sanderkleinenberg.com / Biography

Sander Kleinenberg

Dutch DJ, producer and video DJ. More than three decades of records, remixes and very long nights, from a local bar to Coachella, Glastonbury and Ultra.

Born
29 December 1971, Delft
Playing since
1987
Known for
My Lexicon, The Fruit, This Is Miami
Labels
Little Mountain Recordings, THIS IS Recordings
Sander Kleinenberg smiling behind two CDJs and a mixer, hand on his heart, in black and white
At the decks

In his own words

Biography

Sander Kleinenberg has never been particularly good at standing still.

For more than three decades, the Dutch DJ and producer has followed one fairly simple instinct: play the records that excite him. Preferably before someone decides what genre they belong to.

That instinct has taken him from small, dark rooms to some very large ones, through progressive house, techno, disco, psychedelia, electronic pop and a fair amount of music that was probably a bad idea on paper. The common thread was never a genre. It was curiosity.

Emerging from the Netherlands in the 1990s, Sander became part of a generation of DJs who somehow found themselves taking underground electronic music around the world. Records like My Lexicon, The Fruit, This Is Miami and Can You Feel It became markers along the way, while his DJ sets built a reputation for joining dots between records that didn’t always appear to have much business being in the same room.

It took him around the planet more times than he can reasonably remember, from sweaty basements to Coachella, Glastonbury and Ultra, and through a long list of clubs, afterparties, airports and questionable hotel breakfasts.

The studio has been equally difficult to keep in one lane. Over the years Sander has produced, remixed and collaborated with Madonna, Daft Punk, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Halsey, LANY, Eurythmics, Jamie Cullum, Audio Bullys, Gwen McCrae and James Vincent McMorrow — which probably says more about his musical attention span than any genre description ever could.

And, inconveniently, he’s still curious.

A new generation of artists and a more adventurous corner of electronic music have pulled him back towards the reason he started doing this in the first place: finding strange, beautiful records and figuring out what happens when you play them very loud in the right order.

The sets are getting deeper again. The edges are getting stranger. New music is being made, new collaborations are taking shape, old friends are resurfacing and younger artists are introducing him to records he wishes he’d found first.

This isn’t about recreating a particular period of Sander Kleinenberg. That would be far too easy. It’s about continuing what was there from the beginning.

From a local bar to the main stage

Career, year by year

  1. 1987

    Starts DJing in a local bar at fifteen, rock and dance records in the same set.

  2. 1993

    First record: Bombay, as Free Frogs with a few friends, on Belgium’s Wonka Beats.

  3. 1994–98

    A run of twelve-inches under a handful of aliases (Europe, Sander, S’n’S, MTF, Sakan, Rails Inc.), among them You Do Me Wrong, picked up by New York’s Strictly Rhythm in 1996.

  4. 1999

    Part one of the 4 Seasons trilogy, on London’s FFRR.

  5. 2000

    My Lexicon. Sasha puts it and Sacred on Global Underground 013: Ibiza, and it settles in as one of progressive house’s standards. Mixes Tranceglobal Airways for Mixmag.

  6. 2001

    Nubreed 004 for Global Underground.

  7. 2002

    His Essential Mix compilation, on Warner.

  8. 2003

    Starts his own label, Little Mountain Recordings, with the last part of 4 Seasons. His remix of Justin Timberlake’s Rock Your Body wins Best Remix at the Dancestar USA Awards. Launches Everybody, nights and a Renaissance album built to remind dance music not to take itself so seriously, and meets VJ Mark Pistoire.

  9. 2004

    The Fruit. This Is Everybody Too reaches number 11 on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums. Remixes Janet Jackson’s All Nite (Don’t Stop).

  10. 2005

    A monthly residency at Crobar in New York, and This Is Everybody! On Tour with Lee Burridge. Remixes Usher and Eurythmics.

  11. 2006

    This Is Miami, and This Is Sensation, that year’s anthem for Sensation. Everybody grows into This Is, with residencies at Avalon in Los Angeles, Discoteque in Moscow, Paradiso and Melkweg in Amsterdam, Red Light in Paris and Pacha in Ibiza.

  12. 2007–09

    Two volumes of This Is… Sander Kleinenberg.

  13. 2010

    His first artist album, 5K, led by Remember When with Jamie Cullum, and a new label to go with it: THIS IS Recordings.

  14. 2011

    Remixes Daft Punk’s TRON Legacy (End Titles) and Katy Perry’s T.G.I.F.

  15. 2012

    Amnesia DJ Sessions Vol. 8. Plays Lahore, Pakistan, to a large crowd.

  16. 2014

    Can You Feel It, with Gwen McCrae.

  17. 2015

    Remixes Madonna’s Bitch I’m Madonna and Halsey’s Trouble. Starts The Deepest Mixtape in the Universe, a series that has passed episode 68.

  18. 2018

    London Girl, with Baby Sol.

  19. 2026

    Make It Rain, with DARMON, and a tour from Los Angeles, Toronto and Amsterdam Dance Event to Miami, Amsterdam and Balance Croatia.

Albums, mixes, singles, remixes

Records

Also: Tranceglobal Airways (Mixmag, 2000), This Is Everybody! On Tour (2005), This Is… Sander Kleinenberg 1 and 2 (2007, 2009) and Amnesia DJ Sessions Vol. 8 (2012).

Selected singles

Selected remixes

Festival stages and rooms

Where he’s played

Coachella(US) · Glastonbury(UK) · Ultra(US/AR) · Tomorrowland(BE) · Sensation White(NL) · Creamfields(UK) · Mysteryland(NL) · Exit Festival(RS) · Dance Valley(NL) · SW4(UK) · Loveland(NL) · Extrema Outdoor(NL) · ADE(NL)

Clubs and residencies

Plus Reykjavík, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai, Lahore, Lima, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Bucharest, Riga, Toronto and Montreal, and a long list of clubs, afterparties, airports and questionable hotel breakfasts. Upcoming tour dates are on the homepage.

Sound and picture

Video DJ

Sander is known for DJing with video: his own visuals mixed along with the records, on Pioneer’s DVJ decks.

Since 2003 the visuals have often come from VJ Mark Pistoire, whom he met while looking for a VJ for his Everybody nights; their first show together was in The Hague. The footage is often political, or trippy home video, made by one of the two of them.

Listen and follow

Find Sander

Bookings and press

Get in touch

Bookings: Independent Artist Group, achaykin@independentartistgroup.com

Promoters and press: photos, logos, biography and rider are in the press kit, with a password from the booking agent.