Moritz von Oswald

Who is Moritz von Oswald?

Moritz von Oswald, who was one half of both Basic Channel and Maurizio, is a German multi-instrumentalist who went on to become one of the most influential record producers of techno music in the 1990s.

Von Oswald was born in Berlin, Germany. In the 1980s, he was percussionist for Palais Schaumburg and Associates, but moved into electronic music by the late 1980s. He did this first in 2MB and 3MB, and later he co-founded the Basic Channel label with Mark Ernestus, whose various releases came to epitomize minimal techno. As part of the Berlin/Detroit axis, Basic Channel characterized minimal techno along with other artists like Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Mike Banks, and UR. Living in Berlin, von Oswald was also part of a music scene that pivoted around the Tresor Club and record label, as well as Hard Wax, the record store founded by Ernestus. Basic Channel and Maurizio records are characterized by a 4x4 beats with dub-inflected syncopated synth pads slowly modulated over time, most 12"s containing tracks that take up the entire side of each record. Their work was influential for Richie Hawtin, Thomas Brinkmann, Robert Henke, Wolfgang Voigt, and later through artists whose records were released on the label Chain Reaction Records, part of the Basic Channel family.