Few artists can claim to be as prolific as Wolfgang Voigt, an artist from Cologne, Germany, who has recorded various styles of techno under more names than one can imagine. Beginning with the initial success of his Love Inc. track, "Trance Atlantic Excess," Voigt has since eclipsed all of his gifted peers by releasing records at a relentless pace. Rather than flooding the techno community with his nonstop releases -- and partly in aid to the potential listener -- he releases his records under different names, making it seem as though the burgeoning Cologne scene is much larger than it actually is. Yet no matter how impressive Voigt's output, his importance as an innovative techno producer in the late '90s cannot be overlooked, particularly his experimental Studio 1 records. Before Voigt became known as Mike Ink, Studio 1, Gas, or M:I:5, he launched fellow Cologne artist Jörg Burger and his Trance Atlantic label in 1991 while the duo was living in Belgium, with the Love Inc. record "Trance Atlantic Excess" as the first release. This particular record reflected the time spent by the duo in England during the late-'80s acid house explosion, except the two put their own twist on the acid sound for "Trance Atlantic Excess." This record went on to become a European hit, eventually being licensed by multiple labels, including Achim Szepanski's powerful Force Inc label, which gave Voigt the reach he needed to expand his work outside of Cologne. After a few more releases as Love Inc., including the New Jack City and R.E.S.P.E.C.T. EPs, he released a full-length Love Inc. album, Life's a Gas. Yet during the years following the initial launch of the Trance Atlantic label, Voigt was also recording tracks under other names such as Mike Ink and had moved to Germany, where he collaborated with Burger, Ingmar Koch, and Cem Oral as the Brotherhood of Structure. As Mike Ink, Voigt recorded tracks for a startling number of small German labels throughout the 1990s -- Trance Atlantic, Structure, Mono Tone, DJungle Fever, New Transatlantic, Profan, Eat Raw, Kreisel, and Auftrieb, along with larger labels such as Warp, Harvest, and Force Inc. Of these Ink recordings, his collaboration with Burger as Burger/Ink, Las Vegas, would eventually be licensed to Matador in the U.S., helping spread his music to a progressively mainstream American audience. When he wasn't producing his Mike Ink tracks, Voigt was most likely hard at work on one of his many additional side projects. For the second release on the seminal Cologne label Structure, he appeared as M:I:5 with the Structuralism EP, a guise he would continue to explore on Profan, the impressive label he began in 1993 to showcase his work. Then after putting out some records as both Love Inc. and Mike Ink on Force Inc., he began releasing full-length experimental listening albums as Gas for the label. By the end of the 1990s, his side projects spiraled seemingly out of control, as even the most loyal Voigt fans struggled to keep up with his increasing number of guises, including Strass, Freiland, and Mint. Following the success of his Profan label, Voigt went ahead in 1995 and began what would become a revolutionary label in the techno community: Studio 1. The ten records released here refined the sound of techno to only its most essential components. Next Voigt began the Freiland label to showcase his more abrasive material, along with Auftrieb, yet another label for unrefined sounds. Once Delirium -- the legendary Cologne record store at the center of the city's techno movement since the early '90s -- renamed itself Kompakt in 1998 and brought Voigt's many labels under its wings, the busy artist attempted one last prolific feat for the final year of the millennium: he would help propel a label called Kreisal that aimed to release a 7" record every week during 1999. After the success of this astonishing feat, it became clear that though the name Wolfgang Voigt might not be as well known as his many pseudonyms, his contributions to the techno community during its 1990s growth spurt were second to none. ~ Jason Birchmeier , All Music Guide