Aera AKA Ralf Schmidt was born in northern Germany in the mid 80’s, growing up in a small, grey town just in between the Baltic and the North Sea. When the first wave of house and techno swept through the suburbs, young Aera was right there in the middle of it.
In 2010, after years of honing his craft in the studio and buying records, Aera started his own label Aleph Music. The label became home to the majority of his own productions as well as remixes from the likes of Mano Le Tough, among others.
Late 2011, Aera embarked on a trip through South America. It was during this adventure he wrote his debut long player “Offseason Traveller”, which was met with great critical acclaim across the board.
He spent the winter of 2013 on La Gomera (Canary Islands) and this trip would prove to play a major part in the development of him as an artist. He wrote a huge body of work and having never sent demos of his music to other labels before, Aera decided it was time for that to change.
His first demo (Freak Wave) was picked up by Innervisions immediately and so the spark was lit, a full EP with Maeve followed in the coming months and suddenly things were on the move.
2015 was a breakthrough year for Aera, with live shows at the Maeve showcase at Sonar Barcelona as well as the Ellum show at ADE in Amsterdam and Institut Für Zukunft Leipzig. DJ shows were also on the rise with clubs like Panorama Bar Berlin, Harry Klein Munich, Radion Amsterdam or The BPM Festival in Mexico all enlisting his skills.
With EPs lined up on both John Talabot’s Hivern Discs and his own full four tracker on Innervisions, as well as continuing releases on Aleph Music, Aera has begun to take flight in his musical journey.
1. Ponty Mython – God Bless Atheism
2. Ishi Vu – Uuuuh Your Heart Is Melting
3. Space Dimension Controller – EXOSTACK (Kornel Kovacs remix)
4. Johannes Albert – 118BPM x Heiko Laux – Savannah
5. Spirituals – Love Changes x John Talabot – Voices (Gerd Janson Version Conga)
6. Isolee – Mangrove
7. Tee Mango – Rotating Bodies
8. Joy Orbison – Fuerza
9. SBTH – Moritzplatz (Jupiter Mix)
10. Masaya – Borderline {Neil Flynn’s Reduction Edition}
11. N/A
12. Hammer – Canna
13. NV – Bells Burp
