Berlin-based British dj and producer Sam Barker, known as Barker,
made a name for himself with performances of ambient techno and ambient dub, notably in his collaborations with Andy Baumecker: Transsektoral (Ostgut Ton, 2012) and Turns (Ostgut Ton, 2016).
His first album, Utility (Ostgut Ton, 2019), contains both
the trivial ambient languor of Paradise Engineering
and the sophisticated underground anti-rhythm of Gradients Of Bliss,
showing that he can be both a crowd pleaser and a creative mind.
The subtly shifting techno locomotive Experience Machines balances the two extremes.
The "avantgarde" piece is the nine-minute Die-Hards Of The Darwinian Order that employs metallic percussion to sculpt a futuristic robotic dance.
Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound, 2025) is a bit more elegant and refined. More importantly, it spans a vast spectrum of styles:
the autistic minimal techno of Force Of Habit,
the self-reflecting intricate tapestry of Reframing,
the Robert Rich-style ambient electronica of The Remembering Self,
the messy percussive feast of Cosmic Microwave,
the somnolent fractured jazzy flow of Fluid Mechanics
and the high-octane echoing poly-rhythms of Stochastic Drift.
Nothing groundbreaking but undoubtedly a wizard-level
mastery of studio equipment.
