Royal Sapien is New York City-based producer and DJ, Ben Mautner.

Originally hailing from Cincinnati, Ben quickly embraced the midwest rave community and began DJing at age 12. By 14, he was spinning at parties and organizing events of his own at venues around the city. In 1998 he founded the Olaris Network, an internet radio station featuring a three-hour live Friday night show that garnered listeners on five continents and featured guest DJs such as Markus Schulz and Andy Hughes. The success of the Olaris Network led to playing at many clubs around the city and a club night of its own in Ben's new home of Savannah, GA.

While attending the Savannah College of Art and Design for his Graphic Design degree, Ben met DJs Josh Barrett and Terry Thurston, who booked Ben to spin as DJ Elroy at almost every reputable club in Savannah and Hilton Head, allowing him to play alongside DJ Icey, Baby Anne, and DJB. Being in Savannah also led to meeting Olaris Records co-founder Ryan Crane, who frequented the only good record store for miles every Tuesday waiting for new releases with every other DJ in the city. The guys got to talking, started spinning together, and established Olaris Records as a home for their music.

The Royal Sapien nom de musique came about in 2002 when Ben started focusing intently on producing. Making tunes specifically for his own DJ sets, the earliest club-friendly songs were straight-out bootlegs, layering classics like CeCe Penniston's "Finally" over Olav Basoski's "Opium Scumbagz," and Tori Amos's "Caught A Light Sneeze" over Hybrid's remix of BT's "Godspeed." One such mashup, Kosheen's "Catch" over Ferry Corsten's "Punk" was actually picked up by a label and released as a very limited edition record, selling out almost instantly. Another bootleg breaks remix of Iio's Rapture caught the attention of a Florida-based label who also issued a very limited edition bootleg that reached #1 on Satellite Records' breaks chart.

Eventually Royal Sapien moved on to more high profile remixes for the likes of Oxyd Records in Italy. The remixes of Salt Pervert's "5am Soho" reached #1 on the DMC Buzz Chart. Now, five albums and over three hundred productions later, he is planning dozens more releases on Olaris Records and a new studio album. Royal Sapien is also on Fade Records in New York, recently releasing special edition remixes for Funk Harmony Park's "My Truth," which have been lauded around the globe as "an emotion-laden chunk of beauty" and "stunning." The Back Room mix was the most requested song of the week for three weeks in a row on Santa Monica's mega-station KCRW. Royal Sapien mixed the new Fade Records compilation Audio Tour 2 with Chris Fortier, a retrospective of Fade and sister label FDS, released to critical acclaim in May 2007 and garnering five dancing men from DMC Update. As of 2007, Royal Sapien productions are being played around the world by Chris Fortier, Jimmy Van M, Hybrid, Hernan Cattaneo, Jondi and Spesh, D:Fuse, Chloe, and dozens of other top-flight DJs.

At the moment Ben is planning DJ dates around the world to spread his unique fusion of all beats electronic. He has been featured on John Digweed's Transitions on Kiss100, the Transitions Podcast, XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Proton Radio, Frisky Radio, the Balance Record Pool Show, Global Scum, and many other broadcasts. He hosts Decibels, presented by Olaris Records, a monthly three-hour radio format show on Proton Radio, in addition to his monthly show Movement on Frisky Radio that explores progressively eclectic sounds. The free Royal Sapien Podcast can be found in the iTunes Music Store.

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Royal Sapien on Last.fm

Francois K, Vitalic or Dave Clarke might not be the first three names to come to mind when you mention the DJ Chris Fortier. However, these are the last three records that close his recent 3 hr set at The Loft in Barcelona.

While many people may claim to know Chris’ sound, with their focus on continually labeling him one thing or another, Chris is equally as focused on his efforts to push back the musical boundaries. It is testament to the man, that he continues to develop his sound and musical direction, after all, as the man says himself “I just like to play good underground music, full stop.”

It is artists such as Chris Fortier who are inextricably linked to the underground dance music scene that are the genuinely pushing the sound forward. Chris’ determination to continue to push the envelope can be seen in all aspects of his career. Proof of this can be found on his recent triple CD compilation Balance and his recent solo production under the 40oz moniker.

The Balance CD genuinely offers something exciting and underground to the current stale compilation market. Boasting tracks from across the musical spectrum like David Gilmore Girls, Global Communication and Floppy Sounds through to Slam, Matthew Jonson, Rabbit in the Moon and Bent. It is little wonder the CD was name checked for compilation of the year by numerous international press publications.

Under his 40 oz production guise, Chris has released the Downlow’d EP, a 4 tracker that musically could fit comfortably on labels such as Cocoon, Kompakt or ELP. Further remixes of Alexi Delano, Chris Udoh and Freaky Chakra show Chris’ genre defying sound at it’s underground best.

With a DJ career spanning 15 plus years, he has continually been a crowd favourite, confirmed by his very first residency at the legendary “Aahz” in Orlando through to more recent residencies at The Cross in London and at Twilo in New York. Since a debut European tour in 1997, Chris has gone on to consistently tour the globe behind numerous singles, remixes and no less than 7 mix albums. You can catch him as easily in Tokyo as in Buenos Aires and all points in between on any given weekend.

As the producer, he has released over 40 original productions and remixed countless more. Most notably in 1998, scoring an international dance hit with his original reworking of Delerium’s “Silence.” His remix discography reads like a who’s who of dance music at any one time, while his Fade label continues to be regarded as one of the most respected and consistent dance labels in the US. To those that know Fortier’s history, they know to expect plenty more to come, for those that are just getting initiated, Welcome!

Chris Fortier Official Website
Chris Fortier MySpace
Fade Records

Ryan Crane was introduced to the dance music community in 1996 when he started to attend local and regional parties in and around Virginia. Traveling to events exposed him to many varied genres of dance music, which would help him begin to sculpt his own sound behind the turntables.

With the help of many good friends who mentored Ryan early on, he began fusing sounds from breaks to house music and drawing on the vibes of the nearby party capitols.

Four years later saw a move for Ryan to Savannah, GA where he would begin studying Sequential Art. In the process he was able to pursue DJing more actively than in Virginia, there were new opportunities to spin at venues around the city, and this gave Ryan chances to meet other producers and DJs involved in the scene locally and internationally. While in Savannah Ryan began to ease into the production chair with smaller projects and remixes which began to shape and sculpt his sound. It was Savannah where Ryan met Ben Mautner aka Royal Sapien. By DJing around the city at clubs and parties and frequenting the same record store the two began a friendship that would lead to the creation of Olaris Records as a home for their music.

2003 saw Ryan’s production arrive at a new level getting plays in clubs and a feature on Royal Sapien's LP Higher Standards. Original productions signed to Mining Vinyl and EDM Digital soon followed along with support from DJs such as Stroud, Smight, DJB, and Royal Sapien himself. Two years later saw the first release from the Olaris Label, a track entitled "Melted" by Royal Sapien accompanied by a remix from Ryan, saw heavy support from some of the world’s finest DJs, charting #7 in the prestigious Balance Record Pool. Several more releases followed all gaining similar support from the likes of J-Punch, Deviant, Jevne Miller, Cary Chang, Chloe Harris, Sean Carnahan, Spesh, Jay Epoch and many others.

Recently Ryan has continued with his DJing schedule and has begun adding a monthly set to the new show Decibels which will air on Proton Radio, hosted by Royal Sapien beginning in April of 2006. You can expect his sets to be packed full of fresh new material along with exclusive tracks from the Olaris Records camp. With new material lined up for summer 2006 as well as several remixes in the works be on the lookout for Ryan Crane.

Ryan Crane Official Website
Ryan Crane MySpace

Funk Harmony Park were formed in 2001. The band began experimenting with hip-hop and trip-hop ideas. After their apperance at Iceland Airwaves 2002 they got a lot of attention as a trip-hop band with a bright future. This first live performance was selected by the National Radio2 to be distributed to 29 European countries.

At the start of 2003, Mr.Minute joined the ranks of the band and the quartet was complete. With Mr.Minutes arrival, the style changed and Funk Harmony Park began moving more towards “club” music. October 2003 saw the release of their debut " Essence" (EP) eventually being voted the 2nd best Icelandic album of the year from the highly respected Party Zone Radio Show. In 2005 Funk Harmony Park released “ My Truth” on Fade Records, a double 12” that got noticed by the whole EDM community,getting support by DJ´s like Chris Fortier,Steve Porter,Hernan Cattaneo & others. “My Truth” was the band´s debut outside Iceland, and got signed to various compilations like Balance 007 by Chris Fortier. “My Truth” charted number 1 on KCRW's most requested songs for August 22, 2005 and stayed there for three weeks, it also charted number 2 on the Balance chart.

Later in 2005 Funk Harmony Park released “Planet P” on FDS Recordings. “Planet P” appeared on Max Grahams Mixmag compilation as well as Steve Porter´s Porterhouse. Like “My Truth”, “Planet P” got support from many of the worlds biggest names in the DJ world. “Planet P” also reached the 2nd place on the Balance chart. In december 2005 half American/half Icelandic Dj with 15 years experience Leon S Kemp joined the band. In 2006 Funk Harmony Park released “The Winner” on Sumplus Records. “The Winner” got to the 1st place on Juno and is currently the most popular song on Beatport. Funk Harmony Park´s 1st release on Arctic Wave Records, “Crystal Sky” will feature remix from Hernan Cattaneo and John Tonks.

Funk Harmony Park Official Website
Funk Harmony Park MySpace
Arctic Wave Records

Opencloud is your worst third grade science experiment gone wrong. The experiment consists of Dr. Corey Spengler and Professor Blake Potter. The Doctor and Professor began performing top secret experiments on unsuspecting patrons of their establishment. One by one, they began brainwashing the bewildered lab rats with the most intoxicating of floor shaking bass. As their experiments grew from minute injections of fever pitch basslines, to an intrevenous drip of ass slapping funk, they realized they had what most people would call a "prescription for funk" so as they went into the world with their new found vision of total dancefloor abandon, they made followers of their medicine for life.

Which brings us to the present.

This is Opencloud.

Opencloud Official Website
Opencloud MySpace