Zollverein — From coal to culture

With “STONE TECHNO”, the Zollverein Foundation, the Ruhr Museum and The Third Room draw a forward-looking bridge between geological history, mining history and people from a wide range of backgrounds and interests. The project has been supported by the Friends of the Zollverein since 2021.

They regularly invite top-class international artists such as Colin Benders, Nene H, Oscar Mulero, Rødhåd, Jamaica Suk and Vril to create techno tracks that are based exclusively on the collected sounds of minerals and rocks from the Ruhr area.

The Zollverein coal washing plant and the Ruhr Museum display depot on the coking plant were transformed into a club in 2021. On August 20, 2021, Arte streamed the five-hour concert on Arte Concert “STONE TECHNO”.

With “Techno Within a very short time, the YouTube access numbers even exceeded the level of the streams of the Berlin label Ostgut Ton and its world-famous surroundings of the Berghain/Panorama Bar club. The WDR television program “Rockpalast” describes “Stone Techno X Zeche Zollverein” as an “audiovisual experience not only for lovers of this style of music in a version that is reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s film “Live at Pompeii” from 1972.”

Richie Hawtin, Ellen Allien, Oscar Mulero, Adiel, FJAAK, Kink, I Hate Models, Héctor Oaks, Lady Starlight 2022 is getting bigger: On July 9th and 10th, a multidisciplinary electronic music festival with well-known artists invites you to the World Heritage. As an event format that spans generations, the complex history of the Ruhr area is intended to be conveyed with resonance, to be respectfully acknowledged and, last but not least, to be told authentically. For the duration of the festival, the Zollverein World Heritage Site will be transformed into an interactive adventure park with sound installations. The Ruhr Museum with its permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as the New Central Schaudepot are prominent ambassadors for the location and festival.

Created during the first Corona wave, previously unused sound sources from the underground and above-ground world of the Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site were tapped and continually brought together in a sample library. The sample library created was made available to internationally renowned as well as up-and-coming local artists. Since then, new, future-oriented music has been created from raw materials that are millions of years old, from ambient and electronica to broken beat and techno. The Stone Techno project makes the ongoing transformation process of natural culture in the Ruhr metropolis audible, understandable and communicated across generations. The mining industry, museum and science meet contemporary electronic music culture. In this association they give the Ruhr area an authentic voice. Stone Techno therefore has the potential to significantly shape the future of the Ruhr area in a unique way and to write a piece of cultural history.