Cédric Dekowski and Felix Reifenberg form Cedric & Felix, the DJ-production duo based in Frankfurt, Germany. Formed in 2012 with “Nibor,” a contribution to a limited edition 12″ on Samba Utopia, the collaboration has since spawned an album, 2017’s L’Albüm; a handful of 12″s on labels like Pressure Traxx, Raum…musik, and HardWorkSoftDrink; and a live set, which recently toured across the United States and holds a residency at Offenbach’s legendary Robert Johnson club. The duo, friends since childhood and former flatmates, are also both enjoying success as solo artists, holding regular acquaintance with the aforementioned labels.

Outside of making and performing music, Dekowski and Reifenberg also release it via their label, Hardworksoftdrink, a side-project alongside Frankfurt locals Max Vaahs and Thilo Dietrich. Launched in 2013 with an EP from Muanda, the label now positions itself at the epicenter of a vibrant Frankfurt scene; besides the label heads themselves, many of the local artists, including Roman Flügel and Oskar Offermann, have put out music there. They work on a range of cross-discipline projects including music production, clothes design, and events.

The Cedric & Felix sound is the sort of wonky after-hours minimal you associate with Frankfurt, spearheaded by Perlon and continued by Bodin & Jacob, Traffic Records, and the HardWorkSoftDrink label. As you’d expect, their XLR8R podcast, a live set recorded at Robert Johnson in December 2018, is full of unreleased gems and improvised edits, and it’s sure to make you dance. “Let’s say it this way, there’s no segment in the recording we don’t like,” Dekowski and Reifenberg explain.

What have you been up to recently?

We just came back from a really nice tour through the United States. One of our favorite shows on this tour was surely the afterparty of the Movement Festival that was organized by Resolute NY which is also our American agency. At the studio in Offenbach, we’ve been constantly changing and adjusting our music setup to find new ways of producing.

The latest vinyl we dropped was a solo EP by Cedric on Frankfurt’s Pressure Traxx records called Ihou 3 Ep. Big hugs go out to Arno and Frank Frost. Also, the Emacfrench EP is now out on the Parisian label Partou. An equal amount of hugs go out to Teo. At the same time, a new project from Cedric & Thilo Dietrich as Danny Pocket and Mr. No had its first release with a double EP on our own imprint, Hardworksoftdrink, called Danny Pocket and Mr. Noh—Mix. Vol. 1.

How did you find your way into music?

I think we became interested in electronic music when the easy-going big brother of Felix showed us some of his underground drum & bass collection 15 years ago. This was the musical ignition for us. Since then, we’ve been moving like a rocket through the space and the genres.

Where was this particular mix recorded?

It’s a cut from our live set at the Hardworksoftdrink Christmas Party we do every year two days after Christmas at our home club, Robert Johnson. It’s a party for our friends and family where the atmosphere is always something really special and the girls and boys are going wild.

How did you choose the tracks that you included?

We prepared the set in the studio and picked some super old tracks we wanted to choose from a project which is also ten years old; its really mixed up, which was important for us as there’s also a lot of improvisation and tracks we didn’t plan and prepare before.

Where do you envisage it being listened to?

In da club like 50 Cent.

What’s next on the horizon, looking forward?

Next weekend we’re gonna play a live gig at club Modeci in Seoul, Korea. We will see our old wooden friend Thilo Dietrich from Hardworksoftdrink. He is living there at the moment, studying the Korean culture and having a good time with his beautiful girlfriend. What we are also really looking forward to is our next Hardworksoftdrink party at Robert Johnson on September 27. We’re gonna do a little party with Nicolas Lutz and DJ Assault. This will be a banger, for sure. Cedrics solo EP on Traffic Records will be released in December and then there is Christmas again and we can show our new live set to the people!

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.