Jonathan Kaspar

Entire nights under the vaults of Cologne

At the Gewölbe in Cologne, the DJ booth is in the center of the room and the Martion system leaves little room for posturing: you go to listen. There, Jonathan Kaspar has turned his residency into a format of its own, with all night long sessions that stretch until dawn—in January 2026 he even exceeded eight hours—which he records himself. The arc is always the same and it never sounds the same: tension, a drop, and an atmospheric finale. That criteria, rather than a closed genre, is his signature.

From the dancefloors of Bonn to the Kompakt catalog

He grew up in Bonn. His first musical hook was high school basketball and the hip hop of Nas or The Notorious B.I.G.; electronic music came later, at a party with hypnotic loops that he still remembers. He studied Medicine in Dresden, was already DJing back then, and upon finishing, he chose the dancefloor. In 2013 he returned to the Rhine, organized parties in his city, and when the venue closed, he moved the nights to Gewölbe. The first one, in 2014, worked. His recording debut was Tudeles (Upon You, 2015). Then KX (Rantou, Supine), Objektivity, Pets Recordings and These Eyes. CHI (2020) reached number 1 in Afro house on Beatport; Beton, in Indie dance. The mother label Kompakt opened up with Renard on Total 19 and the EPs Kante (2020), Muster (2021) and Umfang (2022).

Hawā, Cocoon and the long flight

Today he is one of the central figures of Kompakt and the main resident of Hawā, the series on the visitor terrace of Düsseldorf airport: planes over the dancefloor, a solo set to open and a closing with two booths featuring guests like Mano Le Tough, Michael Mayer, Jimi Jules or Robag Wruhme. He releases on Innervisions, Crosstown Rebels and Cocoon —We Come and The Reason Why with Damian Lazarus; Twofold Ignite and Twofold Fade on Cocoon; Can't Stop and Aye on Maeve— and has remixed Acid Pauli, John Digweed, Joris Voorn, Kölsch, Tiga, Sven Väth, Culoe De Song and Rex The Dog. Outside of Cologne, the long format has taken him to Stereo Montreal, Hï Ibiza, Kater Blau, Fusion, 4GB in Tbilisi and art cars at Burning Man. In December 2024 he signed more than two hours for HÖR in Berlin. With booking by Sweat Lodge Agency, he continues to bet on extended sets of euphoric house and hypnotic techno, with a percussive groove that doesn't reveal the next track until it is already upon you.