Ame  Berlin, Germany

Kristian Raedle and Frank Wiedemann (collectively known as Âme) were born in Karlsruhe, South Germany. Kristian grew up in Mannheim whilst Frank remained in Karlsruhe. Even now despite the electronic music world’s current migration to Berlin, they both agree Karlsruhe is still the city for them to continue their musical journey.

Frank spent his early days exploring the vast worlds of jazz and contemporary classical music, immersed in piano lessons with very encouraging and open-minded music teachers. While he tinkered away in Karlsruhe, Kristian meanwhile in Mannheim was too busy shirking his guitar lessons in order to play football and collect records. The latter hobby paid off when, at 25 whilst taking a civil engineering degree, Kristian had the opportunity to open a record shop with a friend. Having moved back to Karlsruhe to study, it was only a matter of time before Frank, the like-minded electronically inclined record collector began frequenting Kristian’s shop.

Frank: I went into the shop and was buying some nu jazz records, lots of drum’n’bass, all sorts. Kristian showed me some Moodymann stuff, and some music that he thought could fit into my jazzy mind. I had some club experiences after that. Kristian brought me to see Robert Johnson, and that finally helped me understand house music. I’m not sure I even understand it right these days! (laughs) At the time, I was already working on a small electronic music project, but it was more nu jazz. I always say that Kristian asked me to start working together...

Kristian: No, he asked me! (laughs) I was playing parties, he was playing parties, and sometimes we’d play together. It wasn’t like we had a club night or anything like that; there’s not a huge scene in Karlsruhe. It’s funny because these days the clubs are getting bigger, but it actually feels exactly the same. We’re still just playing music we like and having fun. It’s been over seven years now.

Having already dabbled in the party scene as up-and-coming DJs, Frank and Kristian had acquainted themselves with the likes of Jazzanova, Henrik Schwarz and Dixon. Their first signing was incidental and unexpected, as they’d only modestly asked Dixon for his opinion of their productions. Dixon had been A&R’ing for Jazzanova’s Sonar Kollektiv imprint and he immediately snapped up and signed what would become their debut ‘Safari/Hydrolic Dog’ EP. From there, their rhythmic, fluid releases poured out, perhaps their most notable being the chart-topping, endlessly remixed, omnipresent hit of summer ’05, ‘ Rej.’ While they still can’t seem to get through a DJ set without a ‘Rej’ request, their wide-reaching productions have grown from strength to strength, spun from genre to genre and jumped from label to label. Ame alongside Dixon have worked on their own independent label “Innervisions”. Through this label, they’ve spent the last 2 ½ years A&R’ing and working with like minded artists.