I am a Berlin born and based multitasking, multifaceted human being which loves music, dancing, writing, exploring, connecting…
As a DJ I am mixing mainly vinyls of breakcore, hardcore, fast and noisy stuff, sometimes melodic, sometimes not at all electronic, since 2006. In the past I played as traum_A at our own x-tractor parties in support of Bogotrax, at collaboration parties with Kaometry, at Praxis, Helldrop/Subland, Bogotrax in Bogotá and via streaming, Femme Fatale at Stubnitz in London, as Zero, a video-audio performance project with Fokoff, in Rome. I took a long break of publicly playing in which I focused more on family and my passion for language(s) doing a Phd in linguistics and engaging in language and text related projects such as Transvermation and Rave. Just recently I got back to the turntables at New Year’s day’s A_Sound party at Yaam and at Back to Basics at Radio Berlin in Bogotá. Here I am again! Transforming from traum_A to rhizome. Still not not on social media though…
This vinyl set was recorded at Back to Basics 8.0 at Radio Berlin in Bogotá in January 2026. It was a wonderful start of an amazing journey full of (re-)connection:
This set I played during a Bogotrax live streaming action in 2013:
Visuals by fokoff
The beginning of a journey and lasting connections – a short history of x-tractor from my perspective
This journey began in 2004 at my first Teknival. Here is why it blew my mind: capitalist rules were suspended. Active participation was key, come prepared, contribute to create, find your place in a community where value is measured differently: not on (monetary) profit, but on sharing, sharing what you can do best or feel like: find a good spot, find the way (to the destination – without digital assistance), driving, take care of others, making bar, making food, dancing, producing and playing music, mixing music, setting up the soundsystem, repairing, welding, decorating, being an amazing person…. without hierarchies – at least I felt none at the time.
[Something I experienced already before in Berlin in the context of the squatter scene. The difference for me – also because I came to these spaces after the actual squatting processes – creating a space, a temporary autonomous zone (TAZ), from the scratch where the urban backup is non-existent and the whole creation process is other – in terms of intention, being away from and freeing oneself of the ever-lasting struggles of people’s everyday lives in capitalist society. A space where everybody can concentrate on its creative essentials – or start exploring them. I mean, even if there have been and still exist islands of anti-capitalist forms of living and creating together, a community which contributes essentially to the survival of a broader community with anti-capitalist ideals, in urban centres, individualistic goals are more central then in a consciously declared and temporal TAZ.]
In this environment, of my first Teknival ever, I met three of the (by then) organisers of Bogotrax at an Easttek (Teknival in Eastern Germany) and met them in Berlin again where they lived at the time. This same summer I decided to start living in a van (instead of hopping from one flat, from one room, one project to the other) being able to move with my home where I want to. Being able to be independent and share – on the move and in Berlin (THANX to Wagenplatz)! You wheel survive!
So, these amazing persons invited me to participate in the Parisian Techno Parade together with the 2004 (first edition) Bogotrax invites/crew in preparation for the upcoming year, the second edition of Bogotrax Plantas Carnivoras. Btw I might be a plant, but not a carnivore one. I went to Paris, first travel with my new home (with Fulanatrax, Fokoff, their then 3 year old son, and the Tunk), my truck got painted by Kapnist and xxx with, in line with the topic, plantas carnivoras, and I drove it during the parade. It served as chill out for the crew and just looked amazing. You can see its shadows at the Bogotrax poster of 2005.
[—Bogotrax Poster 2005— picture of camion]
Back in Berlin, I designed my version of a robotic planta carnivora and prepared a screen for printing. In February 2005 I went to Colombia for the Bogotrax festival with the screen in my backpack. Bogotá, La Candelaria, La Isla. Meeting point and home for most of us coming from abroad for this occasion (by then). I felt directly kind of home despite the fact of having been for the first time in Latin America, in Colombia, a country known to me foremost as a zone of violent conflicts over the ‘war on drugs’. [elaborate here a bit on the political situation at the time]. At the second day of my stay, I met the local screen-printing crew in Piso 3 (self-organised place in Bogotá from xx to xx), Fundamental. Part of them Davila who later moved to and still lives in Berlin.
Back in Berlin, we kept and amplified connections.
In February 2006, I went again, KalmaT went too. X-tractor connection started to be complete. All four of us, Fokoff, KalmaT, Davila, and TraumA, being connected to Bogotrax, but living in Berlin (by then), we started to do soli events, parties, charlas sobre la situación de conflicto en Colombia, a fanzine. I started to buy and play records. Breakcore, digital hardcore, noisy stuff… I started to play at our self-organised x-tractor parties in support of Bogotrax and supported by self-organised spaces in Berlin that survived until today thanks to the people who keep resisting a capitalist logic. I have many lives. I took a long break. Every part merit its time. Now it’s time for syncretism. Time for transition from: TraumA – traumatized by society and the dream (German: Traum) of Anarchy – to rhizome (decentralised roots and surface appearances, explained below)
Things evolve…. We evolve as individuals and as a collective…. This is true for X-tractor, but also for Bogotrax.
It’s been more than 20 years that we know each other and the bonds are not broken. I am extremely grateful. Grow here, grow there: rhizome – rooted in many places, surging in many places, speaking many languages, not always consisting of words. We are a decentralised network, tejiendo redes. Des fois on perd le fil mais on le retrouve après. Des fois sans mots et beaucoup d’expressions, des fois avec beaucoup de mots et beaucoup d’expressions. Ich bin nur ICH durch das WIR und trotzdem allein. We need to do better: community, communication, confrontation, solidarity!!! Work in progress…
