JakoJako

Arpeggios, cables and a hardware signature

Few names in contemporary techno have made the modular synthesizer as recognizable a signature as JakoJako. A producer, live performer, and DJ, she treats the Eurorack as an instrument that is rewritten at every concert: arpeggios, loops, and controlled accidents that seek catharsis on the dancefloor without renouncing an almost ambient sensibility. In the booth, she can be dark and broken; in the studio, hypnotic and long-phrased.

SchneidersLaden, the school of the Berlin circuit

She arrived in Berlin in 2012 to train in nursing, drawn above all by the clubs. Between hospital shifts, she read synthesis manuals; in 2017, she left the profession to work at SchneidersLaden, the benchmark modular shop at Kottbusser Tor. There, she advised musicians, fine-tuned a DIY system, and in 2018 played her first live set at the shop itself. The recordings on SoundCloud led Leisure System to release the EP Aequilibration in 2019. That same year, she performed for the first time at Berghain alongside Ben UFO and Marie Davidson. The second EP on the label, Lux (2021), consolidated an emotive language straddling the dancefloor and sound design.

Berghain resident and the Mute axis

In 2021, she became a Berghain resident. Since then, she has played at Dekmantel, Awakenings, and Fusion, and on stages such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican. A meeting at SchneidersLaden with Daniel Miller, founder of Mute, led to the remix of Be a Rebel by New Order and, later, another for Martin Gore. Mute released Verve (2023) and NovaMute Segmente (2024), EPs of dark techno with flashes of trance. In parallel, Metamorphose (2022, Bigamo) explored ambient with shifting textures, and In Vere (2022, WSNWG) paired her with Rødhåd. She has collaborated with Mareena on Atlas der Gedanken, contributed tracks to compilations for BPitch Control, Tresor, and Figure, and in 2025 she curated Hardwired for Air Texture, a map of the hardware community. During the lockdown, a live set filmed for FACT Magazine and a piece for Electronic Beats brought her modular approach to an international audience; in 2022, ARTE Concert broadcast her performance with dancer Nana at the 30th anniversary of Tresor.

Tết 41: Vietnam in minimal machine

Tết 41, released by Mute in April 2025 and chosen as album of the week by Der Spiegel, was recorded in Vietnam during the Lunar New Year, with minimal equipment —Eurorack and Waldorf Iridium Core— and field recordings. The album honors her family's Vietnamese heritage and opens the range toward a more stripped-back electronic music, between immensity and intimacy. Today, her booking is handled by LittleBig Music Agency and she remains linked to SchneidersLaden as a space for exchange. That dual path —dancefloor and contemplation, machine and emotion— places her among the most peculiar figures of current Berlin techno.