As with a lot of other producers on Cologne, Germany's Kompakt label, it's nearly impossible to predict what
Aksel Schaufler, aka
Superpitcher, will do next. He debuted in 1999 with a 7" in the Kreisel 99 series, then made his first appearance on Kompakt proper a year later with "Shadows" -- an eerie trip-hop production seemingly designed to soundtrack a 3 A.M. drive down a foggy urban alley -- on the label's
Total 2 compilation. In 2001, he contributed a track to Kompakt's first Speicher 12" and released
Heroin, a three-track 12" with three different sounds; its dreamy, somber "Tomorrow" was later included on that year's
Total 3. Released in 2002,
Total 4 included yet another track from
Schaufler, a straightforward electropop cover of
Brian Eno's "Baby's on Fire." Soon after that,
Schaufler released his second 12",
Yesterday, which featured reworkings of "Tomorrow" and "Heroin."
Schaufler handled steady remixing work for the likes of
Dntel,
Carsten Jost,
Contriva,
Phantom/Ghost, the M.F.A., and
Charlotte Gainsbourg. Two production albums,
Here Comes Love (2004) and
Kilimanjaro (2010), as well as the mix album Today (2005), were issued on Kompakt, which later rounded up highlights for
So Far So Super, a double-vinyl anthology issued for Record Store Day 2016. He returned with new
Superpitcher music in 2017 with
The Golden Ravedays, a 24-track album that was issued as a dozen individual releases over the course of the year. In addition to his solo output,
Schaufler has also collaborated with Kompakt don
Michael Mayer (as
SuperMayer) and with Mauricio Rebolledo (as Pachanga Boys). ~ Andy Kellman