Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl

Mark Spoon has sadly died - RIP

Mark Spoon died RIP image German trance pioneer DJ Mark Spoon has sadly passed away at his Berlin home at the age of 41. Unconfirmed reports suggest a cardiac arrest or heart attack as the cause.

One half of dance music duo Jam & Spoon, he was born Markus Loffel (spoon in German) in Frankfurt, in 1969. His first career aptly was a cook, although by the late 80's DJ'ing was a much higher priority. He them teamed up with the classically trained guitarist turned producer Jam El Mar (aka Rolf Ellmer) in the early 90's.

Alongside his DJ/production career, Mark ran a club-night at Frankfurt venue XS and also worked as A&R Manager for Logic Records, both helping his keen sense of new music and what worked best on the nations dance-floors.

By 1992 they were developing their own distinct sound and style and people began to sit up and take notice. The same year they made the UK Charts with "Tales From A Danceographic Ocean EP", which included the highly acclaimed and widely played "Stella". The remix offers came flooding in and the Pet Shop Boys, Moby, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Simple Minds and the Stereo MCs all received the fresh underground touch.

Hitting the charts again two years later, the duo under their own names had successes with the classic "Right In The Night" and "Find Me" in '94. The same year they released their debut album "Tripomatic Fairytales 2001/2002" which saw a steady level of interest with their genre-scoping production. Mixmag readers also crowned them "Best Remixers of 1994" acknowledging all their recent hard works.

A further album to be released under the name of Tokyo Ghetto Pussy in 1996 was called "Disco 2001" received rave reviews, although they later switched back to the Jam & Spoon title. "Stella" was remixed in 1999 breathing a fresh lease of life into the track and bolting the boys back into the lime light.

Releasing quality tunage till the very end, just last year Jam & Spoon released "Tripomatic Fairytales 3003", I think we can expect to hear plenty of their tracks in the coming weeks on dedication shows around the globe. Friends have been quoted as saying "he'll always live on in our minds". An e-book of condolences has been opened and can be found here.