Harmony Rec crew members Alfred Czital & Ayū deliver our next mix transmission, as we share their latest live set at Ankali.

Alfred Czital & Ayū have been making waves in recent years. Both solo and in collaborative format. Alfred is one of the co-founders of the lauded Harmony Rec, next to being an amazing DJ and producer. Ayū has been crafting his signature trance mutations into an artform through his live performances for over a decade. Together, the Berlin-based artists have released their works on Kalahari Oyster Cult and Harmony Rec.

The duo comes together regularly for their joint live performances. The latest of which performed at Harmony’s club night at Ankali last weekend. We have the pleasure of sharing it with you today and asked both artists some questions about their recent doings.

Hi Alfred and Milan, good to have you with us today! What have you been up to these last couple of months? I see you recently came back from your first India tour, Alfred. Can you tell us about that experience, the Indian club scene and some of the highlights?

Milan: Thank you for having us, we’re happy to be here! A lot has happened in recent months. We moved into a new studio that turned out to be a magical place, especially when working on our co-productions. It allows us to reflect on the core elements of our collaboration and become more stable in our musical identity, which made working together even more enjoyable and trusting. We had some incredible performances this summer that strengthened the bond between us as friends and artists.

Alfred: India was surely a highlight this year. It was an incredible experience full of amazing connections. I’m still feeling inspired. Ever since I visited India 10 years ago, I was dreaming of going back. I spent most of the time with Jay (Monophonik) and we managed to produce something that’s very close to what someone can describe as ‘a sketch for a pretty sick record’. I felt extremely privileged to be able to work with such a talented artist. We were productive and I had the best time. All of the shows were super nice and I had a chance to meet some amazing & talented locals such as KIBO, Kohra, Rishi Sippy and more…

You’re doing some pretty amazing things under the Harmony umbrella. As part of the Prague and Berlin-based record label, party series and community, can you tell us a little about your involvement, the ethos driving the collective and some of the projects you’re personally most passionate about?

Alfred: Thank you 🙂 I stepped back from event-production a while ago and now I’m mostly focused on curating the record label. I think that at this point, I’m mostly driven by the ongoing and never ending support of my closest ones and our community all over the world. I feel it more than ever. A good Harmony party at Ankali feels like a huge eruption of love and nostalgia…that keeps me going for a while! I’m most passionate about making genuine connections and expanding Harmony’s catalogue.

Milan: Even though I see Harmony as family, I’m not involved in the internal organisation. I trust the inner circle, their vision and I know that they wouldn’t make any decision that would put me in a difficult position. My strengths lie in music, and I believe that this is the best contribution I can make to the label. I think what I find most impressive is that Harmony manages to remain loyal to their community and support their friends while continuing to evolve and embrace change.

We’re excited and honoured to share your latest live set with everyone, but before diving into the specific recording, I’m curious to hear how you guys met and how things evolved from there to starting a live project together in 2023. What have been some of the shared highlights?

Milan: Pleasure is on our side! We first met back in 2014. Alfred found my former Berlin collective on SoundCloud and invited us to Prague. At that time, Harmony was still called MMXIV and was primarily about organizsng warehouse raves. We became friends, performed at each other’s parties and supported each other in producing music. With Covid, the lockdowns and the closure of borders and clubs, we lost touch a little. When Alfred moved to Berlin in 2022 and we met again, my interest in club music had faded somewhat. Meanwhile Harmony had become an established label and Alfred was DJing around the world. I was working as a sound designer, planning to build a career there and put my dream of making music on hold. But Alfred invited me to his studio, reignited the spark and Harmony fanned the flames with their support. Although we developed independently, we still share a very similar taste in dance music and club culture.

Alfred: As mentioned, we actually are long time friends, but we truly bonded not so long ago. It just felt like we were there for each other at the right time and place. We were following our intuition and things started to happen quick and naturally. After the first live-set we knew that we created something very special. Not gonna lie, it truly changed our lives! We both had a past experience with playing live, but playing live together was an ultimate game changer. Suddenly there was another pair of hands which eventually led to having 2x more fun and just 1/2 of the stress. It felt effortless and every live-set became a highlight. Now the excitement to show the new material overgrown the stress and anxiety, It’s like a therapy! There is no better feeling than making people shake their booty to your own tracks.

The recording we’re sharing today comes from your latest live performance during the Harmony x Transmissions night at Ankali on October 17th. Can you take us through the night and tell us how you experienced your set, the energy, crowd and time leading up to the performance?

Alfred: Playing a live-set at Harmony is an ultimate treat! Sometimes It feels a like a big gamble to guess what kind of vibe is going to be at the party from 3:00 to 4:00, but Harmony is the only place where I know exactly what should be happening. That Friday everything was on point. Surrounded by friends, the vibes were on, it’s always an honour to play for a true late-night Harmony crowd <3

Milan: I had an incredible night, as well. We had the honour of playing between Loram Ipsum and Mama Snake, and besides all our friends from Prague, there were also many from Berlin. The dance floor was on fire and people were dancing behind and around us. These are exactly the parties I have in mind when I produce music. I feel like all the DJs delivered that night, not to mention the lighting operators as well.

You told me that you prepare a new live set for each party, so it matches the vibe and contains mostly new music. What does the process of preparing for these performances look like? And what have you booked up for this particular occasion?

Milan: Yes thats right! To understand the process, you have to know that there is an intermediate step between making and performing music. We call this programming. It involves preparing the tracks for the live session, programming machines and exploring transitions. This step is very technical and rather tedious and laborious. Since we both have experience in playing live, we have established a system that makes it easier to incorporate new tracks into the session. Nevertheless, it’s a lot of work, but we’re happy to do it!

Alfred: We crafted a pretty simple system. We keep all of our live tracks in a massive project, and we go from there. It get’s better each time we play it. For every show we aim to add a few completely new tunes to keep it interesting and spicy (mostly for us, as most of the tracks are still unreleased, but you get fed up with them after some time hahah). Most importantly, we are having fun and feeling inspired. We always try to create a different story based on the overall vibe of the party. We take in consideration acts playing before and after us, time slot and many more details… even the season of the year. Our aim is to deliver the maximum quality every time. Luckily there is always enough time to do it, because I believe that every promoter deserves an unique piece of art 🙂

With the recordings consisting out of new and mostly unreleased stuff, are there any particular bits we should pay attention to that might see the light of day in the future?

Alfred: There is Milan’s upcoming record on Harmony which is coming out soon along some spicy remixes. Also our remix for The Evil B-Side Twins (DJ Tool & Yazzus) which is scheduled to come out soon! That’s a really crazy track hehe, we had so much fun working on this project.

Milan: There are plans for almost all of the unreleased tracks. For some, we are already waiting for the test press, and for others, we are still considering. There is also a track from an upcoming EP on Neptune Discs in the set. I would particularly like to highlight the first and second last tracks. We want to continue with this sound in the near future.

What else might you have in the works for the next couple of months?

Alfred: For now we would like to take a step back and prepare some fresh material for our winter tour. We are planning our first tour outside of the EU!

Milan: Exactly, we played many of the tracks from this set over the summer and it’s time for some new music. We’re also working on new release concepts. But I’m already looking forward to getting started again.