Shed

Shed is the main alias of René Pawlowitz, a DJ, producer and live artist born in Frankfurt (Oder) in what was then the GDR. He grew up in Schwedt, close to the Polish border, where FM radio was one of his few windows into popular culture, and Berlin stations like DT64 gave him his early musical education. Tracks from Detroit, Chicago and Berlin formed the backbone of his youth. In 2002 he moved to Berlin, founded his own label Soloaction, and took a job at the Hard Wax record store where he still works today.

His first EP as Shed, "Red Planet Express," came out on Soloaction in 2004, with more following on labels like Delsin, and in 2008 Berghain's Ostgut Ton released his debut album "Shedding the Past." Warmly received and named album of the year by Resident Advisor, it carried a stripped-back techno sound with a warmth rooted in his love of early IDM, with Future Sound of London and Aphex Twin among his touchstones. Further albums followed over the years, on Modeselektor's 50 Weapons and Monkeytown as well as a return to Ostgut Ton.

The most personal of those is 2019's "Oderbruch," named after the region of former East Germany where he grew up and still spends time. Its nine tracks move across breaks, bass, techno, ambient and hardcore, tied together by the interweaving of personal memory and regional history. He performed it in full at Berghain's Säule during a Klubnacht, one of many appearances there across both DJ sets and live shows over the years.

Independence has always mattered to Pawlowitz, who for a long time ran the whole operation himself, producing, pressing white labels and shipping them out. That freedom shows in the sheer spread of his aliases, among them WAX for stripped techno, Head High for house-leaning rave material and Hoover1 for breakbeat hardcore and jungle. His Shed work draws on memories of 90s Detroit techno and jungle, carrying enough heavy bass and echo to reach into dub techno, and it treats every strand of that heritage with real care.