Connaisseur Recordings proudly presents the second edition of the annual label compilation ”Grand Cru“. This year’s vintage, “Grand Cru 2008”, captivates not only with subtle, deep and more complex flavours but also shows the whole bandwidth of the connaisseur family’s taste in music. This fine drop will be released in May on vinyl, as a double CD and digitally. Last year’s compilation was a pleasurable success which was proven by being ranked as 11th best compilation of the year 2007 in the German Groove magazine. Along with this the Grand Cru Tour stopped in the best European clubs like the Watergate (Berlin), Loft (Barcelona), Propaganda (Moscow), Doornroosje (Nijmegen), and Club Q (Zurich), always sporting a wonderful audience and excessive vibes. “Grand Cru 2008” offers a brilliant melange of known artits from our roster like Patrick Chardronnet Ripperton, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Daso, Sebastian Roya and the two wonderful ladies from the Netherlands: Estroe and ZoëXenia. Apart from that Connaisseur presents new outstanding talents like Art Bleek, Andrès Garcìa, Wareika and Federleicht. Since Grand Cru stands for a marriage of the finest grapes, the 2008 vintage again captivates with a great variety of exquisite electronic music, which has been compiled not only for the dancefloor. Our french newcomer and boy wonder Art Bleek enchants us with a wonderful melange of dreamy Deep House, Jazz, Funk and a pinch of Detroit. Wareika, our Dub and Afrobeat specialists from Hamburg, who already provided for collective ecstasy with „Men Village“, now present a dubby bassline monster which will make even the most tired dancers highly awake again. Daso is in charge for the deeper moments in the clubs – 20.000 miles below the ocean surface for the deepest pleasure in listening and dancing. Percussion and rhythm are the main focus of Patrick Chardronnet and our Superstar from the Canary Islands, Sebastian Roya. Sebastian conjures an absolute peaktime burner with weird rhythms. Patrick Chardronnet, however, resurfaces in a new musical style on „Grand Cru 2008“ after a extensive creative break and gently woos the moments of an afterhour with his „Percussiontrack“. ZoëXenia has already proven to be the new Barbara Tucker with „Cherish“. Her contribution to the compilation called „Forever“ is not inferior to that track and shows again that she currently has the most soulful and powerful voice in electronic music. Meaningful melancholy and classical detroitish electro beats make up the mixture with which Estroe enchants us this time. Music that can make one cry. Federleicht are Marc Bammann and Florian Schirmacher (also a member of Wareika, among others). Both are musicians from the whole of their heart and their contribution shows that there is no need to always try to be club compatible. „On The Streets“ tells the sad story of a Romanian street child. This track touched us so much that we decided to record our first music video. Label newcomer Andrès Garcìa, coming from the wonderful Geneva, makes his Connaisseur debut with a trippy Deep House killer which again broadens Connaisseur’s spectrum. Ripperton, one of the artists who work with Connaisseur from the very beginning, has to be featured on ”Grand Cru 2008”, too. „Amarone“ is not only one of the most flavoursome wines but in this case also a universal and incredibly deep hybrid of techno and house. To top it off, it’s needless to say that we also selected our shooting stars Kollektiv Turmstrasse with their beautiful track „Lüchttoorn“. It’s again a piece of music that touches but at the same time leaves no-one sitting on their chairs. It’s almost a tradition to say that CD 2 features a free bonus mix. This year it has been compiled and mixed by our label impresario Alex Flitsch who presents upcoming pearls and and highlighs from our back catalogue in his deep trip.