Cocoon In The Park 2011
Building on the massive success of the previous two years events “Cocoon in the Park” is back for its third consecutive year, the north’s biggest annual one day Electronic music festival.
Event date: Saturday July 9th 2011.
Once again the event is hosted within the beautifully landscaped grounds of the 450 year old Tudor Jacobean stately home “Temple Newsam” which lies just a couple of miles to the east of the city.
Hopefully the weather will be as great as previous years and there really is no better experience than outdoor Techno in the sun.
The event arena is littered with numerous outlets for drinks and refreshments and the gentle rolling hills provide plenty of places to have a little sit down to get a breather from the dancing.
With ticket numbers being sold already eclipsing last years sales weeks ahead of the scheduled date the organisers have catered for the increased numbers by ensuring there are more facilities than last year so there shouldn’t be too much trouble getting to the bar or too long spent queuing for the loo!
Most likely even bigger and better than the previous two events expect awesome production to run through the day in the form of light shows, giant screens, dancers, pyrotechnics and other spectacular visuals to enhance the fantastic atmosphere.
Funktion-One will again be in charge of the sound so expect the best because that is what they deliver, amazingly loud and crisp sound from all angles throughout the arena.
So who have Cocoon brought to entertain our ears this year?
First up it Seth Troxler.
Affectionately dubbed “The Kid from Kalamazoo” the brilliantly eccentric and astoundingly talented Seth Troxler’s DJ career started back in 2002 at the tender age of 16 where he span regularly at Detroit club The Works alongside pedalling records at Detroit’s famous Melodies and Memories store. With these experiences Seth gained a great understanding of rave and dance music history.
After relocating to Berlin Seth released some of the world’s finest and most intuitive dance cuts, including releases and remixes on Spectral, Wagon Repair, Crosstown Rebels, M_nus, Bpitch Control and Esperanza, some of which featured on prestigious mix series including Audion’s Fabric mix and Circo Loco and Get Physical compilations. Seth’s unique and fresh approach to modern electronic music has captivated the most respected dance floors in the world including Panorama Bar, Rex Club and Fuse and his famously outlandish personality coupled with his intuitive approach to music selection and mixing have won him enormous amounts of respect and fans alike.
Seth’s recently conceived “Visionquest” project alongside Detroit cohorts Lee Curtiss, Shaun Reeves and Ryan Crosson was responsible for sell-out shows at Fabric, Watergate and the Mint Club. The four continue to spread their combined audio-visual aesthetic via their new and much-hyped Visionquest label.
Next on stage Reboot (Live).
At an age when most kids were discovering video games and girls, German production wizard Frank Heinrich, aka Reboot, was making tracks on studio equipment he bought with his pocket money. This precocious talent was nurtured by illicit nights out at Sven Vath’s infamous, and influential, Omen club in Frankfurt, where Reboot grew up.
After years spent perfecting his craft, in 2011, just four years since his first EPs appeared on Cadenza and Below, he has become one of electronic music’s hottest properties, releasing not only a slew of singles for labels like Cocoon, Love Letters from Oslo, Ricardo Villalobos’ Sei Es Drum and underground cult fave Motivbank, but also a pair of high-profile mix CDs for Cocoon and Cécille and his warmly recieved artist album “Shunyata”.
Recent times have seen Reboot become firmly aligned with Luciano’s Cadenza camp including membership in Luciano’s successful live Æther show and a well-deserved place on the label’s roster of talent. Reboot’s live sets and DJ sessions have taken him around the world and then some, playing everywhere from mammoth festival stages to the intimate caverns of the Mint Club and Robert Johnson, as well as the thatched-roof booth at Ibiza’s Ushuaïa.
Possibly the highlight of the event Ricardo Villalobos.
One of the original instigators of the microhouse and Latin-infused minimal techno genres, Ricardo Villalobos began djing in his native Chile in the early 90s honing his unique take on electronic music to create the original sound he is widely-revered for today. Villalobos’ productions also typify his Chilean roots and have been credited with breathing a fresh perspective into a flailing scene with key releases on Playhouse, Perlon, Contexterrior, Cocoon and his own Sei Es Drum label.
Quickly gaining notoriety and credit amongst his peers, notably Sven Vath and Richie Hawtin, Villalobos soon joined rank and became a figurehead of the international electronic community, headlining festivals and clubs across the world.
Villalobos was born in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in the year 1970. However, at the age of three he moved to Germany with his family after General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973.
When Ricardo was around 10 or 11 he started to play conga and bongos. Though he loved music, he could never see himself as a musician. In the late eighties he began to make electronic music. From a very young age he has been a a big fan of Depeche Mode,even following their tours around Europe to listen to them. Villalobos takes much of his inspiration from Depeche Mode, as well as other artists such as Daniel Miller, Thomas Melchior, Baby Ford, Daniel Bell, Andrew Weatherall and the rhythmic sound of South American music.
Villalobos began to play his music at parties while he was studying at university, but this was only for his own enjoyment. His first record was released on the German Playhouse label in 1994 and he began DJing as a professional in 1998, and is in present times regarded as one of the most important minimal DJs in Europe, alongside other talented chilean djs and producers such as Luciano (an occasional collaborator) and Dandy Jack. Villalobos is now a key member of Sven Vath’s Cocoon family and regularly plays at high-profile Cocoon events across the world.
Then to complete the night Cocoon Boss the one and only Sven Vath.
Arguably the biggest name in techno today “Papa Sven” is responsible for bringing the underground to the masses through almost 30 years of unfaltering dedication and intuitive musical foresight. In 1996 with his then fledgling Cocoon project, Sven’s vision finally came into its own, forming a global platform for many equally talented artists. Today Sven Väth and Cocoon continue to touch thousands of people across every continent with their inimitable brand of bleepy, emotive, percussive house and techno.
A Dj since 1982, it was in 2001 when Sven’s popularity rose. He had bookings world wide and played big festivals like I Love Techno in Belgium, Dance Valley in the Netherlands, Rave on Snow in Austria and Mayday in Germany. His residency at the Amnesia in Ibiza, as well as in New York’s top club Twilo and London’s The End consolidated his image as one of the Global Players in Electronic Music.
Resulting from the wild and rockin’ nights in the Amnesia and the chilling and relaxed atmosphere in the After Hour Club Cala Llonga is “The Sound of the Second Season – Noche y Dia”, Sven’s second MixCD. The first sign of Sven Vath’s ninth artist album, a cover version of Serge Gainsbourg’s Classic “Je T’aime…moi non plus” in a duet with French DJ Queen Miss Kittin, was released on Dec, 3rd. In March 2002, Sven’s new album “Fire” was released. The corresponding Fire World Tour with about 60 gigs world wide lead his way to almost all continents, dozens of countries and the most exclusive and important clubs in the world.
In 2004 six years after Sven’s first club,the Omen, closed, Sven Väth opened a new club in Frankfurt: the Cocoon Club. This project is undoubtedly the biggest in Sven’s life so far and has set new standards for clubbing worldwide.
Sven’s annual World Tour 2006 lasted from January to May. First, he played a few gigs in Europe, then turned to Japan for two shows and went on to South America. In Medellin / Colombia, Sven played an amazing party together with Richie Hawtin and four shows in Brazil, which were also a landmark in his tour schedule. The seventh season of the CocoonClub Ibiza was a highlight lasting for threemonths, seeing Sven play ten times and the Closing Party “being one of the best nights I ever had.” In summer, he headlined several Open Airs like SonneMondSterne, Nature One, Vision, Street Parade and of course the Green & Blue Open Air in his hometown Obertshausen near Frankfurt. Remarkable releases in 2006 were the annual Ibiza Mix CD ‘The Sound of the Seventh Season’, released in November.
In October, a very special highlight took place: Sven played an exclusive show with Underworld at the CocoonClub Frankfurt. In November, his seventh Ibiza Mix-CD was released and immediately entered the german compilation charts at # 6.
From January 26th until May 25th 2007, Sven performed again on stages around the world. Besides European countries like Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Denmark, the UK and Ireland, his annual World Tour also brought him to China, Japan, Argentina, Brasil and to the US.
For those with energy left there is an official after party at the Mint Club, the line up for this is still to be announced, and tickets for this can only be purchased by people who attended the day festival and you will only be able to enter the club if you have an arm band to prove it.
A great addition by the organisers this year is to make transport available to get people back into the city after the event so enquire about this as it will provide a swifter and easier passage back home than trying to organise your own taxi.
To summarise, the event will be massive outdoor fun in amazing surroundings with world class DJs and superb professional production and organisation. So if you still haven’t got your ticket for this event yet, get one now!
Photos: Tom Horton photography – you can see more of his work on his web-site, link is below.
For all the information you need about the Cocoon in the Park event – go to the web-site or official Facebook page – both links are below.
www.tom-horton.co.uk
www.cocooninthepark.com
www.facebook.com/CocoonInThePark
