JakoJako

It all started with an urge to play with sound and a desire to know more. After several years buried in books, manuals, patch cables, and messing with a DIY synth, JakoJako (real name Sibel Koçer) was playing her first live sets in Berlin, spending every spare cent on Eurorack modules. The passion soon became all-consuming, and in 2017 she left her nursing career to work at Berlin’s synth shop institution SchneidersLaden, where she’s been sharing her grasp of tools and techniques with the city’s music maker community.

Her approach may seem studious, but JakoJako uses this fluency in the language of sound to convey emotion. Each track is an experiment, with success based on the intensity of feeling it creates. Her EPs Aequilibration and Lux showcased this explorative mindset, with very different stylistic ideas tied together through emotive sound design, sharp production, and a strong sense of melody.

With regular events disappearing in 2020, live music migrated to URL, finding a global audience in a shared experience of isolation. After streaming a live set with HÖR she was invited to join ARTE, Innervisions and United We Stream alongside Âme and Frank Wiedermann. This led to a filmed live performance in her studio for FACT Magazine’s Patch Notes series and an in-depth studio feature for Electronic Beats, which together amassed over a million views (and counting).

IRL JakoJako has made good use of studio time and her success as a producer and performer has grown steadily. With two records on Leisure System that quickly sold out, remixes for New Order and Martin Gore, tracks on BPitch, Tresor and Figure. Her debut album ‘Metamorphose’ on Bigamo earnt critical acclaim and she also collaborated with Rødhåd on a new album ‘In Vere’ on WSNWG.

JakoJako has also been involved in several motion sensor dance projects with dancers at Superbooth and Kraftwerk Berlin, and a stunning performance at the Royal Albert Hall with Bonobo. She has been featured as a live performer at Berghain, where she is resident, and participated in live jams with the ‘Circle Of Live’, ‘Âme’, ‘Rødhåd & Barker’.

For 2023, more new music by Berghain resident is imminent with the ‘Verve EP’ due on Mute Records in March, as well as new dance performances in the works. It’s also the year when her DJ performances are coming to the fore, alongside her live shows, with bookings at festivals including Dekmantel, Awakenings, Elevate, WHOLE, Nation of Gondwana and Stone Techno in the coming months. JakoJako’s future, it seems, is akin to modular synthesis: sonically endless, full of opportunity, and with boundaries yet to be pushed.