Pole is the stage name of Stefan Betke (born 18 February 1967), 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 ...

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

artist commonly associated with the

glitch A glitch is a short-lived technical fault, such as a transient one that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among pl ...

genre as well as

dubtronica Dubtronica is electronic music influenced by dub music.Doherty, Greg (2003)Strange Bedfellows: Brits like Groove Corporation refile dub under electronica", ''Miami New Times'', 14 August 2003, retrieved 8 November 2009 Early examples from the ...

.Cooper, Sean
Pole Biography
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved 15 November 2013

History

Born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Pole took his name from a Waldorf 4-Pole filter, which he accidentally dropped and broke in 1996. Though the filter was perhaps no longer appropriate for DJ work in its damaged state, Betke found the strange hissing and popping noises the filter now made interesting sounds. He then began using the broken filter to create music, launching his musical career. Betke's first four albums, titled ''1'', ''2'', ''3'', and ''R'' (an intentional trilogy of albums, followed by a collection of remixes of Pole's 1998 debut EP Raum), were all based around this filter, with songs usually taking the form of dub basslines and rhythms with percussion provided by the eponymous filter. In 2003 Betke departed from this style for the album '' Pole'' (a combination of tracks from two EPs, "45/45" and "90/90"), which utilized more traditionally electronic but still eclectic production. Pole has been distributed on several different labels, including

Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City ap ...

and

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure (duo), Erasure, Einstürze ...

, and in 1999 Betke cofounded (with Barbara Preisinger) the label ~scape, also known for publishing

Jan Jelinek Jan Jelinek is a German electronic musician who also operates under the names Farben, Gramm and The Exposures. His music is usually categorized as minimal techno, glitch or microhouse, and is characterized by deep basslines, extensive use of sa ...

. On September 1, 2011, Betke founded a new artist label named Pole. Betke mastered

John Frusciante John Anthony Frusciante ( ; born March 5, 1970) is an American musician and the guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, having been with the band across three iterations. He has released 11 solo albums and 7 EPs, ranging in style from acoustic gu ...

's 2016 EP, ''Foregrow'', and oversaw the 2019 re-master of Alphaville's 1984 album '' Forever Young'' and the 2021 re-master of 1986 album ''

Afternoons in Utopia ''Afternoons in Utopia'' is the second album by German synth-pop band Alphaville, released in 1986 via Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986. A remastered and re-released version of the album, on both CD and v ...

'' and 1989 album ''

The Breathtaking Blue ''The Breathtaking Blue'' is the third album by German synth-pop band Alphaville, released in April 1989. A companion video, ''Songlines'', was released in September 1989. The CD release of this album was one of the first commercial CD+G format ...

'' alongside

Bernhard Lloyd Bernhard Lloyd (born Bernhard Gössling on 2 June 1960) is a former member and co-founder of the German synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 197 ...

Discography

Albums

* '' 1'' (1998) * '' 2'' (1999) * '' 3'' (2000) * ''R'' (2001) * '' Pole'' (2003) * ''

Steingarten ''Steingarten'' is a studio album by Pole. It was released by his own label, ~scape, in 2007. Critical reception At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average ...

'' (2007) * ''Wald'' (2015) * ''Fading'' (2020) * ''Tempus'' (2022)

Singles

* ''Waldgeschichten'' (2011) * ''Waldgeschichten 2'' (2011) * ''Waldgeschichten 3'' (2012)

References

External links

*
Pole site
at Matador Records
Pole biography
at ~scape Records * Pole discographyat All Media Guide
Pole interview
at The Milk Factory
''Real Detroit Weekly'' Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pole 1967 births Living people German ambient musicians Dubtronica musicians Intelligent dance musicians Mute Records artists Matador Records artists