Fred P

Fred P, born Fred Peterkin, has spent more than two decades turning New York's house lineage into something more interior: warm chord progressions, off-kilter rhythms, and productions built more like sonic diaries than club tools. Raised in Brooklyn and Queens, he built his catalogue first through his own label Soul People Music and later through Perpetual Sound, all while recording prolifically under Black Jazz Consortium, FP-Oner and other aliases. Since relocating to Berlin in 2012, his sound and his address have both drifted deeper into Europe's house and techno circuits, without losing the soul and jazz roots he grew up on in New York's clubs.

From Flatbush to the Booth

Peterkin was born in Queens and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in a household where his parents were serious record collectors, an early, constant exposure to soul, jazz, disco and hip-hop that still runs through his productions. He began producing at 15 and spent four years as what he has called a "studio rat" at Platinum Island Studios, learning the craft from the inside. He came up going to New York clubs like Red Zone, Sound Factory and Tunnel, watching David Morales, Frankie Knuckles and Danny Tenaglia work a room, an education that shaped his belief that house music is, at its core, a continuation of soul and jazz rather than a break from it.

His career has not been a straight line. Peterkin has spoken about turning down a lucrative major-label deal early on over creative control, and later going through a genuinely difficult stretch, selling his equipment before a reconnection with fellow DJ Jay Locke pulled him back toward music. What followed was one of house music's more prolific, least commercial catalogues, built almost entirely on his own terms.

Soul People Music, Perpetual Sound and Black Jazz Consortium

In 2005, Peterkin founded Soul People Music, first as a digital outlet and later, from around 2007, as a vinyl label carrying both his Fred P records and his debut album under the alias Black Jazz Consortium. The Black Jazz Consortium name started life as "Brooklyn Jazz Consortium," a nod to the Consortium for Worker's Education in Brooklyn where he was employed at the time; he liked how the word "consortium" suggested different entities working toward one purpose. After moving to Queens, he changed "Brooklyn" to "Black," partly because the geography no longer fit and partly as a statement of identity, while keeping "Jazz" for what he has described as its free, exploratory spirit.

Soul People Music wound down in 2018 after his distributor closed, and Peterkin responded the same year by launching Perpetual Sound, opening the label with a new Black Jazz Consortium EP. Perpetual Sound went on to release Black Jazz Consortium's "Evolution of Light" in November 2019, a 12-track album that leaned into Brazilian music and collaborations with Brazilian musicians, his first full-length under the alias since 2013's "Codes and Metaphors." He has continued building out his own label infrastructure since, most recently through the newer Collective Resource imprint.

Beyond his own labels, Peterkin has released across house and techno's more discerning end, including EPs on Jus-Ed's Underground Quality label. Jus-Ed, who was introduced to Peterkin's work through DJ Jenifa Mayanja, took him on as something close to a mentor, and Peterkin has credited him directly with teaching him "how to make records and what it takes to at least be consistent." He has also released three FP-Oner albums, a deliberately gauzier, more introspective house project, on the Tokyo label Mule Musiq, and recorded a techno-leaning alias, Anomaly, inspired by time spent inside Berlin's club scene.

Live at RTS.FM

Fred P's connection to RTS.FM comes from a DJ set recorded at the channel's St. Petersburg studio in October 2010, capturing him mid-stream in the run of prolific solo work that defined his Soul People Music years.

Sound and Reputation

Critics have consistently reached for the same vocabulary to describe Peterkin's work: warm, broody melodies drenched in reverb, dense textures, smeared samples and rhythms that sit slightly off the grid. Resident Advisor has called his catalogue home to "some of the smoothest and most evocative four-to-the-floor tracks" to come out of New York over the past two decades, while Peterkin himself has described his own music as "relatively simple, but mood intensive," and his tracks as a kind of sonic diary. That reputation has carried him to bookings at rooms including Panorama Bar and Tresor, DJ sets built, by most accounts, around patient, storytelling arcs rather than obvious peaks.

FAQ

Who is Fred P?

Fred P, born Fred Peterkin, is a house music producer and DJ born in Queens and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, now based in Berlin, known for a deep, jazz- and soul-inflected sound built across his own labels and a run of production aliases.

What is Black Jazz Consortium?

Black Jazz Consortium is Fred P's main production alias, originally launched as "Brooklyn Jazz Consortium" before he renamed it after moving from Brooklyn to Queens, with releases including the 2019 album "Evolution of Light" on his label Perpetual Sound.

What label does Fred P run?

He founded Soul People Music in 2005, which closed in 2018, and followed it the same year with Perpetual Sound, both built primarily around his own catalogue and his Black Jazz Consortium alias, alongside a newer imprint, Collective Resource.

What is Fred P's connection to Jus-Ed?

Jus-Ed, founder of the Underground Quality label, was introduced to Fred P's work through DJ Jenifa Mayanja and mentored him early in his career. Fred P has credited Jus-Ed with teaching him how to make records and stay consistent, and the two have released music together on Underground Quality.

Has Fred P performed at RTS.FM?

Yes. RTS.FM's archive includes a DJ set Fred P recorded at the channel's St. Petersburg studio on October 9, 2010.