‘A good beat or groove is the foundation for a track, and that’s very important for me, but what stands out in the end is a certain magic that cannot be described. That can come from anything or everything in the track — from the groove, the melody — but truly great tracks always have some special magic.”

Frankfurt’s Gregor Tresher knows a little something about adding magic to a tune. His single “A Thousand Nights” was an underground anthem last year, becoming the best-selling techno song on Beatport in 2007 and causing countless eyes to close and arms to reach for the sky as we lost ourselves in its hypnotic rhythms and melodies.

Tresher is a master of emotive minimalism and has more musical moves and moods up his synthesized sleeves than his winning “Best Producer” nods from Germany’s Raveline magazine in both 2006 and 2007 might suggest. His involvement in techno goes back to ’93 when he began DJing as a teen. Tresher started producing “broken beat electro” as Sniper Mode in ’99, going on to produce numerous singles and remixes and two full albums under that moniker. In 2004, he unveiled himself.

“When I first started to release music under my own name, I discovered that you take it all a lot more seriously,” he admits. “You really have to stand 100 per cent behind it.”

That’s easy to do when influential German DJ and radio host Sven Väth gets heavily behind one of your first tracks. In 2005, Tresher’s Datapunk release “Still” put him on the map and he followed it with a handful of strong singles for labels such as Electrix, Terminal M and Great Stuff. Late last year he released his first full-length as Gregor Tresher; A Thousand Nights is a solid collection of dancefloor tracks that move among styles including minimal, techno, electro and house. I’ve listened to it well over 50 times and discover something new with each play.
“When I first started to release music under my own name, I had this kind of trademark sound, which was rooted in the basslines and melodies,” comments Tresher. “The people who knew me from earlier songs, like ‘Full Range Madness’ or ‘Still’ knew me for this sound, but then there were many different kinds of tracks on the album — electronica and ambient music, electro, techno, house. It wasn’t so focused on a specific kind of sound or style.

“After putting the album out, I felt like I closed a chapter, so I feel quite free to do whatever I want in music now. I can’t say I had that before, so I’m quite happy about it.”

This sense of excitement and exploration is apparent in Tresher’s two most recent — and disparate — singles. Both “Break New Soil” (Moon Harbour) and “Erdbeerfeld,” the latter being Tresher’s contribution to The Double Feature (Metatron), a collaborative EP also featuring Johannes Heil and Extrawelt, take the concept of minimal to very different and dark places and are certain to surprise fans of the producer’s big-room tunes.

Tresher also expanded on his skills recently by co-producing the forthcoming Changes of Perception album by long-time DJ, producer and Terminal M label head Monika Kruse.

“It’s quite versatile, the album, ranging from quite minimal music to uptempo techno, but she’s very into Latin influences, which I don’t like at all so it was quite a nice experience to do the album with her because I could pull myself back as an artist, just do the producing, and let her decide on the directions she would go in,” enthuses Tresher.

“I just did the technical side and played some melodies. It was a great experience and completely different from doing my own album because it’s not my picture I was painting.”
As he was preparing to set off on his first multi-date DJ tour of North America and seeing numerous festival appearances in his summer schedule, Tresher was already psyched to return home to his newly relocated and revamped studio where he’ll spend the fall working on new solo material. A number of remixes are currently half-completed, with one for electro act The Dirt Crew giving a glimpse at what may come.

“It’s sounding quite different too. It’s kind of house,” Tresher giggles. “I think people will be surprised.”