For a decade now the name Satin Jackets has been synonymous with sublimely laidback Balearic house and sun kissed disco. The brainchild of German producer Tim Bernhardt who, following a successful career producing house music under a variety of different aliases, launched Satin Jackets as a vehicle to explore his lifelong love of disco and the clean, polished productions of artists like CHIC and Trevor Horn.
“I had always been fascinated by just how glossy people like Nile Rogers made their music,” Bernhardt explains. “It always sounded like the musical equivalent of a fashion magazine’s cover. I’d been making more underground music for a while but really wanted to go in totally the other direction and create this really smooth, polished sound.”
That first Satin Jackets release, the dreamlike You Make Me Feel Good, would set the tone for what was to come. Released on the iconic Belgian label Eskimo Recordings, who had previously helped launch the careers of artists like Aeroplane and Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, it was an instant hit, its graceful melodies, airy textures and yearning chorus the soundtrack to the sun setting on parties worldwide.
With almost metronomic precision You Make Me Feel Good was followed by a string of acclaimed singles and remixes for some of the genre’s biggest names, including Goldroom and Blank & Jones, that established Bernhardt as one of the most exciting new names in the nu-disco scene. Whilst the face behind the mask may have remained a mystery Satin Jackets’ warm, polished, take on disco soon made the name familiar to music lovers around the world.
Taking things to the next level 2016’s debut Satin Jackets album, Panorama Pacifico, firmly cemented Bernhardt position as both Eskimo’s flagship artist and one of the biggest nu-disco producers around. Winning praise from the likes of Mixmag, DJ Mag and Groove, the album has gone on to click up over 75 million streams on Spotify alone and saw Satin Jackets’ golden mask a regular fixture behind the decks at clubs and festivals from Mexico City to Seoul.
2019’s follow up, Solar Nights, would see Bernhardt further develop and refine the Satin Jackets sound. Rapturously received by fans, DJs and press alike the album, led by singles like the global hit ‘Northern Lights’, proved that much like the original disco artists that first inspired the project, Bernhardt was as capable of crafting radio friendly pop hits as tracks for the dance floor.
Whilst the pandemic may have put plans for global tours and festival appearances on hold Bernhardt kept himself busy as clubland went into hibernation. Having relocated to Munich just before lockdown a succession of singles that ranged from out and out pop collaborations to instrumental, chilled out tracks and a series of live Lockdown Streams kept Bernhardt in touch with his ever growing army of fans. Indeed it was those Lockdown Streams and the response from his fans that allowed Bernhardt to rediscover, in his own words, “the connection between what I do and what people feel” and sow the seeds for what was to come.
Now as we emerge blinking into the new world Bernhardt returns with Satin Jackets’ third album, the aptly titled Reunion. Where the first two Satin Jackets albums saw Bernhardt work to first develop his own sound and then elevate his productions to another level, Reunion reveals a musician and producer wholly at ease with both his abilities in the studio and artistic vision.
From blissful instrumental tracks that seem to effortlessly float above the clouds through to bittersweet wistful pop songs featuring the likes of Australian star Panama, Belgian singer Ivy Falls, US based vocalist Metaxas and up and coming British singer Tailor, Reunion is a strikingly confident album that layers new depths and dimensions to the Satin Jackets sound and sets the stage for the next exciting chapter of the Satin Jackets story.
