400 labels?

so much friction is produced in the berlin music landscape that everyone can warm themselves to it. musicians from all over the world, small labels and large companies, clubs and the media, nobody wants to miss out on anything. the borders between creators and consumers is getting blurred - tourists become berlin residents and observers become doers. but thankfully, there’s the wonderful culture of record labels who through their innovative working style - someway between selfexploitation and momentary breakthrough - help bring an overview to the huge scene. the daily reinvention of survival becomes its own inspiration and as far as defining and developing the artistic position goes, the profile is high and the creative boundries between artist and labels become flexible. at markeB it is the labels, who are otherwise mostly hidden behind their artists, that come to the fore and are directly approachable. to put it concretely, labels who concern themselves with the many contemporary forms of electronic music bring their repertoire and workforce to meet with other labels and the public - for once to take center stage. markeB makes this platform of communication possible and at the same time curates a stage programme which offers a focused insight into the music which is currently being produced. djs, bands, projects and entertainers of all kinds play the music of the city.

markeB is a spinoff of oceanclub, a collective of musicians and artists with no fixed location founded by gudrun gut ten years ago. the gut, fehlmann and meteo team took shape in 1998 following an invitation from the volksbühne to do regular big oceanclub nights. the idea was to put on concerts with our dream-line-up. having a formidable selection of kompakt and mute artists on the first two nights was of course a great honour, but there was a growing temptation to go beyond the established names. a look out of the window over berlin helped shaping the conviction that the music produced in berlin has such huge potential that this should be the main focus. the challange took hold to stage a gathering of berlin indie labels which at the same time offers a massive pool of artists to draw from, all of which release on berlin labels; and so markeB was born. for markeB 02 a book was released: "markeB - berliner labels", which presented the collected, individually designed discographies of each label. one year later markeB 03 cd saw the first accompanying compilation featuring new work from all the live acts. this tradtion is continued and magazines such as WIRE (london), DE:BUG (berlin) and AFTERHOURS (tokyo) included the cd with their publications. this large media interest enjoyed by markeB reflects its acceptance by labels and visitors as an important event. the lively feedback which has been received over the years through the hompage shows a delight in the event and serves not least as a motivation for all participants to see it developping and continued.

besides their 25 yearlong carreers as musicians in numerous projects, gudrun gut and thomas fehlmann can be heard on radioeins with their weekly show "oceanclubradio". daniel meteo is also a musician, runs a booking agency and, like gudrun gut, his own label. the motivation for markeB is above all the inspiration of the thriving berlin scene which we all feel part of and want to give something back to. the markeB concept was immediately greeted with an open ear by the music initiative of the local authority for economics, employment and women (musikwirtschaftsinitiative der senatsverwaltung für wirtschaft, arbeit und frauen) who - with the european fund for regional development (efre) - have given friendly support ever since.