Romania

The beginnings, as they were in many parts of once socialist Europe, were rocky. Anyone in Romania who was bitten by the bug of techno or house in the mid-1990s had to record German TV shows with a microphone or take an 18-hour train ride to Budapest to buy a record. Magazines such as Germany's Groove were studied like bibles. Even today, most DJs still have to order their records from Germany or England. Yet many of them are stubbornly resisting digitalisation and remaining true to vinyl. In 2007, after British DJs had first created a standard currency with their voluminous, soft sound called progressive house, Groove editor-in-chief Heiko Hoffmann travelled to this freshly-anointed EU member-state and discovered a scene that identified above all with the term minimal. "That basically means everything that's not progressive house or drum’n’bass ", is how Catalin sums it up. As DJ and event promoter he is probably the most important person active on the scene in Bucharest, and does valuable work by maintaining contact with international DJs such as Sven Väth or Ricardo Villalobos. "Reader’s Digest" may call Bucharest Europe's most unfriendly city but its fresh and inquisitive techno scene tells a different story.

DJ Pedro

Ibiza is closer to Romania than London or Frankfurt, and in the summer, both move to the Balearic Islands, at least as far as techno is concerned. So Pedro alias Petre Inspirescu often spends his summers there. With a mixture of charm and chutzpah he has now managed to secure a residency at the DC10. Along with his DJ friends Rhadoo and Raresh, he founded the label (a:rpia:r). DJ Pedro

DJ Boola + Demos

The label with the picturesque phonetic name (a:rpia:r) has also released tracks by Boola and Demos, stalwarts of the second generation of the Romanian techno scene, who prefer not to dig any deep trenches between techno and house, as long as it sounds "minimal". They, too, earned their DJ spurs at parties on Ibiza, in the DC10 or as support acts for touring idols. An album by Boola is expected out on the British label Rekids next year.

DJ Praslea

Praslea began his love affair with techno and house four years ago at the early electronic parties in his home town of Sibiu. Nowadays, his sets mark the opening of guest appearances in Bucharest by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Ellen Allien or Matthew Dear and he himself has already played in Italy, Slovenia and Germany. He has also made other contributions to the industrious network of the Romanian scene, including setting up Audiomatic Net Radio, an online platform for DJ sets.

After-After-Party with: DJ Rhadoo www.myspace.com/rhadoomusic

DJ Petre Inspirescu www.de-bug.de/mag/5550.html www.arpiar.ro www.myspace.com/radukit

DJ Boola

Lineup: Heiko Hoffmann / Groove www.groove.de