Welcome to a story that began without even being planned. Collabs3000 was born in 2001 at Frankfurt’s legendary U60311 club. Speedy J was making his first visit to Chris Liebing’s residency, and what was meant to be just another night turned into an improvised session for four hands: Liebing mixed out of Speedy J’s live set, while Speedy J responded to every record the German dropped. That night is now part of the city’s clubbing folklore.

It didn’t take long for them to lock themselves away in Speedy J’s Rotterdam studio and record “Collabs 300” (2004), an intense slice of machine funk that helped define the techno sound of the early 2000s. It was followed by the album Collabs 3000 (Metalism) on Novamute, with 11 relentless tracks that still sound fresh 20 years later. In fact, it was reissued in 2025 with four brand-new productions.

The project was revived in 2024 to keep looking forward, with joint sets where improvisation is everything: no two nights are ever the same. After taking over SonarCar for three nights with STOOR Live last year, Speedy J returns to Sónar alongside Chris Liebing, who makes his festival debut. Together, they’ll once again redefine what it means to improvise techno music on stage.