Waldeck relocated to London to complete his legal studies in 1992, where he brought all the music equipment he had accumulated over years of experimenting with sampling and electronic sounds.
Vocalist Joy Malcolm, who was working with Moby and Incognito at the time, and Brian Amos became important for many of Waldeck's early releases.
[8] Following local trends[9] as well as artistic necessity, Waldeck founded his own label Dope Noir in 2001, which has been publishing all his music since.
The Night Garden, released in the year of Dope Noir's inception, took some inspiration from Massive Attack's iconic Mezzanine[11] and combined electronic elements with the subtle vocal contributions of Amos and Malcolm.
Many years after their original publication, songs like “Get up...Carmen”, “Memories”, and “Make My Day” are still being played on the radio, used in TV and advertising, and get thousands of streams every month.
Sampling and electronic sounds have been largely replaced by analog instruments and human musicians, as Waldeck tried to distance himself from the overcrowded electro swing genre, which had attracted many epigones since its inception.
Keeping the quintessential stylish Waldeck atmosphere and his meticulous production and engineering standards, Gran Paradiso (2016) explores Italian canzone and film scores from classical Cinecittà lore.
[29] Grand Casino Hotel (2020) was conceived as music for a fictional road movie, releasing many compositions Waldeck had developed with Carl Avory, Joy Malcolm, Patrizia Ferrara, and Zeebee over the years.
Musicians Cover Art Video Clips Waldeck's early releases explored contemporary downtempo and trip hop trends.
[37] Ballroom Stories, his greatest commercial success, has become the prototype of electro swing,[38] while his recent releases have increasingly featured analogue sounds with a cinematographic mood.
His varied oeuvre also reflects the recruitment of diverse vocalists and collaborators like Zeebee, Joy Malcolm, Brian Amos, Valérie Sajdik, and Patrizia Ferrara.