Extrawelt

Living and breathing electronic music for what has now been twenty years, Extrawelt have carved out a bespoke corner in the vast spectrum of modern dance music. The German duo is simply undeniable – as essential projects with Sven Väth’s Cocoon & James Holden’s Border Community will attest.

For more than two decades, Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe have been shaping a singular vision of electronic music as EXTRAWELT. What began in Hamburg’s electronic underground has evolved into one of the most distinctive live acts in contemporary techno — a project defined not by trends, but by an uncompromising approach to sound, atmosphere and live performance.

Their journey began with a series of productions under different aliases before the EXTRAWELT project emerged in 2005. Their first release, Soopertrack, appeared on James Holden’s influential Border Community label and immediately established the duo as artists capable of moving beyond conventional genre boundaries. It was the beginning of a career built around adventurous production, detailed sound design and an unmistakable musical identity.

Albums such as Schöne Neue Extrawelt, In Aufruhr, Fear of an Extra Planet, Unknown and, most recently, DYSTORTION have continued to expand the EXTRAWELT universe. Along the way, the duo has released on and collaborated with some of the most respected labels in electronic music, including Cocoon Recordings, Border Community, Kompakt, Traum Schallplatten, Turbo Recordings and Watergate.

At the heart of EXTRAWELT, however, has always been the live experience.

Rather than simply reproducing their studio productions on stage, Schaffhausen and Raabe approach every performance as a living system. Their hardware-based setup allows them to manipulate, reshape and rebuild their music in real time, creating performances that can move from hypnotic and deeply atmospheric passages to powerful, complex and unexpected moments on the dancefloor.

That philosophy has taken EXTRAWELT to clubs and festivals around the world and earned them a reputation as one of electronic music’s most compelling live acts.

The duo continues to evolve without losing sight of what has made EXTRAWELT so distinctive. Following the release of their 2025 album DYSTORTION on Cocoon Recordings, 2026 has brought a new wave of music, including the ¡NO PASARÁN! EP on Cocoon Recordings, Bettermaker on Traum Schallplatten and Jamborghini on Turbo Recordings. Their latest material continues to explore the space between techno, electronica and experimental electronic music, while retaining the distinctive depth, tension and analogue energy that runs through their work. Their next EP, Cover Blown, is scheduled for release on Kompakt in October 2026.

More than twenty years into their journey, EXTRAWELT remain committed to the same principle that has defined them from the beginning: to explore what electronic music can become when experimentation, spontaneity and musical intuition are given room to lead.

Their sound continues to look forward — while carrying with it the depth, character and spirit of techno’s past.