Terre Thaemlitz

Terre Thaemlitz © Comatonse Recordings

Terre Thaemlitz (* Minnesota, USA) is a Tokyo based award-winning multimedia producer, writer, speaker, lecturer, audio remixer, DJ and owner of the record label Comatonse Recordings. Her work combines a critical examination of identity politics, including gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race, with an ongoing analysis of the socio-economics of commercial media production.

Terre Thaemlitz, also known as DJ Sprinkles, holds an extremely unique position in this world, even among the most forward-thinking art/music producers. Her determined, deep engagement in criticality makes him not an easy subject to write about, as she relentlessly forces the mediator to question every preconception and assumption. “I’m quite anti-performative, and consider myself more of a cultural critic. I don’t consider myself an artist or musician.”

Nonetheless, Thaemlitz is most widely known as a recording and performing artist whose earlier works appeared on the German electronic music label Mille Plateaux, and more recently on Tokyo’s Mule Musiq and the Parisian label Skylax Records, while his own imprint Comatonse Recordings has always been the main platform for her writings and less conventional projects. Most recent additions to his discography include the 76-track full-length Comp x Comp (2019), and a multimedia album that consists of audio, video and text, Deproduction (2017).  

Thaemlitz has become increasingly popular in international club and festival circles in recent years, especially after the release of his widely acclaimed 2008 album “Midtown 120 Blues”, followed by an “RA Podcast mix”. She has released over 15 solo albums, including “Love For Sale” and “Oh, No! It’s Rubato” on Mille Plateaux, “Soulnessless” and “Deproduction” on his own label Comatonse, as well as numerous 12” singles and video works. Her articles on music and culture have been published internationally in a number of books, academic journals and magazines.

As a speaker and lecturer on issues of non-essentialist transgenderism and queerness, Terre Thaemlitz has given talks and participated in panel discussions throughout Europe and Japan.

Terre was previously invited to the first Monheim Triennale as a “Signature Artist”, but was unable to attend due to the COVID pandemic and its associated travel restrictions.

Terre Thaemlitz:
We’ve entered a world where it’s increasingly less about left versus right, and more about top versus bottom. That also echoes power dynamics of sexuality and gender. That’s the world we’re in. And we need to start confronting it, we need to stop thinking about good shit, and start allowing ourselves to feel urgency around the violence and destruction going on around us. Violence that is being facilitated at every turn. Instead of putting hope in any of this shit, we need to really get away from hope and be like, “Holy fuck!” Take off the rose colored glasses. It’s okay to panic.
From: Monheim Papers