Just over a month after the release of his debut album HERMES, BURAK launches a follow-up album, ‘MAIA Remixes’, containing the results of collaborations with six electronic music producers of his choice, “These are six artists that I admire from the bottom of my heart,” says BURAK of the project. But while BURAK’s selection features artists who exerted a deep influence on his own music, it is also an impressive compilation of pioneers, both established and up-and-coming, in different areas of electronic music.

While HERMES references the Greek god of trade and inventor of the Lyre, the album’s second track, ‘Maia’, tributes Hermes’ mother. Named after the Greek goddess, ‘MAIA’ is made up of trance-inducing, layered and hypnotic beats, “There is almost like an invisible, protective angel, surrounding us with her wings and we feel her force within the song,” says BURAK of the track. The piece was inspired by the strength of motherhood as a whole, “to me mothers are the strongest creatures of all, and the most intimate relationship is the one between the mother and her child,” explains BURAK. Taking BURAK’s powerful original piece as raw material, ‘MAIA Remixes’ contains reinterpretations of the track by the heavyweights of electronic music Efdemin, Hernan Cattaneo, Matthew Herbert, Magdalena, N’TO and Rodriguez Jr.

Electronic music producers Efdemin, Hernan Cattaneo and Matthew Herbert are perhaps the most instantly recognisable names on the album, with decades of experience in the scene which cemented their names worldwide. But while all three shares in acclaim, their paths to stardom were distinct. While Hernan Cattaneo, considered a founding father of the underground house scene, made his way up from club nights in Buenos Aires, Efdemin was established at the heart of the German electronic music scene as a longtime resident at Berghain in Berlin. Early on, Hernan’s music and the subculture around it shaped Burak’s understanding and appreciation of music, and for the remixes album the Argentinian musical ambassador generously contributed with two versions of ‚MAIA’.“I remember Hernan’s performances, those three-day rave parties, as some new tribe. I was underage, sneaked in to join his crowd, where I felt more home than anywhere else,” says BURAK of Hernan. Efdemin’s sound has served as inspiration for BURAK in his more recent delvings in techno, especially in the making of HERMES. Efdemin’s cool, contemplative and elegant minimal techno has become distinguished amongst club-goers, and the musician is today a mainstay act in Berlin’s techno scene, “I can openly say, I learned tons from listening to Efdemin in the recent years. His ‘MAIA’ remix is like a visit to a techno university.” Perhaps the most eclectic of the mix of collaborators is the English Matthew Herbert, who has worked on everything from film scores to music for the theatre, Broadway, TV and games. Herbert has remixed artists such as Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone and worked closely over several years with musical acts as diverse as Bjork and Dizzee Rascal. Herbert has also collaborated with creatives from different fields such as the chef Heston Blumenthal, playwright Caryl Churchill and writer Will Self to create conceptual and highly original pieces of music. “Since my childhood, Matthew has been a strong idol to me,” explains BURAK, who worked with the musician for the ‘One Day’ project, “I consider him as my mentor since, with his incredible creativity generosity and all the innovations he brings to the electronic music scene.”

Along with the luminaries mentioned above of electronic music, BURAK also invited artists from his generation who have gained impressive traction in recent years to contribute with remixes. A rising star of German electronic music, Magdalena has discreetly been a part of the Diynamic family since its beginning, running the label’s famed EGO club in Hamburg. She quickly became a household name behind the decks starting her regular night at the club and filling up the dance floors at other renowned underground establishments. “I was already a big fan of her sound, which always, always manages to shake me to my very core,” says Burak of Magdalena. Despite BURAK’s longtime appreciation for the artist and their mutual social circles, the musicians weren’t properly introduced up until working on ‘MAIA Remixes’. "As a female musician in such male-oriented genre, I am deeply impressed by Magdalena’s purely authentic and forceful way of creating music,” explains BURAK. "Her connection to the song MAIA made me once again fall in love with her.” With a musical style of melodic-techno resemblant to that of BURAK, French DJ Anthony Favier, known as N’TO, also offered his take of ‘MAIA’ for the album, “My relationship to Anthony’s music is very personal. We are same generation composers, and have some mutual set of skills,” says BURAK “he is the pioneer of the French melodic-techno genre. He felt like a musical brother to me, mastering this style fantastically.” Also hailing from France, Rodriguez JR, an artist as renowned for his eclectic productions as he is for his live sets lent his style to BURAK’s track. “I discovered his sound perhaps six years ago and became a hardcore fan immediately,” tells BURAK, “To me, he is the master of live sets, master of remixes and reworks. I don’t know, how hard he had to work to achieve that unique sound, but I consider him as one of my role-models of sound.”

In inviting these six wildly diverse electronic music producers to be a part of his newest album, BURAK opened the door for a body of work that moves beyond the domain of mere ‘remixes’, “A remix to me is more than just an extension to the original. The artists create their very own versions of a song,” he says, “Opening MAIA to the remixes was an emotional and exciting journey.”