The Grasshopper Warbler

Many techno artists’ biographies start off by singing the praises of an extremely early, extraordinary talent on synthesizers and other electronic devices. In Heron’s case, things are a bit different. Martin Spittel aka Heron has been shaped musically since his early childhood; his influences are as diverse as you can possibly imagine (hint: it ranges from Trash Metal to Detroit Techno). Martin has an extraordinary passion for nature, wildlife and especially birds. This symbiosis from the love of nature and musical influences from his childhood are a direct reflection of Heron’s entire life and career. Following the scream of the waders (limicoline birds), he moved to picturesque island Norderney in Germany back in 2005. There, exploring the island’s national park, he decided to live up to his ever-growing enthusiasm for nature by studying landscape ecology at the University of Münster. It was this relocation to Münster that initially sparked his music career: the months in Norderney served as inspiration for his own label “Limikola” (founded in 2008), which now achieves enormous support from both DJs and fans all over the world. Producing his own music, running a successful label and club night, doing a radio show and DJ’ing, are all skills Heron has crafted to perfection over the years. This hard work started to pay off in early 2008 during the season’s opening at Time Warp when Richie Hawtin played all three tracks from his Retro EP. Heron’s journey continued with his bombshell track “Welcome to the Adventure Club” and pushed further forward with other big releases for Synewave, Supdub, Swap, micro.fon, Prosthetic Pressings and Hans Bouffmyhre’s Sleaze Records, to name a few. Besides all these projects, Heron felt the need to keep a focus on his old school roots more and more. With remixes for Damon Wild's Techno classic "Avion", Tim Grothe and Ziel 100 as well as with his release Rivière du Détroit on Kevin Saunderson’s KMS Records, Heron showed us where he truly comes from.