NederlandsDJ Henrik Schwarz
Gallery Henrik Schwarz
Biography Henrik Schwarz
Henrik Schwarz was born and raised in South Germany where he also took his first musical
steps as a DJ in local Clubs playing Rap, Hip Hop, Rare Groove and Jazz and Detroit Techno.
Soon after he started to spin regularly he was also interested in computer music production
and started to do his own productions in 1992 with a few drumachines and synths. When he
got his first Laptop in 1998 he started to integrate it into his DJ-Sets and soon the Laptop
played an important role in all his music activities. The software got better and better and
Henrik was enjoying the new possibilities.
1999, after he had finished his studies in Graphic Design, Henrik decided to move to Berlin
and worked as a Graphic Designer for several years. By-and-by things developed nicely also
on the music side and he had the chance to found his own label SUNDAY-MUSIC together
with Sasse Lindblad who had just released Henrik's first ever Vinyl 12" called "SUPRAVISION
EP" on his label Moodmusic Records in 2002. "Marvin", one of the tracks on the record, got
attention from many DJs around the world, especially BBC's Gilles Peterson took it in his
show and played it with immediate effect. From that moment things made a great leap
forward for Henrik: He received first remix requests and started to travel to the UK and other
European countries. His next releases "Jon" on SUNDAY-MUSIC and especially "Chicago" on
MOODMUSIC became very successful and made him shift his activities more and more from
Design towards music production and travelling.
Over the last years with international bookings all around the globe, with regular appearances
in Japan, America etc. Henrik improved his HENRIK SCHWARZ LIVE show and is now one of
the most requested live acts in the dance scene. At the same time Henrik produced a string
of very well received remixes and own tracks: WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES for Coldcut on
Ninjatune became one of the biggest club hits of 2006, LEAVE MY HEAD ALONE BRAIN
bridged the gap between Jazz and Techno and Soul and was super well received by Deejays
from Hip-Hop to House to Techno and became the biggest hit for SUNDAY-MUSIC so far.
Until today he has done remixes for many very well known names like Mari Boine (Universal),
Kuniyuki (Mule Musiq), DJ Hell, Tosca (G-Stone), Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (Deeper Soul),
James Brown, Dark Globe feat. Boy George, Omar feat. Stevie Wonder, Jazzanova, Jesse
Rose, Detroit Experiment, Michael Jackson (Motown) and many others. Today many fans are
awaiting his debut album which is in the works effectively since a few months.
2006, as a result of him getting more and more known by a wider audience, Henrik was
asked by !K7 to do one of their famous DJ-Kicks series and the result has been regarded as
"one of the highlights of the series" and led to another cooperation of the label and Henrik:
HENRIK SCHWARZ LIVE with recordings from his intoxicating live shows from all over the
world.
With Dixon and Âme from Innervisions Henrik released "Where We At" with Derrick Carter on
Vocals which became an instant classic and marked the beginning of a fruitful and close
collaboration between Henrik and Innervisions until today with successful releases and
remixes like AMAMPONDO AND HENRIK SCHWARZ - I EXIST BECAUSE OF YOU (Amampondo
is a very famous south african percussion group), ANE BRUN - HEADPHONE SILENCE (Henrik
Schwarz Remix, Dixon Edit), Crocodile IV-RMX for UNDERWORLD, HOLD MY HAND IV-RMX
for UNKLE and many others culminating in the first unforgetable Laptop Supergroup Live
show of the dreamteam together "A CRITICAL MASS" in Amsterdam and more gigs around
2009 at Melt!, Dissonanze in Rome, Detroit Electronic Music festival, NY, Japan and many
others to come.
2009 also saw the release of a very well received compilation called THE GRANDFATHER
PARADOX were Henrik Schwarz, Âme and Dixon were looking back at the last 50 years of
minimalistic music from Stevie Reich to Robert Hood and correlated the past and today to
throw a glance at the future with the help of todays technology.
Early 2010 Henrik released the SCHWARZONATOR. It is a music software plug in on the basis
of the music programming environment MAX/MSP. SCHWARZONATOR helps creating complex
harmonic structures for the computer musician. It can also help interacting with
instrumentalists and led to another major discussion about the use of the computer as a
musical instrument. More software like this will be written by Henrik in the future to expand
the performance and improvisation possibilities given by computers today.
Henrik already worked with the Chicago based Jazz trio ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE on live
performances earlier in his career with gigs in Bordeaux and Chicago etc. His most recent
Live duo project together with world-famous Jazz virtuoso BUGGE WESSELTOFT from Norway
happened at several venues all over Europe in 2009 with gigs in Berlin, Oslo, the Jazz festival
Montreux and others. It is about the free improvisation between a laptop and a grandpiano
played by two musicians who both have a great knowledge from the ohter one's musical
background. 2010 took the duo to a sold out London's Royal Festival Hall with more gigs in
2010 for example at the Philharmonic Hall Cologne or the Norway Numusic festival and many
other venues around the globe. WESSELTOFT & SCHWARZ DUO album will be released in
June 2011 worldwide through UNIVERSAL/JAZZLAND.
A CRITICAL MASS (H. Schwarz, Âme, Dixon) wrote a new scoring of the black and white
horror movie classic "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" which was performed live by the group at
the Jetztmusik Festival in Mannheim early 2010.
In March 2011 Henrik presented his new Henrik Schwarz Techno Liveset at Timewarp in
Mannheim in front of a couple of thousand dancers with great response.
In November 2011 Henrik will release a new full length album with a 10 piece classic
ensemble. Ten of Henrik's classics have been transferred to sheet music and and have been
recorded live in an old church in the center of Berlin. The album will be performed live with a
15 piece string ensemble at the philharmonic hall in Berlin on November 15, 2011.
The future looks bright as we will see more of his one-of-a-kind remixes and remarkable
releases in the near future, more collaborations with Bugge Wesseltoft, Dixon and Âme,
Guem, Jesse Rose as Black Rose more Live shows and finally a new solo album to be ready
early 2012!