Kollektiv Turmstrasse began quietly in the late 90s when two friends, Nico Plagemann and Christian Hilscher, set up a home studio on the German Baltic Sea coast. The name came from the street they lived and worked on in Wismar. Their collaboration would eventually transform into one of the most distinctive live acts in European electronic music, grounded in emotional nuance and production craft. Early on, the project embodied the dialectic between two sensibilities. Today, that evolution continues in a new form, as Kollektiv Turmstrasse becomes a solo project under Plagemann's direction. On February 13, Plagemann brings Kollektiv Turmstrasse to Control Club. Within the dense field of electronic live acts, Kollektiv Turmstrasse continues to offer a rare sound, both meticulous and intuitive.
The first Kollektiv Turmstrasse album, 2006's Verrückte Welt, was a loopy, melodic deep-house record. Four years later, Rebellion der Träumer became a landmark full-length. The duo would avoid rigid stylistic definitions, issuing tracks across breakbeat, house, and techno on influential labels like Connaisseur, Diynamic, Cocoon, Kompakt, and FFRR. In 2006, they founded their own imprint, Musik Gewinnt Freunde.
By the late 2000s, Kollektiv Turmstrasse had developed a signature that balanced club propulsion with restrained melancholy. Tracks like "Grillen im Park," "Ordinary," and "Last Day" became underground touchstones. The 2015 release of "Sorry, I'm Late" on Diynamic marked a career milestone. The track received immediate support from Solomun (including on his infamous Boiler Room: Tulum stream) and others, was remixed by The Blaze and Pig&Dan, and amassed tens of millions of streams. It also appeared on multiple compilations and became a widely used set closer. Other key releases during this period include "Tristesse", the Sry I'm Late EP, and their inclusion in the Watergate XV box set.
Between 2010 and 2020, Kollektiv Turmstrasse performed at key international festivals and regularly appeared at Berghain/Panorama Bar, Watergate, Fabric, and as staples of the Diynamic family alongside Adriatique, HOSH, Magdalena, and others. Over the years, standout online mixes, such as an XLR8R podcast and a 2023 Batumi live recording, have also amplified their aesthetic globally.
Alongside the records and shows, the project cultivated a parallel scene that aligned with its ethos of community and inclusion. The MGF Collection compiled label highlights, while the You Are Perfect (YAP) party series extended things to the dancefloor. Since launching in 2017, YAP events have taken place in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, Zurich, and Istanbul, with lineups featuring artists like Jan Blomqvist, Parra for Cuva, Elif, Niko Schwind, and Reznik.
In 2023, after more than two decades together, Christian Hilscher stepped away from the project. Plagemann formally assumed full authorship and reintroduced Kollektiv Turmstrasse as a solo act. The new chapter began with the release of Unity of Opposites in November 2023, arriving thirteen years after the last full-length. Its tracklist demonstrates a sharpened focus on harmonic resolution, subtle groove development, and emotional pacing. A series of extended versions and reinterpretations on Not Sorry Music, Plagemann’s new label venture, further expanded the release's universe.
In 2023 and early 2024, Plagemann performed at Fusion Festival, Zamna Tulum, Piknic Électronik, Brunch Electronik, and more. In most shows, he deploys a custom live-hybrid rig built around Ableton Live, Elektron machines, and modular sequencing, with an emphasis on dynamic control and spontaneity. The live show now features a new visual design and a narrative arc tracing the project’s evolution.
Kollektiv Turmstrasse’s legacy is no longer a story of two producers from northern Germany. It is now the portrait of a singular artist navigating memory, reinvention, and continuity. The emotional core remains, but its expression has grown more expansive, textured, translating early vocabulary into a new one-man collective.
