31 Minuten is Menelaos Tomasides, an electronic musician born in Cyprus and now living in Cologne. Studying in Darmstadt, Germany in the early nineties, Menelaos got into contact with Jazz and early stages of Jazz-influenced electronic music, which left such a deep impression that, after returning to Cyprus, with his brother he launched the Café Bar 35n33e, named after the coordinates of Cyprus on the world’s map. Located in the center of the islands capital Nicosia, 35n33e was an event space that resonated far beyond the boundaries of the city or the country, hosting high-profile concerts and DJ-sets, ranging from Jazz , Fusion, world music up to Minimal-Techno. In the late nineties 35n33e became the first and sole homestead for European, and specifically German electronic music and club culture in Cyprus, seeing the first international sets of at that time soon-to-be-known DJ’s such as Tobi Neumann, DJ Koze or Tobias Thomas. Returning to Germany in 2004, this time settling down in Cologne, Menelaos studied sound engineering and built his own recording studio, focusing on electronic music production. In parallel, his groundwork with the Café Bar 35n33e beared its fruit in a way that the Cyprian ministry of culture and the Cyprian embassy in Berlin hired him as a cultural ambassador, representing Cyprus with his music or DJ’ing, e.g. at the Venice Biennale of Arts or at several festivals celebrating Cyprus’ membership in the European Union. . Menelaos has been working with musicians as different as Colognes prime Techno-DJ and producer Tobias Thomas as well as Jazz bass player Mathias Nowak. Interactions with non-musical arts and media are a substantial part of what the project 31 Minuten is, ranging from multimedia installations in galleries to DJ-sets. 31 Minuten as a project is providing a fully-fledged alternative and ultimately personal approach to electronic music on and off the dancefloor..................................................
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. 31 Minuten is ambient music that is about more than just providing a pleasant ambience, although this is what it achieves most easily. It is tender electronic music for listening and feeling, communicating as well as contemplating, emotive and calm without ever denying or excluding the possibility to dance to it.Text:Frank Eckert
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