The legendary German techno label is back!


The label Harthouse was founded in 1992 in Frankfurt/Offenbach by Matthias Hoffmann, Heinz Roth and the well known Frankfurt DJ, Sven Väth. Harthouse, in the early years from 1992 to 1997, was a sublabel of Eye Q Records and was a platform for young and up-and-coming artists. It was designed for a harder, more minimalist sound, the sound that didn't fit into line with Eye Q Records. Sven Väth commented: “We wanted to create a stage; a playground - even an experimental one - and I think we succeeded.” In the beginning, Harthouse defined a sound that today is well known as the “Sound Of Frankfurt,” a harder but danceable version of trance of hardhouse. In a very short time Harthouse became the “flag-ship” of German Techno. All was to change in 1997 however as artists were not paid and Sven Väth left the label. The firm moved from its vast office in Offenbach to Berlin. Two months later the firm was insolvent, and filed for bankruptcy. The artists could not be paid or were paid off with ridiculously small sums. The managing directors proved unwilling to comment on the reasons for the bankruptcy. However, the tremendous discrepancies between aims and reality are obvious: on one hand they wanted to be an underground German techno label, but on the other, they rented a multi story office that had yet to be paid for; they cut down sales expectations while the managing directors started to jet to their branch-offices in the UK and US. To all parties concerned it was obvious – this could not work out. Expansion was stopped fast enough but the move to a smaller office came little too late. Then in 2004, Daredo Music took over the rights to the Harthouse brand. Armed with a new strategy and new artists, this reincarnation directly follows in the footsteps of the old Harthouse sound and mythos!

The first release via KGD Media on Harthouse will be an artist album from ADJD; better known as Alexi Delano and John Dahlbäck, entitled Chronicles of the Urban Dwellers and to be released in the second half of March '07.