Arekipe is the project of Berlin-based Colombian sound artist Juan Felipe Ramirez, across bass-driven, genre-fluid electronic music. Working with amen-derived rhythms and dub-informed structures, Arekipe builds music from repetition, interruption, psychedelia, and decay. His approach favors storytelling, tactile sampling, and rhythmic instability, often pushing abrasive structures and rainforest energy into psychedelic spaces.
His 2024 EP Yes Lord!!! (Shepard Tone Recordings), released under his former alias Monsieur Philippe, marked a transition toward a more focused and deliberate artistic language – forming the conceptual groundwork for Arekipe.
On the 18th of March, with the new EP Free Falling, he is launching a new label called Brine Pool. The imprint focuses on the most experimental and adventurous edges of bass music and soundsystem-oriented production, exploring the physicality of low frequencies and their impact on space. This natural phenomenon serves as a metaphor for the sonic universe proposed by Brine Pool: thick low-end pressure, bass music with near-tangible density, textures that seem to generate their own gravitational field. Music that is not only heard, but inhabited. Deep dive into the Free Falling EP and check out our interview below ➜
Tell us about the name of the label: Brine Pool. It is a very interesting natural phenomenon, for sure. What specifically interests you in these underwater „salt lakes“? How do you see this as a convenient metaphor for your label?
Brine pools are fascinating because they exist within the ocean, but remain separated by their own surface, their own boundaries, their own ecosystem. Brine Pool, as a label, is conceived similarly: as a space that exists within club and electronic music, but the focus is on density, on low-end, on texture, while also allowing each release to develop its own internal logic rather than conforming to club expectations. It’s less about isolation and more about coexistence without dilution, creating a distinct environment where forms of low-end exploration can happen.
Do you have a list of the upcoming releases and artists that you are going to publish? What can we expect from Brine Pool? Young talents, established producers?
We are launching Brine Pool with the music of young talents based in Berlin. The list includes close friends who have been involved with electronic music since 2022 in the city that shares a passion for left-field dance music. The second release of the label „Cornbread EP“ leans more to a Dub territory and was conceived by the duo „Döner Dubs“, Justin Hamann, and me, a South African-Colombian duo. The third EP will be released by Clifford Clement, an artist who has been active in the darkpsy and psytrance scene in Bangalore, India, based in Berlin since 2022, where he showcases his bass exploratory facet. A VA is in the works for the fourth release this year, and we are working on having established producers who share the aesthetic vision of brine pool and have also influenced this initiative.
Are you collaborating with artists, producers, and sound engineers who are physically in Berlin, or do you run everything via the internet?
As of now, the first year is projected to have mostly Berlin-based artists; nonetheless, I want this platform to also host the talent of my country, Colombia. One of the purposes of this label is to serve as a platform that connects Colombia with Germany and vice versa. We believe that human growth comes with cultural exchange. I want to promote bass music in my country, where it doesn’t have a huge audience, but also to invite German-based artists to experience the rich culture of Colombia.
Are you in touch with some Colombian artists?
Yes, and we need more exposure. We’re in touch with great artists like Naidez, who has expressed his interest in releasing music with Brine Pool. We are also a part of and helped build a recording studio in Cali called Sanai Studios, which is the home of Discos Eterna, the label of Juanito State, a close friend and collaborator, resident of Sala Kabron, and overall an amazing producer and human being. We are also working with underground rap and urban music in Colombia, where we want to implement UK-style MC events and music, but fused with Colombian rap.
I’ve seen your posts where you create mini soundtracks, sound design for videos from nature, or various dancers. Is this something you do on a professional level? Or would you like to explore more?
This is something I do for fun and to expand my portfolio. I have been working with audio for film since 2022. I love film in general, scoring, Foley, and even recording the sound on set. The whole process and amount of work a movie requires, the importance and role of good audio quality in film, motivate me heavily.
How are you feeling personally in Berlin? Do you have more artistic freedom and opportunities than in Colombia? How would you describe your experience?
I feel motivated in this city; it can also saturate you, but there is certainly more artistic freedom here than in Colombia. When I arrived in 2022, I was exposed to music I had never heard of, which eventually influenced my current sound and vision. Everything moves slower in Colombia; the number of events and spaces cannot be compared to Berlin or Europe. The ability to travel by train to another country, the infrastructure plays a heavy role in the development of different scenes in Europe. South America has to deal with these constraints, and yet artists find ways around them, but everything grows at a slower pace.
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