Chris Liebing

Chris Liebing is on the creative hot streak of his life. It’s now 30 years since his rocket ride through the dancefloors of global techno begun – but the current phase encapsulated on the 2026 Evolver album pulls together all the reasons he always loved what he does, all the things he’s learned, and a new-found confidence born of deep introspection, and channels it all into focusing and intensifying his DJ and production superpowers. The exact same energy he threw into his early residencies at the foundational techno temples Omen (Frankfurt) and Tresor (Berlin) is there, but enhanced with all technological advances and study of what moves ravers worldwide, it feels as vivid and important as ever. Chris grew up in a small town outside Frankfurt. As a boy he was always uncertain of himself yet was compelled to focus on what interested him. He pursued playing tennis to a very high level and felt that might be his path – but absolute obsession with music compelled him even more. From listening alone and deeply at home, through pause button cassette DJing at teenage parties, to a residency at a commercial club on the fringe of Frankfurt with rickety decks balanced on the bar, his desire to be surrounded by the sounds he loved, and also to work out the techniques that could draw others into what he was hearing and keep them locked in to it. A job at Sven Väth’s Eye-Q label led to a fortuitous chance in late 1995 to fill in for a last minute drop out in The Omen – which he smashed so convincingly he quickly became a big local name. His break at Tresor came in almost identical circumstances, and from then on he has been a watchword for the most fundamental, sweat-drenched, joyously powerful European techno which he has taken to dark cellars and vast festivals the world over. His productions, labels and radio / podcast work have likewise kept the faith for the pure, energetic forms of techno whatever trends have risen and fallen. There’ve been diversions into brooding experimentalism for the legendary Mute Records, but always that deep and powerful original pulse has been there, not least via his hugely influential CLR label – and now it’s stronger and more vividly present than ever.