Marc Romboy

Marc Romboy is an artist renowned within the electronic scene for his eclectic, boundary-pushing approach and decades worth of experience working both behind the scenes and behind the decks.

Growing up in the West of Germany close to the borders of both The Netherlands and Belgium, Marc was always instinctively drawn to music. He would attend the acid house parties prevalent in the area, with an epiphany of sorts on the dancefloor of Front club in Hamburg in 1987. An avid record collector, he would listen to Krautrock, breaks, Italo disco, Chicago house and more, and experienced some of the first all house and techno clubs in Europe; the legendary Roxy club in Amsterdam and Dorian Grey in Frankfurt. Learning to DJ, and later on produce, was a natural step.

He founded the ’Le Petit Prince’ imprint in 1993 as a platform for the music of friends he was playing out, which went on to be named Label Of The Year by various German electronic music publications the following year. Its reputation led Marc into collaborating with other DJs to manage their labels too.

Meanwhile, Marc went on to notch up an impressive discography of EPs, tracks and collaborations, carving his own sound; emotive, versatile, and featuring distinctive basslines.

2004 was a landmark year for the artist, with the beginning of his own, completely self-run label Systematic. Since It’s birth, the label has provided a home for productions from the likes of Robert Hood, Kenny Larkin, Omar-S, Terrence Parker, Timo Maas, kINK and many more. It also provided the platform for Marc’s first album, ‘Gemini’ in 2005, followed by four further LPs; 2008’s ‘Contrast’, 2009’s ‘6 Monde’ with Stephan Bodzin (which birthed the pair’s now-legendary track ‘Atlas’), 2013’s ‘Taiyo’ with Ken Ishii, and 2014’s three-disc retrospective compilation ‘Shades’.

After many years of gigging across the world’s most respected clubs – from Watergate to Berghain, Womb Tokyo to Output New York, Rex Paris to Fabric London – in 2016 Marc decided to embark on a new and ambitious project.

After having been invited to collaborate on Debussy performances with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Marc met and befriended their director, Miki Kekenj.

“I told him I’d like to collaborate on a project”, Marc remembers. Kekeni was interested in the idea but unsure of how to proceed. “I told him – we’ll do it like electronic music friends. I’ll record a demo and you can figure out if you can add something to it. Classical musicians are not accustomed to simply improvising. This was an inspiration for Miki.”

The result was ‘Voyage de la Planète’, Marc’s forward-thinking new album due for release on March the 17th on his newly launched label, Hyperharmonic. Pushing the boundaries between classical and electronic music, it makes for a moving , atmospheric outing for the producer – “I feel like there are still a couple of beautiful sounds to create”.

DJ