BIOGRAPHY

Live Act, DJ, Producer & Musican — COCOON / HARTHOUSE / BREAK NEW SOIL / EXHIBITION

Most likely enough, the chances are pretty, pretty slim to ever encounter a personality disposition like Rico Puestel's a second time throughout the margin of a lifetime - the same holds true for his musical efforts and products: Early trained pianist, self-trained guitarist, drummer, musicologist, Zappa enthusiast, struggler, neurotic, martyr of art and, most-notably, genuine, perpetually driven producer and performer of electronic music in all its facets, soaked into one highly character-propelled guiding thread throughout it all.

Spending his childhood days in socio-psychological isolation, visiting public places or swimming pools first and foremost sitting in the corner for hours, plainly studying the interaction, communication and habits of people, he developed into a holistically shaped yet rough-around-the-edges human being, following a catalogue of self-elaborated principles that stand on their own: Only producing music by invariably wearing disposable gloves in the spirit of any complexly sculpted surgery which is stringently defined by using all the time and intuition necessary, but, focus-wise, not more than 3-4 hours to finish a single production, still sticking to the same equipment he initially started producing with professionally during days of childhood, inherently driven by intuition - in keeping with his motto: "Give me stick and stone and I'll build you a home." Same for all the endeavours of working himself into the art of melting separated records into coherent yet irrational stories when he was around 11 years old, delving into the haptic entanglements of vinyl with the help of a single low-range-price-segment home-listening record player and its pitch range of 2 percent.

Being approximately 13 years old, already harking back on his public DJ performance debut shortly before he turned that age, he unluckily yet elusively never stood a chance with his first demo tapes when strongly biased and sceptical A&Rs doubted the actuality of someone this age showcasing sincere musical quality and never called back after getting the actual background information to the music they just heard - an ordeal that finally underwent an amendment in late 2004.

Different monikers, labels, phases, over 50 vinyl records, singles, EPs, remixes rolled by, leaving a continuously prospering legacy: In 2007 and shortly after its establishment, the music on his first tiny and fundamentally not-at-all-promoted digital label found its way to Get Physical. Releasing vinyl on a monthly basis in 2009, his music started a world cruise on labels from the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Portugal and beyond, publishing creative collections and interpretively collaborating with Ambivalent, Thomas P. Heckmann or Roberto Rodriguez. Perambulating divergent sanctums, shifting phases and crossing sanctions, he found himself on Claude VonStroke's Dirtybird sub-label Mothership with his seasonably hometown-homage single "Hörntörn" in 2012 that later got internationalised and renamed into "Voeyage".

After releasing his highly anticipated and renowned single "Volute" in 2013, a long-term liaison with Oliver Schories' label SOSO came into being, manifested by the publication of several EPs and two albums there.

Being back from the hospital after a nephrolith-induced emergency residence, somehow shifted and revitalised, he immediately immersed himself back into the music, initiating a special kind of alternative metaphysical therapy, crafted two pieces, got them cut into a single vinyl copy, revived the virtually classical and nostalgic scenery of sending out demos, additionally completing the circle to his early teens and sent it to Sven Väth who providentially put it in his bag and sets - and an excursion to Cocoon got unfurled.

At the end of 2017, he had showcased an impressive Tour de Force on Cocoon Recordings, including three vinyl EPs and his contribution to Cocoon's annual compilation "Q" over the span of 11 months – especially gaining momentum by producing THE 2017 Cocoon anthem "Caravel" that (besides his other pre-exclusive "Väth-Dubplates") not only got played by Sven Väth in almost 100 different cities all around the world, but experienced affirmative support by DJ Koze, Sam Paganini, Adam Beyer or Richie Hawtin and got voted #4 Track Of The Year 2017 by the readers of GROOVE Magazine.

After releasing his fourth Cocoon EP "Equity" in 2018 as well as the pre-Corona track "Perpetua Mobilia" on the their "Dots And Pearls" compilation two years later, Rico increasingly focused on his own imprint Exhibition and came out with his albums "Obi Thine Xi" and "The Verge, The Rope & The Rooftops" alongside some special EPs and singles. He presented his "Afar" EP on Gregor Tresher's Break New Soil label in 2022. His "The Gen Z Archives (Lost Tracks From The '00s)" double LP on Exhibition finally brought some late childhood productions out from his archives into the world one year later.

In late summer 2023, his album "There Is Truth And Method To My Madness" was released on the history-charged label Harthouse. Shortly afterwards, he announced his album "#technohasleftthebuilding" for December 2023 (concluded with its second part "#technohasleftthebuilding – The Aftermath" due in early 2024), showcasing his true electronic origins and preferences, being tired and poleaxed of what has happened to the Techno scene over the past years.

While having started a folk and pop singer career as Rico Friebe simultaneously in 2023, additionally releasing selected Rico Puestel remixes of these songs, it's fair to say that anything has always been and will stay possible when it comes to Rico...

November 2023