Perpetually hidden under an iconic hat is the head containing the mind of one of the most thoughtful electronic music creators of our age. Ask any contemporary musician about their influences, and they’ll most likely tell you about club nights and days, parties, or an almost scientific examination of rhythm and melody in a high-brow music school. Ask Monolink, and he’ll say he was most influenced by singer-songwriters like Dylan or Cohen.
Some say there’s a massive difference between what we listen to at home, relaxing or covering up the noises of everyday life, and what we listen to in the club, looking to dance and party. However, those people clearly have not heard the music created by Monolink because he occupies precisely that no-man’s land between the home and the club, managing somehow to cover both ends of the spectrum.
He is a multi-instrumentalist who combines the energy of dark Berlin clubs with emotional vocals and a guitar sound that equally fits fast party tracks and ambient, meditative ones. His guitar chords meld with synthetic sounds, hypnotic bass vibrations meet refrains and melodies, and people in the crowd merge into one at his shows.
“Amniotic, “his album from 2018, positioned him as a melodic techno hot prospect who was here to stay. Birth, home, and warmth are just a few concepts that go through our heads while listening to this album. However, the difficult last few years have presented Stefan with a new challenge — finding a glimmer of hope and optimism in hard times. We got his answer to that challenge in his second album, “Under Darkening Skies,“ released last year. In this release, Monolink takes a look at the world around him and uses his beats and melodies to offer a solution to all problems and conflicts.
The new songs were initially written as intimate confessions. There was only him and his guitar or piano. He thought about keeping them that way for a long time. However, his clubbing spirit did not let him rest, so he turned these intimate confessions into tracks to which hundreds and people could dance and connect. A personal view of the world, both internal and external, is something we need more and more today. We understand it because we have all been through the same troubles in previous years. Monolink knows that and delivers it to us.
Few people can match Monolink in what he does, which is why his arrival at the mts Dance Arena is something you should not miss for the world.
In a recent interview, he said that he loves to play at festivals because he can reach people who did not necessarily come to hear him. At the EXIT Festival mts Dance Arena, on July 10th, we will have a unique opportunity to watch a true artist at the zenith of popularity; an artist eager to play and create music. Surrender to the energy of a man whose beats exude pure emotion and soul.
Written by: Miloš Dašić
