Cassegrain + Tin Man

Cassegrain + Tin Man

Geographically speaking, Cassegrain & Tin Man aren’t the most obvious partners in crime. Tin Man, AKA Johannes Auvinen, grew up in California and eventually found his way to Vienna, where he’s largely made a name for himself by deconstructing classic acid sounds and reimagining them for a new generation. The two members of Cassegrain, on the other hand, first met in 2008 while attending the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. While Alex Tsiridis and Hüseyin Evirgen initially continued their production partnership at a distance, the duo’s tactile sound design and hypnotic rhythms has properly blossomed following a joint move to Berlin. Recent years have seen a number of Cassegrain releases, most prominently for Munich’s Prologue imprint. They teamed up first in 2012 for the Carnal EP on the Killekill label. Another collaborative EP, High & Low, followed in 2013 and achieved cult status. The three producers lept to Function’s revitalised Infrastructure New York label for 2015’s Window Window EP. The Sandwell District alum also included a new Cassegrain & Tin Man track on the exclusive 12”s for his much-lauded Berghain 07 mix for Ostgut Ton. Despite the project’s unlikely origins, it seems that Cassegrain & Tin Man have settled into something of a groove, and few will complain if they continue to indulge it from time to time. Audiences have been able to catch the trio playing shows across Europe and the US and hear their tracks getting love from respected underground djs. Alex Tsiridis and Hüseyin Evirgen formed Cassegrain in 2008 after meeting at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, having quickly bonded over their mutual appreciation of electronic music. Turkish-born Evirgen had had a strict musical education, playing piano from the age of seven while studying composition in Istanbul and at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, while Greek-born Tsiridis developed his music skills through computer software and growing up with a love of IDM and dance music in general. Cassegrain’s first release came in 2010, with the single Cotton on Mikrowave, which was followed a year later by their first release, the Dropa EP, for Munich-based deep and dark techno label Prologue. During the next few years, Cassegrain released several singles, performed many DJ and live sets, did remixes of Dutch techno artist Charlton Ravenberg as well as Alexander Kowalski’s Dircksen, and started collaborating with Tin Man. Cassegrain worked on their debut album, Centers of Distraction, in 2014, which was released at the end of that year Producing music for more than a decade, the master of the neo acid scene, Tin Man (Johannes Auvine) continues to evolve and invigorate with each and every release. Over the last decade, he has explored an ever evolving sound palette that touches on house, techno and ambient. Much like his namesake’s character in the Wizard of Oz, he has been on a mission to find his true self, except this Tin Man’s medium has been music. In 2014 this modern acid master plays live on 303s, 707s and plenty more bits of hardware, always creating textured soundtracks on the flying using a range of FX and skills built up over the last decade. He never fails to make people dance to his beat whether he’s playing festivals in Japan, influential clubs in Europe or dirty back rooms across America and puts most similar acts to shame.