Living legend of Techno music, the American DJ and record producer Carl Craig has tried, throughout his career, to renew the definition of the genre of which he is an absolute pioneer, making himself known as a tireless experimentator and establishing himself as one of the most important points of reference in today's musical culture. Versus Synthesizer Ensemble is his latest project created in close collaboration with the talented Luxembourgish pianist Francesco Tristano and born from a very first performance in 2008 at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, where - with the title Versus - he was greeted by five standing ovations. After almost ten years of experimentation and reworking, this collaboration, born with the ambitious intention of translating the most famous tracks composed by Craig himself into symphonic and orchestral language, comes back to life through an album (released in May by the French label Infinè) and a new tour. Only keyboards and synthesizers, this time, are tools with which to play and create a live show in which five musicians (including Tristano himself on the piano) get to work for a new unpredictable transcoding process.

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New school Detroit techno mainstay "Mad" Mike Banks has been an indelible force in the Motor City underground for nearly a decade. As a founding member of Underground Resistance, he's contributed to the '90s renaissance of Detroit techno that has rebui..

Forming UR in the late '80s as an uncompromisingly independent outlet for music imbued with a critical, at times oppositional edge, Banks, together with partners Jeff Mills and Robert Hood (both of whom, together with Banks, defined the early UR catalog), built UR into an internationally recognized and respected name. Although Mills and Hood left UR in 1992 to pursue DJ and production opportunities elsewhere, while Banks has stuck it out with UR, rebuilding the roster with artists such as Drexciya  and James Pennington and continuing to record solo under the UR name.Musically, Banks' roots lie in the early Detroit techno and Chicago house of the mid-'80s, particularly artists such as Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Marshall Jefferson, as well as the experimental synth-pop of Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, and Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Banks was a part of the vocal house / garage crew Members Of The House, and produced a series of 12" with the group before defecting in the late '80s to form UR with Mills (who he met through the latter's radio show) and Hood. Through that connection, Banks' music took on shades of acid and industrial, with a harder, more driving feel. More recently, Banks' style has gotten darker and more syncopated, with some releases recalling the early electro of Cybotron  and Channel One tracks like "Clear" and "Technicolor".