At first glance there’s little that unites Gerd Janson and Marcel Dettmann besides nationality. Yet look a little deeper, and the pair share more than just a few digits of postcode. 

Both have roots in the former Eastern Bloc - Janson’s parents emigrated from Romania to the outskirts of Frankfurt in the late 70s, while Dettmann was raised just outside of Berlin, in the former GDR - and both emerged in the early 2000s as part of a golden generation of German DJs and producers. As Dettmann was helping define a new generation of Berlin techno over at Berghain and Ostgut Ton, Janson was reinvigorating house music, setting up his now-iconic label Running Back while still at university.

Dettmann’s austere brand of techno combines the negative space of dub techno with the cold romance of 80s synth pop and goth rock: everything from Front 242 to Depeche Mode and The Cure. You can hear traces of those same artists in Janson’s deep cuts of Italo-flavoured house and disco and retro-tinged synth tracks: he even tapped Dettmann for the Running Back Mastermix series this year, a collection of personal edits of everything from synth-pop and early techno to industrial and EBM. 

Wherever they choose to go, all evidence points to this being one of the most intriguing sets at Sónar 2026.