Klangkuenstler: Real Name, Schranz, Outworld and the WHP Date

Klangkuenstler's real name is Michael Korb. He was born on 18 June 1990 in Füssen, a small town in the Bavarian Alps, trained as a hotel manager in Munich, moved to Berlin in the summer of 2012 after one show at Ritter Butzke, and spent his twenties as a deep and tech house producer before turning, around 2018, into the DJ who put schranz back in Europe's biggest rooms. He runs three labels, Zuckerton, Outworld and, with Kobosil, Tote Sonne, and on Saturday 14 November 2026 he headlines The Warehouse Project in Manchester, presented by WHP and Teletech, with no support acts announced yet. This is the profile: the name, the Bavarian start, the Berlin pivot, what schranz actually is, and why the fastest techno in the country has a Manchester date.

Klangkuenstler at a glance

• Real name: Michael Korb. The alias is German for "sound artist", written without the umlaut.
• Born: 18 June 1990, Füssen, Bavaria. Age 36 in 2026.
• Based: Berlin, since summer 2012.
• Labels: Zuckerton Records (2011), Outworld (2019), and Tote Sonne (2023), the label, artist agency and fashion line he runs with Kobosil.
• Records: the album Das bin ich (2013), from the house years; Die Welt Brennt (2023), Toter Schmetterling with Sant (2024) and Sonne Geht Auf (2025), all on Outworld, from the techno years.
• The sound: schranz, the hard, rolling, distorted techno of late-90s Frankfurt, revived at 150 BPM and up.
• Next UK date: WHP and Teletech present Klangkuenstler, Depot Mayfield, Manchester, Saturday 14 November 2026, 21:00 to 04:00. WHP's event page lists Klangkuenstler alone, with support still to be announced. On sale.

What is Klangkuenstler's real name, and where is he from?

Michael Korb grew up in Füssen, the last town before the Austrian border in the Allgäu, closer to the Alps than to any nightclub, and the route out was not music but hospitality: an apprenticeship as a hotel manager in Munich, which is where, at 18, he started making electronic music seriously. The Klangkuenstler name came from that period, a plain German compound meaning sound artist, and it fitted the music he made then, which was deep and tech house rather than anything you would call hard. A first notable booking at Ritter Butzke, the Berlin club in a former factory in Kreuzberg, was the moment the city won: he moved there in the summer of 2012 and has been a Berlin artist since. Zuckerton, his first label, had already launched in 2011, and the debut album Das bin ich, in 2013, is the record of the house years.

The pivot: from tech house to schranz

Around 2018 the music changed completely. Korb stopped making house and started making techno, and not the Berlin minimal kind: the harder, faster, more distorted kind that a generation of producers in the city were pulling back out of the 1990s. Outworld, founded in 2019, is the label of that second career, and the records on it, Die Welt Brennt in 2023, Toter Schmetterling with the vocalist Sant in 2024, Sonne Geht Auf in 2025, are schranz with melodies, German titles and a sense of drama that the original Frankfurt style never bothered with. In 2023 he and Kobosil, the Berghain resident who had made the same journey from techno purism to full-tilt hardness, founded Tote Sonne, a label, an artist agency and a clothing line in one, which tells you the ambition: not a DJ with a label but a scene with a brand.

What schranz is

Schranz is the hard techno of late-90s Frankfurt: a loop-based, heavily distorted, rolling style built on layered percussion and a kick that never stops, played at 150 BPM and beyond, with none of the breakdowns or melodies of trance and none of the space of Detroit. It fell out of fashion in the 2000s as minimal took over, and it came back in the 2020s because a new crowd, younger and faster and often arriving from hardstyle, donk and drum and bass rather than from house, wanted exactly what it offered: relentlessness. Klangkuenstler is the name most associated with the revival, and the reason a room like Depot Mayfield can be sold on the word. For where schranz sits against the rest of the tempo map, from garage at 130 to drum and bass at 174, the UK garage BPM guide has the table; for the Scottish end of the same appetite, read the donk guide.

The Warehouse Project, 14 November 2026

Klangkuenstler last played WHP at XXL in 2024, and returns on Saturday 14 November 2026 for a night presented by WHP with Teletech, the promoter that has done more than anyone to build fast techno's UK audience and whose XXL London at Drumsheds in February was its largest UK event to date. WHP lists it as 21:00 to 04:00 and bills it as bringing Klangkuenstler "back to Manchester for the first time since XXL 2024". The event page names no support acts and no room yet, so the rest of the bill is still to be announced. It sits in the densest month of the 20th-anniversary season, a week after KETTAMA's sold-out takeover and two weeks before the 20 Years of WHP night on Friday 27 November, and the whole month is mapped in the November 2026 club calendar. Tickets were on general sale at the time of writing; the Teletech nights at Depot have a habit of going close to the date.

The other side of the autumn's hard techno is in London: Terminal V at Drumsheds on 23 October, with I Hate Models and 999999999, and Charlotte de Witte closing Ironworks on 1 November. The six nights that matter, and the tempo argument underneath them, are in the hard techno autumn guide.

Why Klangkuenstler matters in 2026

He is the clearest case of a producer who found his sound in his thirties by going backwards. Ten years of competent house records did not make him a name; five years of schranz, a genre most of the industry had written off, did. What he understood before the rest of the scene was that the crowd had changed faster than the DJs: the people filling Terminal V and Teletech and doof were not house heads who wanted it a bit harder, they were a new audience whose reference points were hardstyle, gabber, donk and 174 BPM, and schranz was the techno that spoke their language. As a producer at the opposite end of the room, at 136, I can hear why it works: there is no argument in a schranz record, just the kick and the roll. The names in the Sara Landry profile took hard techno to the festivals; Korb took it to the floor and kept it there.

FAQ

What is Klangkuenstler's real name?

Michael Korb. The alias, Klangkuenstler, is German for "sound artist".

How old is Klangkuenstler?

He was born on 18 June 1990, so he is 36 in 2026.

Where is Klangkuenstler from?

Füssen, in Bavaria, southern Germany. He trained as a hotel manager in Munich and has been based in Berlin since the summer of 2012.

What genre does Klangkuenstler play?

Hard techno, specifically schranz, the fast, distorted, rolling style from late-90s Frankfurt. Until around 2018 he produced deep and tech house.

What is schranz?

A hard techno style from late-90s Frankfurt built on loops, heavy distortion and a relentless kick at 150 BPM and above, revived in the 2020s by Berlin artists including Klangkuenstler and Kobosil.

What labels does Klangkuenstler run?

Zuckerton Records, founded in 2011; Outworld, founded in 2019, home to his techno releases; and Tote Sonne, the label, agency and fashion line he founded with Kobosil in 2023.

What are Klangkuenstler's best-known releases?

Die Welt Brennt (2023), Toter Schmetterling featuring Sant (2024) and Sonne Geht Auf (2025), all on Outworld, plus the 2013 album Das bin ich from his house period.

When is Klangkuenstler playing The Warehouse Project?

Saturday 14 November 2026 at Depot Mayfield, Manchester, 21:00 to 04:00, presented by WHP and Teletech. WHP's event page lists him alone, with no support acts announced yet. Tickets were on general sale at the time of writing.

Who is Kobosil?

A Berlin techno DJ and producer and long-time Berghain resident who co-founded Tote Sonne with Klangkuenstler in 2023 and shares his move from purist techno to the hard, fast end of the genre.

Sources

• Wikipedia entry for Klangkuenstler; Outworld and Tote Sonne release information
• The Warehouse Project calendar and event page (checked 25 and 26 September 2026), Ticketmaster and Manchester's Finest on the 14 November 2026 show; Skiddle and Resident Advisor on Teletech XXL London

This profile is part of House of MNEEMO's ongoing coverage of the electronic and club music scene, written by London-based DJ and producer MNEEMO, with millions of streams to his name and a party series running through some of London's best clubs. For the season he is playing into, read the Warehouse Project 2026 guide.