Decibel Festival

As one of the most notable and most consistently reliable names to have formed the foundations for what is the current German electronic music, Thomas Fehlmann boasts a résumé that can only be rivaled by a select few. As an art student in late-70s Hamburg, Fehlmann started his musical career by working with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and avant-garde minimalist composer Conrad Schnitzler, in the early 80s he founded the new-wave band Palais Schaumburg withF.M. Einheit (who would later go on to infamy with proto-industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten) and, later, Moritz Von Oswald, founder of the seminal Basic Channel/Chain Reaction imprints.

In the mid-80s the group dissolved and Fehlmann moved on to his first dance-oriented work for early UK house labels. By 1988, he had founded the label Teutonic Beats, whose tracks he would license in the UK to Alex Paterson of The Orb. In a twist of fate, 1989 saw Fehlmann hitting #1 on the British dance charts, an ascent that led to his becoming one of the first German artists to make a concrete connection with the Detroit techno producers whose work was just beginning to cross the Atlantic.

In the 90s he was a resident at the legendary Tresor Berlin. Together with Moritz von Oswald and Juan Atkins he formed 3MB, helping to cement the Berlin-Detroit connection. Since 1995 he has been involved with the legendary Berlin-based Ocean Club, which has been broadcasting a radio show since 1998 – now worldwide.

In 1995, he joined The Orb for the seminal chill-out touchstone, Orbus Terrarum. He would remain a constant collaborator of The Orb for years to come, all while maintaining a busy carousel of solo and collaborative works on the side.

Over the past decade Fehlmann has produced three highly acclaimed solo full length albums (‘Lowflow’, ‘Honigpumpe’ and ‘Gute Luft”) as well as embarked on a neverending club tour, both by himself and together with Alex Paterson as The Orb.