Our first interview for 2025 and we are elated to share with you a conversation with Peter M. Kersten (aka Lawrence) from Hamburg, a key figure in German house and techno. The Dial imprint, co-founded alongside David Lieske (aka Carsten Jost), has grown to become a north star for many seeking out raw, emotive and understated electronic music and Peter's own productions embraces a similar path, finding a home on many beloved labels beyond Dial such as Kompakt, Mule Musiq, Ghostly International, Giegling, Pampa and of course Smallville, that he co-founded together with Stella Plazonja and Julius Steinhoff in 2005. Peter has recently reissued his 2009 LP Until Then, Goodbye on Mule Musiq – a pinnacle piece of evocative and melodic minimal electronic music. We believe it's an essential encapsulation of Peter's unique approach and sensibility to the electronic genre, and believe us when we've been won over ever since the label's inception. This interview coincided with Dial's 25th Anniversary, celebrating with Kompakt (Michael Mayer & Wolfgang Voigt aka GAS) at the Ursprung Fi Club in Cologne, Germany.
We spoke to Peter prior to his preparation and after the event. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for believing in us when we introduced the label as part of our recent offering.
↓
Photography: © Robert Kulisek
The Analog Vault: Hello Peter, thanks for taking time out to do this. So which part of the world are you at now, and what were you doing prior to this interview?
Peter Kersten: Hi Daniel, thank you for having me. I really appreciate what you guys are doing in Singapore and hope I can visit sometime soon. I'm in Berlin right now and for January it's exceptionally nice, a rare moment of sunshine. I was just playing around with a new tremolo pedal that I bought on a road trip in Upstate NY. Also I started preparing my next gig in Cologne, our friends from Kompakt organised a huge 25 years Dial Records show including our beloved artists Soela, Efdemin and Ben Kaczor. It's gonna be so exciting to play along with some best friends!
TAV: For the interest of our listeners, could you tell us how did DIAL's inception came about?
Peter: When we started in the early 2000s in Hamburg, the city had this incredibly vibrant moment. David Lieske (aka Carsten Jost) worked at the label Ladomat 2000, a hub for musicians and enthusiasts, and a great hangout spot with connections to Ongaku, Playhouse and Kompakt. I had my first DJ residency at the infamous Golden Pudel Club along with DJ Bonnie — a good opportunity to try out some of our own productions. The release of the EP Dial000 with tracks by Carsten Jost, Pawel and myself was rather an experiment, but I remember how excited we were playing our first own vinyl record! A compilation named Hamburgeins followed with debut appearances by Efdemin and Pantha Du Prince. Dial Records was born and Kompakt distribution started supporting us right from the beginning.
TAV: Yes, congratulations are in order for the 25th Anniversary of Dial! As they say, time flies while you're having fun. So Ben Kaczor and Niculin Barandun's Pointed Frequencies coincides with the anniversary too. I remembered stumbling upon You Are My Mate, which is still in heavy rotation to this day. The EP totally opened my ears, and to put it simply: a breath of fresh air. There was too much glitchy, techy stuff coming out during that period and in my humble opinion, beginning to sound similar. But those were early days, and the releases that followed by Efdemin, Pantha du Prince and Roman Flügel totally changed the perception of what electronic/dance music could be. By the way, Efdemin's Decay deserves a 10th Anniversary reissue, don't you think? Alright, I'm dropping a hint here ha!
↗ Dial x Kompakt 25 Anniversary Promo. Images courtesy of Kompakt
Peter: Oh yes, gems like Decay, or Roman Flügel’s Fatty Folders, but also earlier releases like Efdemin’s very first EP deserve a repress. But the jubilee year is mainly an opportunity to focus on new and special releases. With Pointed Frequencies we’ve quite a unique and wonderful release to start with. Non dancefloor related music has always been an important part of Dial: Gluehen 4, Phillip Sollmann’s Something Is Missing, Misanthrope CA or Christian Naujoks’s LPs to name a few. You Are My Mate was a very special one as well, it’s loaded with art and music references.
TAV: It's amazing that the label has gone from strength to strength for the past two decades. Did you & David ever sought out to have any game plan right from the beginning? It's never ever easy to manage one in the first place.
Peter: We never followed a certain agenda or planned things much in advance, everything we do is quite intuitive and relatively spontaneous. At the same time most of our planning is very exciting and harmonious and every step feels so logical.
TAV: How would you describe the sound of Dial? I get probed by customers in the store and my feedback is always "unconventional" & "esoteric" dance/club music. But having said that, classifying it as 'club' doesn't seem to justify what the label stands for anyway. But please feel free to correct me on this...
Peter: I don’t think there’s a specific sound to describe Dial Records. Looking back to when it started our preferences were so different. At that time we were into Digital Hardcore, Pop Music, Contemporary Classic, House Music and Detroit Techno and from here a journey with so many diverse releases started. So we never aimed for a specific sound, I guess none of the artists really did. Anyway I do think that there’s always been a certain myth around Dial Records, it’s hard to describe. There’s definitely no esoteric approach. Most of the music has a rather immature vibe, it is curious and indefinite.
TAV: I stand corrected. Yes, totally understood and I like the part that you mentioned that there's a 'certain myth' that revolves around the label. Every release I feel it runs in parallel with the sleeve designs across the years – an enigmatic visual narrative that punctuates across the covers. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Sandro (Atelier Maève) for actually putting us in touch. He's done it so well in interpreting a visual language to the recent releases. I'm sure you get asked on this topic often, but was there a concerted effort to achieve this?
↗ Carsten Jost - La Collectionneuse I - X | Cover image: «Photographische Arbeit» (La Collectionneuse I) by David Lieske / Graphic Design: Sandro Weber (Atelier Maeve)
Images courtesy of Sandro Weber
Peter: Yeah thanks to Sandro for putting us in touch! He is so dedicated and the design he did for our latest release by Ben Kaczor and Niculin Barandun is mind blowing. We always had the pleasure to work with great Graphic Designers and amazing artists. Our approach is to first look into artists we love, and then pick a suitable artwork. It doesn’t have to match with the music, the front cover image is independently on display, and artists usually love to contribute imagery to us. David Lieske conducts the process. He shaped our visibility from the very beginning. Formerly Till Sperrle and now Sandro Weber are incredibly thoughtful and skilled when it comes to layout and typography. The backside of the cover is equally as important for us.
↗ Ben Kaczor & Niculin Barandun - Pointed Frequencies | Artwork: Inga Danysz / Graphic Design: Sandro Weber (Atelier Maeve)
TAV: Which brings us back to Laid, a smart idea to name a sub-label. What was the ethos behind it and are there plans to rekindle it in the near future?
Peter: Laid was it’s own thing, entirely. With a standard design by Christian Doering, this label was dedicated to House Music only. Our friend Dor Levi helped organizing it and Laid was a good way to express our love to the origins and present of House Music. Combined with our residency at Panorama Bar it was definitely a shift at that time. We never planned to continue Laid, it was a temporary project and had it’s limitations.
↗ Various Artists (Palisade, Moomin, RNDM) - Laid 16
TAV: I understand apart from all the touring, you also possess a penchant for live audio & visual performances. Is this a cathartic process for you especially as a musician when sometimes nightlife can generally take its toll?
Peter: Touring and nightlife can be very exhausting. But the combination of DJing, production, acoustic and electronic live sets, the label, and also the social and cultural circles around, all of that fills my life with maximum excitement. Now as we’re speaking I’m wondering about clubs, food, architecture and museums in Singapore, so i’m genuinely happy to have this live as a musician and traveller.
TAV: Singapore is absolutely an island city-state in Southeast Asia, the smallest in fact but a melting pot of cultures as they say. By the way, I understand you just wrapped up Dial x Kompakt Anniversary last week, it must be a great reunion I'm sure! But what I wanted to ask was, how do you feel about the current state of electronic music / nightlife post-Covid? Alot of this has changed in the last 3 years, to a point that I feel variety may not necessarily equate to quality.
Speaking of which, I recall sending Elina Shorokhova (aka Soela) a message to tell her that Genuine Silk got me through Covid, especially when I was doing my nightly runs during partial lockdown back home. But I digress, apologies so let's continue...
Peter: Yeah the Dial x Kompakt event was an amazing reunion, and felt so fresh at the same time, thanks to all the people involved. It’s incredible to look back on a 25 years working relationship and still be motivated for things to come in the future. Most of the labels, promoters and clubs i love are very resistent to economical difficulties and political pressure. If there was a discourse, they are living it and don’t have to pick up on trends. The quality represented by those is immense and the discoveries and inspirations you can find is still endless. There’s always new and interesting people appearing, so i think the part of the scene that is deeply engaged with electronic music has a lot to offer. If people are going out for other reasons that’s okay too. Soela as you mentioned is so dedicated and sensitive to music, inevitably she’s an amazing DJ and producer. We’re dreaming the same dream.
TAV: Oh yes, you are a botanist and that process of creating, cultivating and nurturing mirrors with music making. Patience is definitely a key factor and hence do you believe that your interpretation (or approach) of electronic music and the innate sensibility resonated with listeners over the years? I was really struck by the relationship of your output for both Mule Musiq & Smallville - it's been consistent in terms of approach & sensibility but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Peter: Botany is a great metaphor for what I'm doing, there is a connection, you’re right about that. Patience definitely helps, we don’t have to fill a tight release schedule, or stress about deadlines. Every label I work with is very different in this regard - I love how strong Smallville’s output is - not only in terms of music: finding great artwork with Stefan Marx is a major part. He also provided all of the cover artworks of my Mule Musiq releases, it’s owner Toshiya has the largest roster of all labels and also organises events all over the world and mainly Japan, which became a very important country for my artist live. With Giegling I feel we really go deep into editing tracks and trying them out on their events, which is another very specific approach.
↗ 1st row: Moonlight (Giegling) / Epiphany (Giegling) / Manhattan (Smallville), Artwork: Stefan Marx
2nd row: Smallville 15 (Smallville) / Gravity Hill (Smallville) / Until Then, Goodbye (Mule Musiq) — All artwork: Stefan Marx
3rd row: Black Cats (Mule Musiq) / Birds On The Playground (Mule Musiq) / Birds On The Dancefloor (Mule Musiq) — All artwork: Stefan Marx
4th row: Blue Mountain (Mule Musiq) / A Day In The Life (Mule Musiq) / Yoyogi Park (Mule Musiq) — All artwork: Stefan Marx
TAV: Could you walk us through your thought process especially with a new album or tackling a remix?
Peter: An album still is the supreme musical discipline in my opinion. It’s my favourite thing to produce and my last solo album Epiphany on Giegling took more than two years from start to finish. The tracks are well connected, rather simple but offer a great depth. Remixes are different- the process is equally as intuitive but a large part of the inspiration comes from other people’s music writing, and I love the idea of transitioning an original track into my musical language.
↗ Lawrence Boiler Room Tulum x Comunite Live Set
TAV: So what constitutes a good playlist back at your home studio, or you have a strict no music policy during downtime? I totally get the idea of duality in terms of the selection on the 'Blue Moon' & 'Lowlights' tracklist, it appears to reflect certain moods and in pinpoint certain influences perhaps?
Peter: At home I never really listen to club music. It’s just not the right environment. I love to turn on a nice radio show, Jimmy Tamborello’s Dying Songs is one of my constant favourites. And i enjoy just listening to a beautiful record at home. We only have one record player in our living room, and today I put on Garth Erasmus, Konrad Sprenger and Kali Malone. It literally made my day.
TAV: Thank you, Peter. It's been an utmost pleasure speaking to you, take care and please send our best regards to everyone at Dial.
—
→ Jump to Dial's discography here.
(To our patrons of TAV, we are very grateful that you've read up to this end of our content. And if anything of what we conceived here resonates with you — please purchase the physical releases here if you can. Show support to the creative artists, musicians, selectors and their respective labels, thank you.)
⦿