or “The Spirit Molecule”, his collaborations with Len Faki have garnerd praise and attention. Their joint project “LFJH” has brought forth hits such as “Octupuss”, “Dirty” and “Perception” to name just a few of their many tracks played around the globe every weekend.

In 2015 he opened his basecamp Exile together with Markus Suckut on which both have allready released three singles of their great teamwork, his new album "The Black Light" will be released on exile on november 23rd.

Hardly any other producer has blessed the genre with so many productions. His early works have long since become part of the long term memory of Techno history, his musical passion remain as strong and vibrant as ever.
Blending tradition and progress, past and future, his work is the soundtrack for the now.