Jam & Spoon’s Tripomatic Fairytales

In April 1993, Jam & Spoon released an LP that marked the birth of a major new electronic music sub-genre. The visionary ‘Tripomatic Fairytales 2001’ album proved to be an instant success for SONY Music, and through its singles (most notably the timeless ‘Stella’), it played a crucial role in igniting the trance music phenomenon. Over time, ‘Tripomatic’ has earned its place as the 21st Most Influential Dance Music Album Of All Time according to MIXMAG, while DJ Mag has recognized ‘Stella’ as the best track within the genre’s first 25 years.

Seminal, influential, inspirational, and visually iconic thanks to its artwork, this album became a lightning rod for a style of music that, by 1999, had become electronic music’s most prominent form.

The idea to celebrate ‘Tripomatic’s 30th anniversary came from Arny Bink, the owner of Holland’s Black Hole Recordings. The album had a profound impact on him and Tiësto during their time running Magik Muzik record shop in the 90s. However, it wasn’t until 2018’s Amsterdam Dance Event that Jam El Mar and Arny first met. From that meeting, the idea to pay tribute to the beloved, scene-setting album became a joint venture, and the project began to take shape. Jam and artist Klaus Mai, who had created the original ‘Tripomatic’ artwork through his KM7 design bureau, had remained close friends. However, KM7 had long since moved on from the world of music design to focus on other areas, including the design of the Leica Museum in Wetzlar, Germany. Rolf offered to fly Klaus over (literally, as he had just obtained his pilot’s license) to Black Hole’s Breda home base to discuss his participation.

There, Klaus was intrigued by the suggestion that he expand his original ‘Tripomatic’ art into a substantial, coffee table-sized book. This, in turn, would essentially form a new gallery-like exhibition, taking his original ‘Tripomatic’ vision to its ultimate conclusion. Over a three-year period, Mai designed dozens of new pieces inspired by his original sleeve, all of which are now richly detailed within the book’s pages.

With its art in motion, Arny began searching for someone to author the book, ultimately bringing in Tim Stark, who, during his 20-year tenure as DJ Mag’s Trance Editor, had become a prominent voice in the scene and its music. Through a series of articles and interviews, Stark pieced together the fascinating backstory of ‘Tripomatic.’ The book also delves into the cultural, social, and political climate in J&S’s native Germany at the time of the album’s creation and the impact it had on the album itself. In conversation, Jam El Mar also reflects on the inspirations behind this pioneering LP, some dating back 30 years, as well as the tragic loss of the duo’s Mark Spoon in 2006.

The book is accompanied by a 4xCD ‘Tripomatic Fairytales – 30 Years’ album. It features remastered versions of the three Tripomatic LPs (2001, 2002 & 3003), as well as a disc of new reworks of ‘2001’s tracks. Working closely with Jam El Mar over several years, Black Hole Recordings A&Rs Arny Bink & Mark Meeuwissen collaborated with many remixers on the project, offering a unique perspective on what ‘Tripomatic 2001’ might sound like if produced today. Among those contributing new visions are Paul Daley (formerly of Leftfield), Pig&Dan, Jerome Isma-Ae, M.I.K.E. Push, Whebba, and others. Spanning trance, techno, dub, and other sub-genres, it provides a fantastic 30-year later revision of the album.

An extensive, multifaceted, and multimedia tribute to a groundbreaking LP, ‘Jam & Spoon’s Tripomatic Fairytales’ by KM7 and Tim Stark is available through all good booksellers or online here starting October 19th 2023.