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Sven Väth
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Sven Väth is a German DJ and producer, born in 1964. He grew up near Frankfurt, in a family that ran a café with a small dance floor. In the summer of 1980 he travelled to Ibiza and decided there to become a DJ. In 1982 he was resident DJ at the club Dorian Gray in Frankfurt, where he met Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. With them he formed Off, which had a European hit in 1986 with Electrica Salsa. Väth was twenty-two at the time and briefly became a pop star. Münzing and Anzilotti went on to Snap!.
Music and breakthrough
In 1988 Väth opened the club Omen in Frankfurt, which is regarded as one of the cradles of German techno. With his own labels Eye Q and Harthouse Records he released Accident in Paradise (1992) and The Harlequin, the Robot and the Ballet-Dancer (1994). After that he signed to Virgin, for Fusion (1998), Contact (2000) and Fire (2002). In 1996 he started Cocoon: first parties, later a booking agency and record label. His Monday nights at Amnesia on Ibiza kept the island's underground sound alive, at a time when trance and commercial music dominated. In 2022 Catharsis came out.
Influence
Väth plays vinyl, with two turntables and a mixer, and sometimes plays long sets lasting many hours. His music runs from techno and trance to electro, and he is one of the best-known faces of German club culture.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1992Accident in Paradise
- 1994The Harlequin - The Robot and the Ballet-Dancer
- 1996Der kalte Finger (soundtrack)
- 1998Fusion
- 2000Contact
- 2002Fire
- 2022Catharsis
Mentioned in other articles
- Trance Genre
DJs such as Sven Väth and Paul van Dyk made the genre big, and in the late 1990s trance became an export product in the Netherlands.