Interstellar Groove Festival 2026

Patrice Bäumel

Patrice Bäumel has carved a unique path through the European and global techno world. He's the Beatport chart topping producer and international top flight DJ, who can comfortably fit in with the stellar cast of Global Underground compilers/mixers. He's a hero in his adopted hometown of Amsterdam for the residency at the musch beloved Trouw club where he made his name. His releases on lynchpin labels like Kompakt, Get Physical and Watergate consistently soundtrack wild scenes from Ipanema to Ibiza. But he is no generic DJ/producer, not by a long shot. This is a man who cites the dark experimental grind of Andy Stott and the liquid metal explosions of Autechre as key influences. These days he's straightedge and level headed, yet is still in love with the Dionysian extremes of club culture, and remains a livewire behind the decks, forging an electric connection with dancers. And for all that he is a strategic and studious thinker, he's in thrall to the magic of randomness, and insistent that club music must be driven by bravery and radicalism. He brings deep accumulated life experience of business, of technology and of the arts to bear on everything he does, and that depth shows. But then from the very start, Patrice has continually built his own identity. He was born in East Germany in the Communist era, his mother a teacher, his biological father a Congolese chemistry student she had a fleeting relationship with in Belarus. It wasn't always easy growing up mixed race in an extremely white and socially conservative, fearful, society, but he remembers his childhood fondly. His adoptive father was a music journalist and got records from friends in the West, giving Patrice a unique grounding and early love of particularly alternative and electronic sounds: Depeche Mode, Yello, The Cure, Skinny Puppy. When he was 14 the Iron Curtain came down. It was a mixed blessing: increased freedom, of course, and more access to culture were exciting. But racism increased as the insular East Germans turned against perceived outsiders, and the whole country seemed to struggle with its identity and ambitions. Patrice, though, was self-motivated early. At 16 he got a scholarship to spend a year on an exchange programme in Utah, which he credits with making a man of him, and breaking him out of any parochial mentality. At 17 he started DJing, first gabba and hardcore, then quickly picking up the full spectrum of club sounds, but particularly real-deal European and Detroit techno. He got good at mixing reasonably quickly, but he didn't take it very seriously for quite some time. For all that he tried to shake off his East German identity, he admits that he was swept up in the newfound enthusiasm for capitalism that swept the country, and his primary concern was to understand the ways of business and earn good money. It was for this reason he moved to Amsterdam, but, fired from his assigned traineeship there, he refused to admit defeat and – using his skills in English and technology – found a job on a computer help desk, and began to work his way up through the tech industry. As a freelancer, he fairly rapidly created a good life for himself, with flexible working hours and plenty of time for enjoying clubbing, but also his desire to know more about the world, about art, about himself. Music was always there, though, nagging at him to get more involved. Though he originally enjoyed Amsterdam's nightlife purely as a punter, it wasn't long before he had built up a small home studio and was making his own tracks. And his occasional bar DJ gigs started to build him a reputation – though it wasn't until well into the 2000s that he had any sense that this might be something that could be more than a hobby. A couple of releases on Frankfurt's Trapez imprint piqued interest. It it wasn't really until his deliriously tense and strange 2008 release “Roar” on Get Physical – which became an Ibiza and worldwide club staple supported by everyone from Pete Tong to Danny Tenaglia – that he got enough profile to play internationally. And it really took his Trouw residency at the start ot the 2010s to mark him out as a serious player. But that involvement – with a club he describes as somewhere that “embraced everybody... quintessential Amsterdam, just a place that made people very happy” – was the best schooling he could possibly have had. It was here he could flex his musical muscles, going as dark as he liked and perfecting the difficult art of the extended set, often playing for seven hours plus. Even with this base, and his position in the international hierarchy firmly established, though, he steadfastly refused to rest on his laurels. Quite the opposite, in fact. When Trouw closed he reassessed his life, his sound and his approach to everything: making business plans, cutting out intoxicants, going through an intense process of trying to shed his ego and need for approval, and as an end result laser-focusing his creative process on creating club bangers, tracks that would bring maximum pleasure and success. Which takes us to today. Even with his Global Underground mix boosting Patrice's profile further, and his own tracks regularly showcased by the biggest names in the scene, he still sees himself as a work in progress. He may be decades deep in music, but in many senses his career has only just begun, and ever the autodidact, he is determined to expand the possibilities of DJing and production both as art and as technology. During his post-Trouw reassessments, he came to the realisation that his role was to serve the audience, not to glorify himself, and now every fibre of his being is focused on how best to bring people together and bring both straightforward joy and also the thrill of radical sonic art into their lives. Delighting in the glorious mixture of chaos and control a thronging dancefloor embodies, he has all kinds of plans for the future, but also a willingness to let the magic of chance and randomness be a part of his progress. This musical and cultural polymath definitely has more than a few surprises up his sleeve

D-Nox

John '00' Fleming

“A national treasure of trance music” Pete Tong BBC Radio 1 (Essential mix) “One of the Pioneers of the electronic dance music scene” The daily Telegraph Newspaper John 00 Fleming is an artist who has achieved international success in a career spanning over 20 years without dishonouring his musical essence or fans. With over 10 million album sales and 30 produced mix compilations, John’s a proven musical pioneer whose essence lies in what his fans call, ‘the J00F sound’. The J00F sound is as unpretentious as the artist, and is best described as deep and textured progressively edged trance, in an electronic dance music style that is an antithesis to what is normally produced within the genre. In an industry rife in self worship and mirror gazing, John is characterised by a passion and ability to connect audiences by injecting his unique underground musical style, and not his ego, into the mainstream vein. This connection has manifested in ten mix compilations and five singles in the UK Top 40 charts on iconic labels: Virgin, EMI and Warner Music. It has also seen him headline major events worldwide, seeing in over 10,000 appearances at the likes of Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Ministry of Sound and Global Gathering, through to Holland’s Dance Valley, Serbia’s Exit Festival, Brazil’s Exxxperience, Australia’s Future music festivals, Belgium’s Tomorrowland, and the U.S.A’s Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC). John’s renown lies in his desire to give back to his fans. His much lauded 2010 BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix has spawned J00F Editions, an international tour which innovatively refocuses the music onto the club and its clubbers. J00F Editions resurrects the scene of old, and reintroduces the clubbing experience to extended sets, new sounds and new artists to deliver a true musical journey devoid of fluff and predictive cliché that has quickly gained international respect, residencies and support from other leading figures such as Dave Seaman, Avalon, Passion and Ministry of sound. JOOF Editions has been a huge success. John’s record label, J00F Recordings, and his monthly radio show, Global Trance Grooves, broadcast on iTunes, Ministry of Sound radio and DI. FM provides John another path to walk his own line. Here, he promotes rising stars in addition to giving over four million subscribed fans the latest in J00F’s inimitable sounds. John is also one of a select few endorsed by Pioneer. As the industry heavyweights inside every DJ booth, John provides subject matter expertise and consultancy in a partnership which ensures the upward evolution of the electronic music world’s tools of the trade. John’s esteem within the industry has garnered respect from electronica luminaries like Jean Michael Jarre and Simple Minds, and while humbly accepting peer endorsement he continues to let his production skills do the talking. Being humble John has never bragged the fact he writes music scores for the TV and movie world having music all over; BBC, NBC, Warner bros, Sony, ABC, Fax and more. Often being disgruntled with the commercial intrusion into the electronic John saved his writing skills for the media word, until recently where he has released an onslaught of chart topping releases, including his award winning debut album ‘Nine lives’ in 2011. John 00 Fleming is a performer who adroitly crafts something musically organic from the inorganic, artfully opening your senses into a genre far more pervasive than you currently know. Challenge yourself, and get intelligently immersed, inside his adventurous odysseys.

Freedom Fighters

Marc Romboy

Pavel Petrov

Head of EXE AUDIO record/label & EXE Group. Born in Sofia at the end of Bulgaria’s socialist era, Pavel Petrov grew up alongside the explosion of Western electronic music culture. Pavel Petrov is steadily continuing his ascent into the upper echelons of the wider electronic music scene and ground himself as one of the World's leading young artists capable of setting any crowd on fire at any time. Evolving from the raw post-communist scene, he became an internationally respected DJ and producer with a sound that crosses genres and boundaries. His releases on labels like Stil vor Talent, Dynamic consistently charted on Beatport, located top10 of Indie Dance charts of the year.

Sammy Legs

dela Moon

One Million Toys

Tom Baker (AUS)

Rem Siman