In the rest of the world, boys and girls dream of becoming rock stars. In Germany, seasoned musicians long to record a record in the country. The Berlin band Die Türen has retreated to Märkische Schweiz to record a triple album in an old ballroom. It is called "exotericism", but sounds more like competent espoused esoteric, is often trippy, sometimes pop, always lavish and ties in with the West German tradition of Krautrock. What was the group Can in the 1970s Castle Nörvenich and Weilerswist southwest of Cologne, is the doors Ringenwalde northeast of Berlin.

"Regionalexpress", Maurice Summen sings on the eponymous play with a lot of reverb, "on the tracks of the past". On the one hand, the Doors call up another Krautrock myth, namely Kraftwerk and the "Trans Europa Express". On the other hand, the railway line is located directly at the Ringenwalder Pension, where Humming with Ramin Bijan (bass), Gunther Osburg (guitar), Chris Imler (drums) and Andreas Spechtl (synthesizer) spent the hottest week of the record summer 2018. "Exoterics" is published by Summen's own record company Staatsakt.

So why does the album sound so cosmic because the city-dwellers in the countryside were finally able to see the starry sky? Totten dismisses: "We played until three or four in the morning and then went to bed without a word." The result may be a krautiger dream - the country, the long pieces, the collective improvisation and the even longer process of editing on the computer, when one-and-a-half hour versions were cut down to twelve minutes. But it's hippie stuff under today's conditions: a week's studio time for a good two hours of music, which is more efficient than relaxed.

"Exoterics" reveals the joy of creating something that was preceded by neither customer survey nor target audience optimization. "A Doors album does not have to pay us 'rent, electricity, gas'," says Summen, citing the driving first single, where he sings only those three words, like a slogan on a demo. Or, as in the museum, in front, where the Pop Art stands: rent, electricity, gas - the bang, is colorful, everyone understands, like canned tomato soup. Most of the lyrics on the album flash like signals: "No time, no love, no luck, no money" in "I'm a crisis" for example. Or "grandma" sounds a bit like "Woman" with sums in the vocal soul cellar, while the "educated ideals" in the song "BBI" "in the years, in the shelves".

But what is on the shelves? The Staatsakt office in the former trendy district of Prenzlauer Berg is home to CDs and vinyl records from the last 15 years. So long there is state act already. For an independent, so-called independent label, which outsources only concert booking and distribution to partner companies, this is remarkable.

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State Act Label: 15 years of funky crafting

In addition to the house band The Doors and their incarnations (including The Man, Maurice & The Family Summen) publish at Staatsakt not only experienced artists such as Bonaparte, Barbara Morgenstern, Jens Friebe or Christiane Rösinger. Also young bands of the hour like Isolation Berlin, International Music and The Screenshots appear here. Together with the Berlin competition of City Slang and Buback Tonträger in Hamburg, Summen's label is one of Germany's first indie addresses.

Does the catalog of state-of-the-art physical recordings already describe its own canon, a pop-educated one? Summen's father was a tiler in Münsterland and a passionate DJ with a preference for soul and funk. "Do you have something for the boy?", Dad asked at the weekend in the record store, remembers the musician. That the tastes of father and son had many intersections, you can hear the song of sums and the catalog of state act to this day: blue-eyed soul, funky screams, and always keep an eye on crafts - music from humming hands has clean joints. The background from the working class probably also leads to the fact that socio-political topics can be heard on many Staatsakt albums in the foreground.

Will that be over soon, this medium-sized pop craft, if streaming services like Spotify turn the music market upside down just like the illegal file sharing almost 20 years ago? "For the labels, also for us, streaming is less problematic," says Summen. "Because the catalog is instantly available, so it always comes in a bit."

But many expect from Spotify that the industry giant in the future even want to produce music and avoid the labels. For musicians, this also has some advantages, such as door member and bandleader (yes, panic) Andreas Spechtl says: "Spotify is the only distribution partner who does not personally write to the label, but to me as an artist, if I do not compile a playlist wool, for example. "

You do not have to ask the question that underlies the conversation - why you even take it on yourself, a music label in this precarious time for authors. The mid-forties buzzes incessantly so disarming that the answer can only be: Because it is cool of course.

The music responds in its own way. For on the doors album "Exoterics" there is the audible freedom to mate the joy of nonsense with the love of half a century of music. With great devotion and the eternal hope, the moment may stretch.

The Doors: "Exoterics" (State Act / Caroline) was released on January 25th