Brandt Brauer Frick

Brandt Brauer Frick

Biography

“BBF in 2010: one suitcase band.

BBF in 2015: three suitcase jet-set act.

BBF in 2022/23: ten suitcases and more circus” – Jan Brauer

Reminiscent of pretty much all sweat-inducing, body-shaking, floor-filling styles of music, Brandt Brauer Frick have come full circle – they’ve completed the loop and are ready for more repetitive goodness. Some 13 years into their unlikely evolution between propulsive Dance bliss and full-blown orchestra experience, they’re back to where it all started: RAVE. Handmade & hard-hitting Body Music.

After all, RAVE was where it all began back in 2008. “When we started out as a group, we really wanted to make Dance music,” they all agree. Initially based in different cities, still finding their feet individually, quickly becoming friends for life. Although coming from somewhat different backgrounds, they’d arrived at an intersection of Electronic/Dance/Minimal/Techno – and they immediately knew they wanted to form a live collective and take this initial spark to the next level. Soon exchanging vows for a triple-named brotherhood (“With that kind of name, we all knew we couldn’t get out so easily…”), BBF’s handmade, irresistible dancefloor-ready sound got people raving around the globe in no time.

Actually formed in a studio, Daniel Brandt points to a shared initiation with 18 Musicians as the crucial moment that started everything: “Steve Reich: 18 Musicians… We all went to see this piece played live by Ensemble Modern & Steve Reich at Kölner Philharmonie, and that was actually before our first-ever recording session. I think the intersection between Minimal Music and Electronic/Dance music has always been important for us. Plus, the influences from Neue Musik, in terms of using instruments differently in order to achieve a certain, rather uncommon sound – that’s always been crucial.”

Essentially using Techno’s grid-like structure and instrumentation from Neue Musik and Minimal Music at first, they reinvented themselves with each recording: Following the heavily euphoric club leanings of debut album You Make Me Real, 2011’s Mr. Machine saw them add intricate ensemble arrangements to the (re)mix. Two years later, their musical detour to Miami added southern-fried Funk and synth layers, only to incorporate serious Kraut and Wave elements to 2016’s Joy – an album that saw them venture more in the direction of Talking Heads.

By the time Echo (2019) saw them take a shortcut back to Clubland, various side projects were popping up left and right. Jan doing music for theater plays plus more engineering, Paul doing solo music and joining Tangerine Dream in 2020 (!) and Daniel starting a solo project and working on a film now – all that fed into what they do as a band in a good way.

2022, the saga continues…

“We remember a time when going to a club was a real adventure, meeting the freakiest people in there and seeing crazy live shows in sweaty dark places – and everyone was totally enjoying it,” says Jan. “Maybe this never actually happened, but we wanted to make music based on that kind of feeling again.”

After all, this return to the dancefloor is BBF’s way of emphasizing togetherness – community – shared experience: “Even before the pandemic we asked ourselves: Where can we still meet, exchange, co-exist, ‘live’? Which connections are possible in an individualistic society? How must an event or a situation be set so anyone can participate and be respected? How can music facilitate such a space? These questions are old, and there are legacies of great musical answers to it. But as our culture is so shaped by competition, distinction, exclusivity and so on, we still need to look for new answers.”

Surely there are many answers, we try an approach with the release of our "Step EP" in September 22, another sonic step back to the roots in the club!

Followed by the conceptual "Mult Faith Parayer Room" album in January 2023.

Stay curious!