Alongside friends Metope and Konfekt, Basteroid (aka Sebastian Riedl) founded the German minimal techno label Areal in 2000. Getting started on electronic music production at an early age, Riedl left his native Austria for electronic music hotbed Cologne, Germany. It was there that he found likeminded producers and friends, who developed into a small artist community in the shadows of the mighty Kompakt juggernaut (which now distributes Areal releases almost exclusively). His debut 12", Automatique, was the first release on Areal in 2001. With almost a dozen singles to his name, he records almost exclusively for Areal, with side releases on Sender and No Future being the rare exception. He often DJs around Europe with Areal labelmates Ada and Metope. ~ Rob Theakston