Hi, my name is Tilo aka bassoContinuo.

I grew up near Flensburg, in the far north of Germany – and in the mid-90s that was a surprisingly good place to catch the bug. My schoolmate, the late Sebastian “Sebi” Hackert, who later went on to produce for Deichkind, was the first to explain what you actually need to make music: a sampler. That was the start.

My roots are all over the place, but they always lead back to the same source. Late-80s rap first – Public Enemy’s “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” sounded like nothing that had existed before. Then UK Britcore like Gunshot, then jungle, drum & bass and big beat – almost always UK-driven. In the 90s I was a huge Ninja Tune fan: jazz samples, hip-hop beats and breaks, all in one record bag. And all along: jazz. I played bass, and Jaco Pastorius, Mark King and Marcus Miller were my heroes. That’s where the name comes from – the bassocontinuo is the bass section that holds everything together. Back in the 90s I met a Danish jazz bassist in Copenhagen who told me I was good; all I needed was practice. I was too lazy. Honestly.

Reading Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Miles Davis’s autobiography taught me that almost every pop-cultural revolution also has African-American roots – jazz, hip-hop, Detroit techno, Chicago house. It also made me turn away from rap wherever it celebrated violence, sexism or homophobia.

Around 2000 the parties pulled me in: Goa raves on cow fields all over Northern Germany, clubs, house and techno, and Fusion Festival every single year in the early 2000s. For me, techno has always been political. A party culture like that needs freedom, tolerance, safety, a healthy planet – and, let’s be honest, a fair share of privilege. Fusion is still my ultimate picture of freedom.

Music became my job, too. For ten to twelve years I worked in the music and event industry – for some of the most respected labels in electronic music, and in digital distribution. That scratched the itch so well that I put my own productions on hold. Then came family and three kids.

Born in ’79, I’m making music again – not as a career move, but because I simply love doing it. My first release, “Erika”, is melodic techno built around a short speech excerpt by Erika Mann, a writer and outspoken voice against fascism. “Plique” followed: fresh, driving melodic progressive house.

The biggest step for me wasn’t a big stage. It was letting go of perfectionism. A track only gets closure once it’s released – and if I want to keep working on it, there’ll simply be a new version.

One day I’d love to take these tracks out of the studio and play them as a hybrid DJ/live set. Until then: bassoContinuo is still at the very beginning, and that feels good.

Photos by Jascha Platzen | contentcreative.de