Piet Blank, who became interested in music after purchasing his first record "
Kids in America" by
Kim Wilde, had his first experience spinning a record on a turntable at age 16. René Runge, who resides in
Düsseldorf and who is better known as Jaspa Jones, had his first experience as a DJ at age 19. Together with help from Andy Kaufhold, they formed the trance production team Piet Blank & Jaspa Jones (which would later become simply Blank & Jones) after meeting at the
Popkomm music conference. Even though they had been together for a few years, they did not release their first single, "Sunrise", until 1997. Their first album,
In the Mix, was a studio production that came out in 1999. As of 2008, thirteen of their singles have made it into the German top 50, and three into the top 20. Each album made the top 50, including two which reached the top ten. Blank & Jones have teamed up with
Robert Smith from
the Cure,
Anne Clark,
Sarah McLachlan,
Claudia Brücken from (Propaganda),
Pet Shop Boys, and
Delerium. They have also contributed to the
Café del Mar compilation series and produced their own
chill-out albums, the 15 editions of the
Relax series. They released a single entitled "Miracle Cure" on May 30, 2008, off their studio album
The Logic of Pleasure which is a collaboration with
New Order's frontman
Bernard Sumner. This collaboration was realised with the help of Berlin-based record producer
Mark Reeder who is a long term friend of Sumner's. Blank & Jones invited Reeder to remix "Miracle Cure" and this in turn, brought about their collaboration with him and a new project was conceived. This resulted in Reeder completely reworking most of the Blank & Jones vocal tracks for the successful and highly acclaimed 2009 album
Reordered. In 2012, they produced a new album for German singer
Sandra titled
Stay in Touch.''
The Singles In 2006, Blank & Jones and their long-standing production colleague Andy Kaufhold collated their finest material on one release,
The Singles, which also included two new tracks: The album was also released in Limited Edition format, in which
The Singles are complemented by a DVD, bringing together all Blank & Jones videos on one disc for the first time. The videos feature people such as
Estella Warren and
Til Schweiger in "Beyond Time", the latter having also directed the clip. The DVD was produced and designed by Thomas Jahn, scriptwriter and director of ''Knocking on Heaven's Door''. The video for the single "Catch" was directed by Conchita Soares and Toni Froschhammer which features TV actress Nadine Warmuth.
So80s From 2009 to 2019, they curated a series of compilation albums featuring '80s music called
So80s. The series had 24 volumes. In 2011, they curated
So80s Presents Kajagoogoo. In 2012, they curated
So80s albums featuring
Falco and
Sandra.
Current and past activities The chart success of Blank & Jones is partially based on their club gigs, radio shows and other live performances including events such as
Love Parade,
StreetParade and Mayday. The success is further boosted by their activeness as moderators on Eins Live-TV and by being the co-hosts on
Viva-Clubrotation. When asked about the key to their success, their response is: Blank & Jones have performed at major festivals and raves in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia. They have also traveled further afield on a regular basis, to Canada, Mexico, South America and Australia. Piet Blank is also the host of the
Club Mix that is aired on international flights by
Lufthansa, where he hosts a two-hour radio show that shows different artists such as
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and
Fritz Kalkbrenner. The show is hosted in German as well as in English. == Discography ==