tom bonaty - fear remains [anatomy 10]

it is time for the 10th anatomy, and i could not be more pleased to host one of the minds behind one of the deepest techno labels in the world. please welcome, from prologue music: tom bonaty!

if you're not familiar with prologue yet, check out the label's discogs page and click around to find some samples. since late 2008, the label has been diving into "the hazy shade of techno", and releasing a consistent stream of deep, modernized sounds from a growing family of producers, both young and old. i discovered prologue in mid-2009, and long-time readers should be aware of my appreciation for this sound; several of the label's producers have contributed to the anatomy mix series, with a few more slated to appear in the future. but for now, let's talk with tom:

Hi Tom! Prologue was launched in late 2008; the label is now in its third year of operation, with a catalog of more than twenty releases (vinyl and digital). How have things changed - or have they not changed - as the label has expanded?
3 years in December 2011 yes :-). Basically from your philosophy nothing have changed since Prologue is established end of 2008. We still have our big passion for techno music and we try to make every release unique and as best as we can. Of course some things changed. I think we go back now 3 years and I would say we are in the meantime very good friends and a global label family. This is a very positive aspect. And we are more established in all what we do and recognized as in innovative imprint in the scene. Further the people outside feel that we have a big passion for the music and we get a lot of positive feedback about our releases and work. This support is really such a great feeling. And recently we extend our artist profile with Mike Parker, Adam X and Terrence Fixmer, which is also a little change compared to the beginning. Finally we build up our own booking agency and we got Alexandra as our booking agency leader. So it seems we growing in a good sense in some directions :-) In all, I am personally totally happy about the development and situation of Prologue at the moment.

If you had to choose your three all-time favorite records or pieces of music, what would they be and why?
OK this is a real difficult question. I can't mention three 12" milestones... I have two much after 20 years collecting vinyl. I think about CD's like LFO Frequencies or Kraftwerk which was also extremely important to me to mention but I will try to give you some CD;s which was for me a new dimension in that particular time.

I want to mention two techno albums. I would say these are the two first techno album CD's I bought and they are both extremely important to me. Both was released on Sven Väth's label Harthouse 1993.

First is Hardfloor - TB Resuscitation, the first Album on Harthouse as well. This CD is for me still today the quintessence of Acid. One of the best CD's ever and every serious techno head should have this in his collection. For me one of the most important milestones in techno and acid. Deepest acid in his archetype.


Second is SpiceLab (Oliver Lieb). Just 4 tracks on this CD but every track is an unbelievably long journey over 15 minutes. Today you must pitch it down little bit but basically there are so much different elements of electronic music (trance, acid, ambient and techno) combined and this album is a fantastic journey overall. By the way, Oliver Lieb mastered the first 12" of Prologue and we were pretty proud to met him personally.


Third CD is a mix CD which is still for me the best mix CD ever: Richie Hawtin & John Acquaviva - X-Mix-3 - Enter: Digital Reality! All tracks were unbelievable and at this time (1994) it was miles away from the rest of the world - from a mixing perspective and from the selection of the tracks. I have this CD 2 times and also the vinyl release which was a 3x12" release. The same is valid like on Hardfloor. Every who listens to techno should try to have it in the collection. Some of the tracks was recently re-released. That say all about timeless music. The youtube link below shows you the first complete part of the mix. Remember 1994! And still so much deepness and feelings!


Last CD is a mix CD as well and pretty unknown and rare I guess. It's not techno, it's Austrian easy listening. Klangwirkstoff Scheibosan & eMU - Black Coffee Chapter 2: Potpouri Fusique. The whole Black Coffee series is very good but number 2 is my choice in this case. All are mixed by Scheibosan, an Austrian DJ which is strongly connected to the complete G-Stone and Kruder and Dorfmeister community. Its really a fantastic series and fantastic music for your mind beyond electronic music. Pretty hard to give you a impression of this CD but I found some tracks on youtube just to get a impression. If you have chance to get a CD from this, buy it...

To those readers and listeners who might not yet be familiar with the Prologue sound, which release do you think would be the best introduction?
Probably I am not the right person for this question. Every Prologue is for me an introduction to our label and every release has its own Prologue character. For example listening to Milton Bradley's EP is a completely different experience compared to Dino Sabatini Daughter Of Phorcys/Recall E.P, Lucy's Kalachackra or Claudio's Clear Depths concept. In the end there was a reason to release all these fantastic EP's on our label and all are a kind of introduction to Prologue with the right touch of our artists' own individually. If this question rise up with some readers, I would recommend the complete catalogue, and listening to our podcasts...

When you are not working on Prologue projects, what are you listening to these days? Outside of the Prologue collective of artists, are there any artists or labels in particular who excite you right now?
I am listening to children CD's with my two kids. :-) Beyond label and regular work my kids need some attention as well and I am enjoy this. But from a music perspective still one CD is from James Brown Greatest Hits and one of the Public Enemy albums are in my CD changer in the car. SAY IT LIKE IT REALLY IS... To be honest one slogan on Prologue comes from here. Powerful like real techno... Michael (my partner) and I are still massive Hip hop fans and I am a massive fan of Public Enemy. Coming to the second question I would say the usual suspects like Sandwell, Ostgut, Blueprint, Aquaplano, Time 2 Express just to mention a few and I always try to find pearls on small unknown labels. Further off course I am following Stroboscopic Artefacts. We have a very close relationship to Stroboscopic Artefacts and me and Lucy talking a lot about daily label work, problems, common ideas and we always try to help each other.

What is next for you and Prologue? Can you share with us some plans for the label in 2011?
Yes sure... We have several finished projects and a couple are in progress. Closest milestone is Iori's first vinyl release called Lapis EP very soon. We also plan a remix release with this EP and you will find some really nice names there, but the release date for the remixes EP is not fixed. Further we have a new digital EP with a new project called Not from Earth coming out in April. Not really new names behind this project with Gianluca Meloni from Modern Heads except Carlo Alfano... I am sure we will see some more stuff on Prologue from this duo. Then we will have a new EP from Donato Dozzy together with Neel. Also Dino Sabatini comes out with a new EP which is nearly finished. Still in production is a new Cio D'or considered this year as well and Cassegrain as a new member will come up with a new EP before summer. Also Mike Parker, Terrence Fixmer and Giorgio Gigli is working on new separate EP's. And I have another EP with Donato Dozzy and Giorgio Gigli finished and I am waiting also here for a final remix. This is our 12" plan and this looks very busy to me. Beyond that 12" plan there are also some albums and a another project in progress but before I have it on my disk I can not talk about more details.

And I will not promise to much due to my limited time situation but we thinking to start with a second label this year. The decision is already passed in my head and its more as a reflect. The first EP is almost finished and fixed and signed... we just need the time and power to start.

Finally tell us about your mix, Fear Remains.
With this mix my thoughts were really more in Japan than on the mix. Even I was not sure if I wanted to do a podcast at this time. All these homeless children without parents makes me so sad and the complete situation is uncontrollable so far, as we can see this from Europe. This was the reason to call this mix Fear remains. I will not say this mix shows directly my feelings but the selection of some tracks was surely influenced by this event. For example i used this very very old track from Astral Pilot - Electro Acupuncture released in 1995 called 'The Day After'. The track is very sad in my opinion and I did not even listen to this track 10 years ago. But in this case it came to my head suddenly to use this. Beyond these thoughts, there are also some new demo tracks in, therefore I will not provide a complete tracklist. Off course if somebody is interested on a track ID we are reachable over email and facebook.

In the end we (artists and label) want to say thank you to all who support us and help us to keep our vision of Prologue alive. And also thanks to you Brian for the opportunity to share this podcast on your wonderful blog and your support. Take care all...





like tom said, no tracklist; what you get is about 90 minutes in tom's world, starting with a gloomy, emotional ambient introduction. the set slowly turns towards deep-black techno, and midway through we march triumphantly through the magnetic field of a classic prologue track before pushing into the ringing bass of a more recent release on the label...

huge thanks to tom for sharing his thoughts and his sounds from the past, present and future on smilecoldanatomy. i'm a big fan of what prologue has done, and what the label continues to do, and with this anatomy project entering its second year of existence, i'm happy he wanted to be the 10th contributor to this mix series. there is more to come on this blog very soon, but until then, thanks to those who tune in and support this blog's mission... enjoy!