Berlin-based DeWalta combines house and techno into a hypnotic, minimal blend, issuing albums on Haunt, Amphia, and his own Meander label, such as his 2019 effort Lyra. Born David Koch in 1985 in the picturesque town of Heidelberg in southern Germany, he grew up in a musical household and was classically trained on French horn from age six. Becoming bored with notation, he began to improvise and, discovering jazz in his late grandfather Walter's record collection, took up the tenor sax at 13. He went on to study jazz, first in Mannheim and then at the prestigious Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin, moving there at age 15. Discovering electronic music first through German hip-hop in the '90s and then through the flourishing Berlin scene, after graduation he became interested in production and decided to start his own electronic music project, taking the name DeWalta in homage to his grandfather. His first release, in 2007, was the collaborative "Nebelhorn" EP with Aquatic on Kalk Pets. Almost immediately, he started his own label, Meander; its first release was also DeWalta's debut solo single, "Eftive"/"Tesla," a squelchy tech-house excursion. Further singles followed on Vakant, Salon, and Canadian Mike Shannon's Cynosure. Koch and Shannon became close friends, forming the duo DeWalta & Shannon (in which Koch played saxophone), going on to release several singles and EPs during the following years. Shannon's Haunt label put out DeWalta's first album, the jazz-influenced Wander, in 2012. His sophomore LP, 2014's Illumination (initially released as two separate 12"s), was Meander's first album release. The label had grown by this time to release records by other artists, such as the Romanian Cristi Cons. The similarity of DeWalta's musical style to the hypnotic Romanian minimal tech-house sound led to the release on Cons and Vlad Caia's Amphia of his third album, Dark Matter, in 2017. His fourth LP, Lyra, followed in 2019, once again on Meander; an ambient companion piece, Lyra Pi, was released at the same time. ~ John D. Buchanan