The more than 20-year history of the KOMPAKT ranges from the small beginnings of an underground record shop in Cologne to a company shaped by Kompakt mastermind Wolfgang Voigt into an expanding family business to a label, a worldwide distributor, a music publisher, a mail order and finally an internationally operating artist agency. Since the last big move to its own domicile in Cologne's Werderstaße in 2003, all aspects and business fields of the company have been gathered under the roof of one house, the heart of which, however, is still a well-stocked record shop.

In almost three decades, the local nucleus of the founding fathers Wolfgang and Reinhard Voigt, Jürgen Paape, Jörg Burger and finally Michael Mayer has become an international centre for electronic aspects of life. Artists such as Justus Köhncke, Thomas Fehlmann, COMA, Sascha Funke, Rex The Dog, Superpitcher, DJ Koze, Tobias Thomas or Matias Aguayo are just as naturally associated with the Kompakt sound as international headliners such as Kölsch, Gui Boratto, the Pachanga Boys, WhoMadeWho, Patrice Bäumel and of course Michael Mayer himself, as THE Kompakt ambassador behind the turntables par excellence.