Maurizio Schmitz drives his own bus, dividing his diary effortlessly between work and play and playing.
Half Italian, half German and his is a dizzying ongoing musical journey that flies economy and business all at the same time. Maurizio exploits these contrasts, wearing pinstripes or pyjamas or both – he jams.
We are talking about psychedelic house here. Socks off and sensual. It works on the big stage, it works in the club and it washes all over an after hour. This sound did not happen by accident.
In 1990 scrambling around some old Thorens decks in a club his mother worked in Maurizio was scooping up all the vinyl lost from the night before – the first Schmitz mixtapes (which actually were not mixed) saw the light of day at this time. Many were to follow and these valuable suckers live amongst 11,000 pieces of vinyl collected and stroked over the years.
When German techno was dynamite, changing the rules and ushering in a whole new world of electronic music Maurizio was not only there – he was smack in the middle of it.
Bonn, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich. From the infamous “Labor” club to a 10 years residency at ‘FrequenzBerater’ to Frankfurt and “U60311”. Many many more but maybe two things stand out and tell you more. Spaldingstreet 43 in Hamburg, the original flat sharing rave. Maurizio presided over 7 years of lovely madness. Today you could create a major art/music festival just from the people who crashed out on the sofas there. Then the tour de force. His very own Mauromusica night founded in Bonn 2004 in the beautiful “Rheingarten”. An octagon shaped glass pavilion. Promoter, resident DJ and mum on the door. Another 10 years.
No need to name names, somewhere in the above paragraph they all passed through. Perhaps one name, because here comes the other Maurizio Schmitz.
In a 1994 after hour set in Munich, “Pulvertum” it was called, the raver Maurizio noticed Sven Vath 2 metres high in a tree mid set. You don’t forget stuff like that.
Their paths were never going to stop crossing.
Event manager, promoter, booker and for some time now the right hand man and frequent support act for the immortal legendary magician Sven Vath. It is a relationship that is not stopping any time soon.
So, to summarise, Sicilan passion met German techno and spat out the Dj Maurizio Schmitz.