Torsten Fenslau (23 April 1964 — 6 November 1993) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

disc jockey and music producer, and can be characterized as an important pioneer in the early Sound of Frankfurt.

Career

From 1982 to 1993, Fenslau served as a DJ at the nightclub

Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly M ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany. He hosted two radio shows on

Hessischer Rundfunk (; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...

in Frankfurt until his death."Echoes Honor Torsten Fenslau" - Billboard: 26 March 1994, p. 60
Google Books In 1988, he released his first production, "The Dream", through the group, ''Out of the Ordinary'', which included snippets from the "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a Public speaking, public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, Kin ...

speech given by

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

He founded his own label, Abfahrt Records, through which he released titles as ''Culture Beat'', ''Die Schwarze Zone'' , Force Legato - System and ''Heute ist ein guter Tag zu sterben''. His greatest commercial success was founding the group

Culture Beat Culture Beat is a German Eurodance project formed in 1989 by Torsten Fenslau. The act has gone through a number of lineup changes over the years; they achieved the most success whilst fronted by singer Tania Evans and rapper Jay Supreme. Their 1 ...

in 1989. Their 1993 song " Mr. Vain" topped the charts for several weeks in many European countries and found international success.

Death

On 6 November 1993, Fenslau was driving near

Messel Messel is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. The village is first mentioned, as ''Masilla'', in the Lorsch codex. Messel was the property of the lords of Groschlag from ca. 1400 to 1799 ...

, Germany, when he skidded off the road and was ejected from his car. He died from internal injuries at the hospital. Coincidently, the day Fenslau died was the day that Culture Beat's second single "Got to Get it" entered the UK Singles Chart (at #7).

References

External links

Sony Discography Culture Beat
1964 births 1993 deaths German record producers Road incident deaths in Germany {{record-producer-stub