one of those people - and a crucial figure on the cologne scene - was jörg burger. db wasn’t the only person to be impressed by the sound of cologne. the city’s overtly trippy mix of 303 acid and syncopated funk (often forged without the use of midi or computers) was a hugely popular constituent of the international techno scene throughout the first half of ‘90s. less linear and often quirkier than its closestcousin, frankfurt trance, the sound of cologne still bore obvious traces of the original detroit blueprint and, perhaps because of its proximity to düsseldorf (the two cities are just half-an-hour’s drive from one another), kraftwerk.

with the exception of mike ink, his one-time collaborator, burger is perhaps most representative of the cologne sound. it’s typical that he describes 1988 - the year when acid house overtook europe’s dancefloors - as the date he was "reborn", his effective year zero. what followed was an equally typical account of the way acid house redirected lives, careers and experiences. within a year, burger had recorded his first tracks, two of which found their way onto thomas fehlmann’s teutonic beats (1989) compilation. in 1991, burger found himself in belgium. together with mike ink, he set up the trance atlantic and monochrome labels, releasing numerous 12"s by himself, his partner and the duo’s collaborative ventures in various permutations, including the science wonder project. his first significant success arrived with the first burger industries release "vol. 1" but other tracks as stardiver, biosphere #1 and b. movement recruited a solid underground following.

burger relocated (with ink) to frankfurt in 1992, in order to work with air liquide’s jammin’ unit and dr walker. this resulted in a 12" as structure ("we are structure" - an overt nod to chicago’s phuture) and a self-titled lp as m.f.a. along with two new labels, structure and blue. he also took the opportunity to remix steve ‘silk’ hurley’s house classic "jack your body" though by far the most important development of his move to frankfurt was the arrival of a new alter ego, the bionaut, which became his best-known guise in the years to follow. the name was introduced with an album, everybody’s kissing everyone (1992), a psychedelic electronic excursion that still contains some of his most fascinating work to date.

by 1993, burger was back in cologne, setting up his own record shop - delirium - and yet another label, eat raw, which provided the platform for a second bionaut lp, frugivore. his passion for dance culture also resulted in a magazine - house attack - which burger ranfor the next four years. the frenetic pace of burger’s recording activities seemed to be unaffected by the fact that he was running several labels, a record shop and a magazine simultaneously with his studio career. with mike ink, he recorded ethik i (1993) in addition to a cluster of 12"s on structure and his self-titled burger industries album, mining the same seam of funky, 303-driven techno which had come to define the cologne sound by this time. within the space of the next 12 months, he also completed the ethik ii album (this time collaborating with cristian vogel, thomas heckmann, air liquide and others), along with another handful of 12"s such as "virtual elvis" (as burger industries) and "spartacus" (as the sculpture).

the commercial success of burger’s bionaut material brought him to the attention of emi who signed a deal for that project, together with his more-or-less permanent collaborative venture with mike ink (imaginatively called burger/ink) and several spin-offs including trinkwasser and the modernist. the new relationship bore fruit almost immediately with heavier promotional muscle securing substantial commercial success for the third bionaut lp, lush life electronica (1995). the album is still considered a classic by many, including kraftwerk’s wolfgang flür who rated it as one of his all-time favourite electronic records and subsequently recruited burger to provide mixes for his post-kraftwerk project yamo.

burger/ink’s las vegas (1996) signalled fresh horizons, though it provided burger’s only full-length project for that year, perhaps due tothe scheduling restraints of the new label rather than any real slowing-down of creative activity. outside the studio, he was beginning toextricate himself from both the record shop and the house attack magazine and plotting another new venture - this time a graphics andartwork agency called granit. one of granit’s first commissions was for the pop-art sleeves for burger’s new project, the modernist.

the polished production, trippy atmospheres and resonant imagery (singles with titles such as "dali bop horizon" and "orange coloured sky", rauschenberg-meets minimalism graphics and weird, queasy syncopations) that distinguished the new material from previous outingsprovided burger with his most refined outing so far in opportunity knox (1997). tracks such as "hellbent to paradise" and "data girl" were strange and accessible at the same time, merging synth pop melodies, jazz chord voices and druggy techno grooves into a delirious, technicolour confection.
(from "tim barr –techno: a rough guide", penguin books, 2000)

in 1999 burger founded a new label "the popular organization" and released his most acknowledged album so far: "the modernist explosion".
matador records, nyc licensed it for america (as they did with "buger/ink-las vegas" in ´98) and released an updated version (with three new songs) in 2000. in the following years burger spent most of his time touring.

in 2001 burger started pop up, a collaboration with his "brother in distinction" antonelli electr. so far they have released three twelve-inches, rocking dancefloors all over the world. anothercollaboration - in this case with his long-time friends from kompakt - resulted in the release of a new compilation-series, called "leichtes hören". the final bionaut album, "lubricate your living room" a best-of-compilation of his works from ´93 to ´97 - was released in england and america the same year, again on matador. burger opened his new collection of modernist-releases in nov. ´02 with "the modernist comeback" after signing with the hamburg-based label wonder.

"[kangmei]", the third modernist album and burgers thirteenth album in total, is out in 2006.