Ewan Pearson drops new Kompakt compilation

WHERE EWAN PEARSON GOES, other people follow. From ushering in the era of electro house in the mid noughties, via stunning remixes of Freeform Five and Seelenluft, to relocating to Berlin six years ahead of today’s fl ocking crowds of hip young producers, he’s consistently led the fi eld. Yet he’s still somehow found time to produce albums such as Delphic’s universally fêted debut.

All of which makes the release of ‘We Are Proud Of Our Choices’ (out on 1st March on Kompakt), his fi rst compilation in almost three years, a hotly anticipated release. A masterclass in key mixing, a development discovered after his adoption of CDJs, it layers waves of slow, harmonic house on an undulating journey with more peaks and troughs than a 24- hour session in Panorama Bar.

“When you fi nd two records that fi t together to create a third, it’s like magic,” says Pearson when we catch up on the phone. “Two sets of people working independently, but somehow it just fi ts.

“Kompakt never went boring and minimal so I’ve always felt a natural affinity to them,” he adds. “It’s a sensibility that their records have, they’re not afraid to go down poppier or trancey angles.”

With highlights including Yukihiro Fukotomi and Foog’s sublime ‘Open Our Eyes’ and Hot Natured’s deep-down and dirty ‘Equilibrium’, the mix eschews obvious tracks for favourites squirreled away over the last year.

“You can choose to do a very effi cient mix of big records, which I’m not afraid to do - Gregor Thresher was a big tune, I’m not an obscurest,” says Ewan, “but at the same time I want people to listen and hear things they haven’t heard before.”

In this spirit, the mix concludes with songs from Little Dragon and Bot’Ox, slowing the pace down to a glorious Balearic crawl. “People never used to mix out of the person before them. There was a sense of a start and a beginning. You’d always play a slower track at the end so that’s my resolutely, slightly oldfashioned idea,” Pearson laughs. He might draw from the past, but this is the sound of the future.