TuneLab
Henrik Schwarz
live at Cathédrale de Chartres in France for Cercle
Henrik Schwarz in a cathedral—because where else would you go to worship the sublime intersection of analog machinery and human soul? At Chartres, the stained glass seems to vibrate in time with his deeply musical, genre-defying selections. This is not a DJ set; it's a live performance of deep house and electronica, with a BPM average of 123 that allows for rhythmic flexibility and emotional depth. The key modulation is subtle, moving between 9B, 3B, and 7B, giving each track room to breathe and tell its own story.
Schwarz's style is organic and improvisational, layering synth lines and samples in real-time, with the mid-energy dominating at 0.60 to highlight the melodic and harmonic complexity. The low-end at 0.31 provides a warm, grounding pulse, perfect for the sacred space. The crate digging here is exceptional: his edit of Dollar Brand's 'African Marketplace' transforms jazz into dancefloor spirituality, and his version of Y-Bayani's 'Asembi Ara Amba' is a masterclass in cross-cultural groove.
The remix of Michael Kiwanuka's 'Black Man In A White World' is politically charged and profoundly moving, while 'Omnibus' showcases his own compositional prowess with its evolving, cinematic structure. 'Edition' offers a moment of minimalist reflection, and the Pat Thomas & Ebo Taylor remix is pure Afrobeat joy. It begins with the spiritual call of 'African Marketplace', peaks with the rhythmic intensity of 'Omnibus', and ends on a note of deep house purity with Jerome Sydenham & Kerri Chandler's 'Powder' remix—a tracklist that feels both personal and universal.