Five years of Cargo Edition

Happy Birthday Cargo Edition! 5 years after the genesis of the German label Cargo Edition by Matthias Tanzmann they release a compilation with 11 previously unreleased tunes, some selected catalogue tracks and a DJ Mix by Ekkohaus. The great package delivers an insight into the bundled sound from the in Leipzig based family to which belong artists like Livio & Roby, Sven Tasnadi & Juno, Vera, Minimono, Markus Schatz, Michael Melchner, Ralph Sliwinski and Skipson. Now then the sympathic guys of Cargo Edition answered ten questions about their label birth, their aims and their hometown Leipzig:

1. How did the idea of raising ‘Cargo Edition’ come to your mind?

It was in 2005/2006 as Minimal was rising and Moon Harbour wasn’t really a place to release the version of minimal techno and house we liked. So we needed a different vehicle for this sound. But over the years and with new artists Cargo Edition evolved more and more in a platform for reduced, but still funky House.

2. What do you want to achieve with your music? And why?

Basically we are happy with the fact that people like and play our music, there is no artsy masterplan or something behind it.  And of course we want a good platform for our artists like Ekkohaus, Michael Melchner, Markus Schatz, Sven Tasnadi and Juno6.

3. In which points does ‘Cargo Edition’ differ from its mother label ‘Moon Harbour’?

The sound of Cargo Edition is definitely deeper and is not always aiming to the dance floor like the sound of Moon Harbour.

4. What did the label influence mostly in the last 5 years?

There are of course influences like Perlon’s microhouse and the House comeback a few years ago. But the most influence comes from the artists, they put all their own influences in their tracks and form the Cargo Edition sound.

5. Can you tell us something about your homebase Leipzig? (Recommendations, venues, artists, scenes)

Leipzig is a beautiful and quiet city, but with all the benefits of a big city, like an airport and vivid club scene. There is of course the Distillery club where it all started. Andre (the labelmanager) is a founder of the club, Matthias is a resident of the clubs for almost 15 years. And we have bi-monthly Moon Harbour / Cargo Edition labelnight at distillery. The artist and label scene exploded over the last years, labels like Kann or Statik Entertainment are constantly releasing new music and there are a lot of fantastic artists like Daniel Stefanik, Filburt & Good Guy Mikesh and Kassem Mosse.

6. Which criteria do help you to make an artist selection for new releases?

We like to work with artists, that want to stay with the label in the future. The bigger part of our artist roster works with us since the beginning. But from time to time we like to do EPs or compilation with guest artists, like we did with Minimono, Steven Cock or Ralph Sliwinski to name a few.

7. What are your wishes/plans for the next 5 years?

Nothing unusual, just to release more music we love with people we like.

8. What is your favourite release of your own catalogue?

I love them all of course. But my absolute favourite is Ekkohaus’ “Unsound”

9. With which artists would you like to work with?

We don’t really have wishes to work with someone special, but you never know you wants to make a record on your label in the future.

10. Are there other things that influenced you beside music?

The most influences are somehow coming from music. A big influence is functional and simple design, which is visible in our artwork and you can hear it in our tracks.