Week

End

The New York DJ legend Nicky Siano opened the club The Gallery in 1973 and was later a resident DJ at Studio 54. He shaped the New York disco scene like no other and made the sound famous around the world.

On a trip in June 2024, Week-End curator Jan Lankisch cycled about 350 km around New York on his folding bike. The playlist he listened to on the road was made up mostly of tracks from the first and second wave of disco (1974–1983). It was here he came up with the idea to licence and re-release the classic “Kiss Me Again,” which Nicky Siano produced together with the late Arthur Russell as Dinosaur. The record was later on re-released via Week-End Records on November 1st 2024.

In New York, on a visit to the label Luaka Bop, which was founded in 1988 by David Byrne, on the same day as the idea of the re-release came up, the label’s manager Yale Evelev asked if there was an idea for someone great to remix a new signing of theirs first new track, so the special idea emerged: Nicky Siano should do a remix.

On November 1 2ß24, Siano came to Cologne for the first time ever and he delivered a hot and sweaty club night at Week-End Fest. In the crates: many of the big disco classics that shaped the New York scene 50 years ago. The next day we will celebrate the re-release of “Kiss Me Again” with a daytime show at Kompakt Records Store, where a band of six Cologne musicians (under the direction of Jorik Bergman) performed an extended version of the track.

The following day Siano entered the studio of fellow festival artist Philipp Janzen aka Dumbo Tracks, and layed the first tracks for this magical new remix for Luaka Bop’s artist Annie & the Caldwells.

Production:
Nicky Siano – Producer
Philipp Janzen – Engineer
Andrew Raposo – Mixing Engineer
Steve Sandberg – Piano, Keys
Christy Davis – Live Percussion
Jan Lankisch – Executive Producer