Ayla (musician)


Ingo Kunzi is a German trance producer and DJ, best known for his work under Ayla and DJ Tandu. The Ayla name was inspired by the name of a girl in the recording studio during his first Ayla recording. Kunzi is also related to other projects including Karuma, Elastique Culture, Tarot and Intrance.

Career

Ingo Kunzi was born in 1966 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Influenced by the likes of Supertramp and Pat Metheny, he started out in the rock scene, building his own studio in 1985 and engineering demos for rock bands before discovering electronic music via the likes of Cosmic Baby and Talla 2XLC's Moskwa TV project. In 1994, Kunzi launched his DJ Tandu alias with the "Acido" EP, his first foray into full-on trance, with a hard, psychedelic sound. His second project, Ayla, was created in 1995 along with the single of the same name: the track became a hit in the clubs and entered the UK Singles Chart at #22 in September 1999. After "Ayla's" success, Kunzi produced "Atlantis", "Ayla Part II" and "Liebe", which is a cover of the Cosmic Baby classic.
Ayla's fifth single, "Angelfalls", was released in 1999, reaching the top 3 of the German dance chart. In the same year, Ayla released his first album, Nirwana. His remix of Lange's "I Believe", which was released under the name DJ Tandu, was included in the first installment of Tiësto's popular series In Search of Sunrise as well as in Gatecrasher Wet, the third compilation album by Sheffield-based club Gatecrasher. Kunzi went on to produce two more Ayla tracks, before taking a break on the project in 2002. He has also co-produced for several known successful electronic acts such as Safri Duo and DJ Encore.
After putting his Ayla project on hiatus for many years, Kunzi released the digital single, "Ayla 2010", in 2010. On 23 February 2011, the second Ayla studio album, Unreleased Secrets, was released. Together with friends and colleagues Torsten Stenzel and Ralph-Armand Beck, Ingo - as Ayla - released two singles in 2015 'Kings & Queens' and 'Free Yourself'.
In 2018 Ingo released his debut Tandu album 'Faces', a collaboration with long-term friend and colleague Ralph-Armand Beck.

Discography

As Ayla

Studio albums

Studio albums