Shantel was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1968 and is of Bukovina German descent. He moved to Paris, France to study graphic design, but eventually moved back to Frankfurt. By 1991 he opened the night club Lissania Essay in the city’s red light district.
Shantel kept active consuming and producing an assortment of music. Also by running a club in one of the most culturally progressive cities in the world he was inevitably immersed in the chronic wave of techno music. Though Shantel took inspiration from this style of music he also recognized how the electronic music scene was potentially falling prey to homogenization. Rather than subscribing to the tech house style frequently blasted in the majority of the cities night clubs he incorporated multi cultural themes into a suave world-electronica sound. Pulses of accordions and walking double bass lines interjected into Shantel’s warm blend of electronic music.
Shantel released a steady output of singles, EPs and full length albums throughout the 90s. His 1st couple of releases came out through the label INFRACom!, which included the 12” single “Super Mandarine”, his 1995 album debut “Club Guerilla” as well as it’s follow up “Auto Jumps & Remixes”. Shantel singed on with Studio !K7 in the late 90s and issued the two albums “Higher Than the Funk” and “Great Day”.
Shantel habitually played concerts in the Frankfurt area and often labeled his shows the “Bucovina Club”. In 2003 he put out the album “Bucovina” referencing these performances. “Bucovina Club Vol.2” followed 2 years later and was his first album to be released through “Essay Recordings”.
Shantel also issued his albums “Planet Parika” and “Anarchy + Romance” through this label; however, his 2007 release “Disko Partizani” was put out through Crammed Discs. The later mentioned album saw even a further departure from the techno genre and a stronger embrace of Balkan roots music. In 2011 he altered his sound yet again reaching into the crevices of Charleston, Swing, and Yiddish specifically for his joint album with Oz Almog “Kosher Nostra Jewish Gangsters Greatest Hits”.
There are hundreds of fusion artists throughout the world but it’s quite a minority that make their fusions work. Shantel is definitely a part of that minority. The German DJ and producer has worked with gypsy brass orchestras, DJing and remixing traditional Balkan music with electronic beats. He has kept his career going over the last twenty years and on this tour, he is promoting the Anarchy + Romance album. His music definitely has a European quality about it, but it also has a global quality, there are qualities about his music, with the hooks that he uses throughout his music, and the transparent talent that he has. “The Masterplan” is the mid tempo track that has punters dancing in a sort of pseudo prohibition style, jiving around with partners. It’s such an interesting sound that Shantel makes, blending it with EDM. “No More Butterflies” makes me feel as though I’m at a Bar Mitzvah with it’s traditional Yiddish qualities about it.
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