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Date: 18 janv. 2009

POSTCARDS ABOUT COCOONING IN COCOON, FRANKFURT - MY NEW FAVOURITE CLUB

Catégorie : Fêtes et vie nocturne

Good morning my lovely!

I hope you have had a fabulous weekend! I have had an absolute blast but could not go to bed without committing my thoughts about Saturday's FAKE party at Cocoon to a personal and in depth blog / review.

I haven't played that often in Frankfurt, i think the last time i played was at King Kamehameha in 2006 and even though it was a cool place, it was a private party so public recognition escaped me ... 2 years later, I was given the chance to play at Cocoon. Imagine that. I am a DJ first and foremost, (not yet a superstar producer with her own label and 100's of #1s on Beatport) so offers to play at clubs like these really do depend on getting good reports from people who have heard my sound or seen what I do and appreciating the way that I make contact with and try to entertain people. It is a rare occasion when a booking agent will go to see an unknown dj play and very special when they remember you. In this respect, a huge 'thank you' goes to Marco Soenke - Fake party Organiser, booking agent, DJ, and all around good man for checking me out early on at King Kamehameha, listening to my sets via Radio FG, having faith in me and my sound and confirming the date with such excellent organisation that I wish I could play for him every week. People like Marco are a rare find, he was a pleasure to work for and yes if you are reading this, Marco, I know you hate compliments but you really deserve to know this!

Of course it was a date that I was completely amped about from the beginning and I was right to be excited. The phrase 'too many ticks and not enough boxes' springs to mind here, since design, content and layout-wise it is quite the masterpiece. For sure it's not everybody's cup of tea, nothing ever is, but if you have never been and are curious to know why i'm moving in tomorrow read on ...

The first thing that hits you is the space. The high ceilings and wide entrance to the club are stark, industrial and minimal in design - the effect of the monochrome walls and floor is lifted by the coloured green glass windows that look into the main room and the subtle lighting projected at intervals on the walls and floor of the main corridor. There are deep, green pods built into the wall where people can gather or sit in small groups and chill away from the main floor and there are pods built into the walls for ... more about that later!!!

Turning right, along the entrance corridor there is a glass double door leading on to the first of two restaurants - Micro (which is by no means the smaller of the two) - where you are seduced by dark woods, leather seating, sexy ambient lighting, fresh flowers, seating space that can be adjusted to suit the size of the party via ceiling hung partitions, soft lounge music mixed live by a resident dj, friendly service and a stunning menu. The starters - amuses bouches - were a delicious assortment of wood-fired pizza, lamb kebabs on lemon grass sticks, succulent sushi that melted in the mouth and a steak tartare with quail egg and gold that has to be seen - and eaten - to be believed. I ate the blackened cod which was again, mouth-wateringly good. I really regret not sampling the desserts, but even Little Miss Greedy gets full up sometimes and at least it gives me another reason to go back. :-)

There is another restaurant called 'Silk' - that can be accessed through 'Micro' - reservation here is essential as the menu is created by Austrian chef Mario Lohninger then set and selected for you plus dinner is served in bed. I needed to leave to get ready for the party so I didn't get the chance to physically have a look around it but as an outsider looking in it seemed to have a Supperclub vibe which was equally inviting. Foodies should note that 'Silk' is Michelin starred.

So to the club itself.

After the dinner service is over, Micro converts to the second room for the 'Delorean' party with residents on rotation but cross the corridor and you're in the 360° surround sound, circular womb that is the main room. I could not believe my eyes or my luck!

The wall surrounding the dance floor is dotted with 'pods' - rooms that people can reserve for small groups and where they can also control the sound from the main floor via a control in their booth. this takes the whole VIP / bottle experience to a completely different level. The main floor is laid out for dancing without interruption as the long drinks bar is situated outside in the corridor, then there is another that runs the length of the back of the room up to the dj booth. There are raised stages and separate podiums whilst the dj booth stands central to the main room and sits atop a white flying saucer type structure. Downside - The DJ booth stands above the dance floor so there was no chance of anyone really appreciating my fancy footwork (only my top half was visible from the front) there was also no chance of my hogging the stage like Madonna like I do normally. The upside to this is that it didn't change anything musicallly at all and the crowd cheered throughout! There are two monitors either side of the dj booth that can be moved in or out depending on your personal preference but take care not to knock yourself out on the one on the right hand side like I did on more than one occasion.

The mini-club sized VIP area is also a designated smoking area - again lots of dark woods and leather make this a very appealing place to hang out plus it's intimate enough to host Sven's infamous after parties. The only problem for the non VIP smokers is that without a wristband they cannot use the decadent Fumoir and are relegated to smoking on the terrace at the back of the building and that's not ideal. My advice. Give up smoking !!!

You may have noticed that white is a predominant colour in the heart of the club and yet, if I am to be completely honest, I have never been a fan of the use of white to decorate clubs before. I always feel that it's too harsh and sterile a colour, that it should be reserved for hospitals or mental homes and that most of the time, especially with stark, bad or incompetent lighting it has the cockroaches in sunlight effect on your dancefloor in that it makes everybody scatter as soon as you switch a light on. Cocoon, however, turns all of that on its head by keeping the lights low key, working the lazers and transforming the main room into a giant projection screen. I envy the people on the dancefloor who could see Omer's complete lights and projections show as from the selection and sections that I could see from my positions in the booth it was all pretty special. Images ran around the wall, some moved, some were static, some were graphic, some were videos, some were text driven, some were crazy psychedelic light patterns, then add the high drama of the 'ice cold shower' CO2 machine, just enough smoke to sleaze it up and images of the dj action in the booth which were projected and all of it perfectly supported the music and made perfect sense. Thanks Omer!

Even the dj booth is luxurious and spacious with its own private, white leather seated VIP area, its own toilet, fridges, coat and record storage and a big cupboard for laying your CDs , vinyl or body out on - one of the Hysteric Glamour dancers made great use of this as a podium half way thorugh my set!!!

Thanks to Tanja (artist liaison at Cocoon) I never needed to ask for anything. Ice, drinks, glasses had been installed in the booth before I started and she stood guard controlling the traffic in the vip so that there was no disruption. All the admin was arranged with the minimum of fuss PLUS she baked me a carrot cake as a belated birthday present, an action that I appreciated massively and will sincerely never forget.

I have many many pictures of this event, some great and some not so great (low key lights and over-vodka'ing do not David Bailey make!) but once I have made my selection, the proof will be mounted here in an album. Thanks to DJ Stephen Hornig (the Pioneer man) for smiling and then taking charge of my camera to take some great pictures around the club whilst I was working hard in the booth.

Musically it was electro house all the way with some glitch, rave, rock and roll thrown in for good measure. Thanks to Marco again and Chris Coman for giving me a such a warm welcome and such a great opportunity to play there.

And my last impressions ??

Cocoon is a dj's and a clubbers paradise (I didn't even mention the snack bar now did i?) and I am glad to have had the opportunity to experience it at first hand. Evidently it's a club for grown ups and young adults who want and know how to dress up, know how to entertain and to be entertained. They also know how to party and are not afraid to get serious on the dancefloor. This could be a rod to beat its own back with as nice looking clubs get the maximum compliments for and strangely the maximum criticism for those same reasons: ie because they are clean, chic, ever so slightly glamorous, well kept and well looked after, well planned out,with lots of space to move around in, have sexy VIP areas, sound systems to die for etc etc they attract a dressy "commercial' crowd. Mix Club gets it. And for sure Cocoon gets it. As great as they are (and I love both of the following too!) surely if every club was a Rex or a Robert Johnson's life would get a very stale very quickly. And when since did having a good time, jumping up and down and having a great time in a club become passé or uncool? As far as I am concerned, Cocoon takes the prize for your super, super-clubbing / dining experience. It's possibly the first time that I have felt that a club sticks its neck out, sticks by its principles and offers its clients something more to remember it by than the music programming (as strong as it is) and a button or a flyer. I loved it so much here that I gave it my all and the crowd reaction was very uplifting and positive. Fingers crossed that I did well enough to test the dessert menu!

If you have been to Cocoon I would like to hear your thoughts, so post them here and let's talk but be brave as it is my new favourite club.

Have a brilliant week
xox and light
Paulette x

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