Solomun

Solomun did not wait for a big label to sign him. Mladen Solomun built his own: a record label called Diynamic, a Hamburg club called Ego and, later, the Ibiza nights known as Solomun +1. One remix in 2011 took him from the German club circuit to the top of the year-end polls.

From Travnik to Hamburg

Solomun was born on 27 December 1975 in Travnik, then part of Yugoslavia, and grew up in Hamburg after his family moved there. As a boy he worked on building sites for his father. A cousin who went clubbing brought him cassette tapes, his first contact with music beyond commercial radio. At 16 he was buying vinyl and playing for teenagers at a local youth centre.

Music was not his first job. He co-founded a small film production company with friends and worked in film for about five years. He then spent a year learning production from a friend who ran a hip-hop label.

Diynamic: do it yourself

In late 2005 Solomun and Adriano Trolio, who handles the label’s booking, founded Diynamic. The motto, “Do It Yourself”, is built into the name. His own Solomun EP followed in 2006, and the album Dance Baby in 2009, both on Diynamic. In December 2010 he added 2DIY4, a more experimental outlet.

He also owned Ego, a club in Hamburg run with his sister and Trolio, until the end of June 2014. Diynamic marked its tenth anniversary in 2016 with parties at Watergate in Berlin on 9 April and at DC-10 in Ibiza on 19 August.

The remix of “Around”

The breakthrough was a remix. His 2011 version of Noir & Haze’s “Around” was named Remix of the Year by Resident Advisor. The same year he remixed DJ Hell’s “Germania”. In 2012 Mixmag made him its DJ of the Year, the DJ Awards in Ibiza named him Best Producer, and he released “Kackvogel” on Watergate Records.

The remix list kept growing: Lana Del Rey’s “West Coast” (2014), Paul Kalkbrenner’s “Cloud Rider” (2015), Depeche Mode’s “Going Backwards” and Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker” (both 2017), Jon Hopkins’ “Emerald Rush” (2019) and Pet Shop Boys’ “Dancing Star” (2024). A first round-up, Solomun Selected Remixes 2009–2015, came out in 2016.

Solomun +1 in Ibiza

By the mid-2010s Solomun held two Ibiza residencies, both called Solomun +1, at Pacha and at Destino. DJ Mag Italia named the Pacha night its Best Night in 2015. The format travelled too: at The BPM Festival in 2016 he played Solomun +1 with Mano Le Tough. Resident Advisor’s Best DJ poll placed him 13th in 2015 and fifth in 2016, and the DJ Awards gave him the Deep House prize in 2013 and 2015, then Melodic House & Techno in 2018.

That same year he became an in-residence DJ in Grand Theft Auto Online’s After Hours update, and the video for “Customer Is King” was made inside the game’s engine with Rockstar Games.

Records to start with

Beyond the remixes, the Diynamic singles map his sound: “Samson” (2014), “Zora” (2015), “Let It Out” with Liu Bei (2016), the Customer Is King EP (2018) and “Home” (2020), then Nobody Is Not Loved in 2021. For more German house from the same years, read about Dixon and Mannheim’s Nick Curly.