Cologne Is For Lovers mit Tama Sumo

“Music is pure communication – stay in contact and follow your heart!”

Heart, emotion and passion instead of pure functionality – these are Tama Sumo's DJ characteristics in a nutshell. She started out in 1993 at Drama bar in Berlin / Kreuzberg, one of the first bars to ever feature its own DJ at the weekend and an important hang out for the scene before going to the clubs.

Drama was one of the few venues at the time, playing house music, when techno was dominating most of the other clubs and bars. Tama Sumo used to play a lot of New York style vocal house and quickly became a regular DJ behind the decks at the gay Saturdays at Café Moskau. In the beginning of 1994 she started playing regularly at the legendary Club Globus/Tresor and became a resident DJ for about 10 years at the club. She began to integrate different electronic music genres into her house sets, a mixture, she constantly improved on over the years & which still plays a significant role in her current sets.

Since 2001 Tama Sumo also played regularly at the Dance With The Aliens party at the old OstGut, Berghain's predecessor club, which eventually opened the door to a residency at the new Panorama Bar & Berghain shortly after the club opened. She developed a varied style ranging from House, Disco, Techno, a smidgen of Detroit Electro and Pop. “Music for me is something very subjective and I always attempt to approach it with my intuition & heart,” Tama Sumo comments.

“To be a DJ for me means to be in touch with the audience without words and to interact with the crowd and give them what they need whilst staying true to myself at the same time. It’s also fundamental to my work that I succeed at letting the music, the crowd and myself run freely. I have to turn off my head and go with the flow. I love to create and play with different moods and atmospheres. And I’m still fascinated by the fact that music can release a huge amount of energy and fun.”

At the beginning of 2008, she has released her first record. Both tracks, “Play Up” and “Brothers, Sisters”, have been produced in collaboration with Prosumer & the record made the DJ Top 50 of German GROOVEMagazine. Tama Sumo also compiled and mixed the second Panorama Bar mix cd, released on Ostgut Ton in October 2009. Another release by Prosumer & Tama Sumo, “Alien Mutts”, was published end of 2009 on Diamonds & Pearls. She has since gone on to remix “William” by Mount Kimbie in 2010 alongside Prosumer. The same year both released their 2nd EP – Rarified – on Ostgut Ton. In 2012 she remixed South Sudanese singer & activist Mary Boyoi's “Zooz” (Süd Electronic) and together with Lakuti & The Neighbourhood Character she formed Tarantism and remixed the Knife's “Ready To Lose” (Rabid Records, 2014).

Not satisfied with remaining static as a DJ, Tama Sumo’s sets have developed to cover House, Techno, Jazz, Disco, Broken Beat, Soul, Funk, Afro Beat.