Producer Pantha du Prince weds machine and nature
Berlin-based experimental techno producer and all-hardware live act Pantha du Prince admits he would rather spend time in the great outdoors than in a smoky nightclub. Nonetheless, he maintains an affection for the flourishing urban centers that currently dominate the Middle Kingdom. "After my first trip to China three years ago,” he observes, “I saw that people there are still open enough to have a vivid, nervously calm kind of atmosphere."

It's that fusion of organic flow and mathematical precision that defines the oeuvre of Hendrik Weber, whose techno-production moniker, Pantha du Prince, originates from a fascination with the mechanical sounds of the post-industrial womb of Detroit's black communities. With the pervasive techno sound that favors vibrations akin to a construction worker's jackhammer over the steady build of a rainstorm, White Rabbit resident DJ Donald Summer jumped at the opportunity to book (and open for) techno's current darling of the "naturalist" electronica scene. "I think that anyone who listened to the deep melodies of '80s indie pop like the Stone Roses would love Pantha du Prince," Summer enthuses.

While Weber himself is wary and humbled by the music media's effusive response to his 2007 full-length album, This Bliss, it's hard to resist the slow and lilting soundscapes that he offers the listener. "The sounds I'm using always have a history-it's not that they just work well," he contends. "I process drum sounds until they tell a story, working with the original concept of the track to create natural suspense."

With string arrangements that are buoyant and peaceful enough to conjure a night swimming alone in the woods and melodies that slowly unravel like swelling tides of a stream, Pantha du Prince is giving the nascent Beijing scene, under construction, the chance to hear the unlikely marriage of nature and machines.

Rachel Simhon

Pantha Du Prince
Where: White Rabbit
When: Fri., June 27, 10pm
How much: ￥70