- As you might expect from the label arm of Cocktail D'Amore, a monthly, multi-day bash that many would say is Berlin's best gay party, Cocktail D'Amore Music has long been a reliable source for house and disco, often with a slight psychedelic twist. But they also go much further than that, delving into left-of-center sounds and helping to break artists like Heatsick and Powder. Last September, they deepened their catalog with a reissue of Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos, a 1990 LP of cosmic ambience by the Ukrainian-born, Spanish-based artist Iury Lech. Cocktail's latest EP, Reinterpretaciones, collects remixes of that album by four contemporary producers, each of whom treats their source material with impressive restraint, reflecting on it rather than remaking it.
The only steady beat on Reinterpretaciones comes from Powder, a Tokyo artist who's become a cult favorite these past couple years, and whom Cocktail caught onto early (at one of their parties last summer, she had the honor of playing the closing set, at sunrise on a Monday morning). She takes "Barreras," possibly Lech's most sublime piece of music, and club-tailors it as gently as possible, rearranging its delicate parts into murmuring afterhours house. "Cuando Rocio Dispara Sus Flechas," the tensest piece on Lech's album, is reshaped into a smooth and soothing ambient cut by Suzanne Kraft. The San Francisco artist Hatchback adds a Balearic twist to "Posmeridiano," plus a gentle kick that takes five minutes to saunter in. In what seems like a nod to Lech's roots, "Ukraïna" is remixed by a member of today's generation of Ukrainian electronic artists, Kateryna Zavoloka, who adds a few jagged cliffs to the original's glacial sprawl.
TracklistA1 Barreras (Powder Remix)
A2 Cuando Rocio Dispara Sus Flechas (Suzanne Kraft Remix)
B1 Posmeridiano (Hatchback Remix)
B2 Ukraïna (Zavoloka Remix)