Stephan Bodzin

At this stage, Stephan Bodzin is very much his own man. He knows his own mind and he goes his own way. What he has achieved in the past doesn't matter to him. When in the studio these days, he is on a mission to interest and surprise himself, to find new musical avenues and explore different perspectives. "There is no recipe," he says. As such, he continues to look forward to serve up the most thrilling live show in techno. This year, that live show is taken up a level with double the amount of gear as he takes his latest album, Boavista, out on the road.

The new album is a further statement of authenticity from Bodzin. It finds the German artist continue to explore new melodic realms, as he always has. He pushes himself throughout, all with the simple aim of telling stories with each track and painting musical pictures that conjure up very real emotions in the listener. It's an album that operates in its own world, like Stephan himself, who has never followed trends. Instead he makes his own.

The music on Boavista is bright and colourful. It can get you in a daze or blow your mind. It's stuffed with the trademark synth sounds that have long defined Bodzin's output, mostly on his own Herzblut Recordings label, but also more recently Afterlife. Each track starts with a feeling, rather than being carefully constructed in the studio. It is always an epic melody, a melancholic chord or a cosmic pad that gets him started. From there he jams in the studio and eventually crafts different worlds and alternative realities through sound.

The live show will find Stephan playing on an array of synths and music machine machines, playing melodies live and serving up interpretations of the new album at each show. Mesmeric new visuals have been developed for the show. They take their cues from the digitised album cover, the blurred lines between different tones and abstract beauty therein. All this makes the next chapter in Stephan's long and accomplished career the most exciting yet.