Like the vampires of myth and legend, there's a haunting loneliness that comes with the territory of being Claptone. The ageless spectre is the perennial lone wanderer. And yet, he is not adverse to the occasional strange bedfellow, as the programme for The Masquerade dictates...
Our faceless protagonist has his own black book of acquaintances and cohorts to call upon on his return to Amnesia in 2024.
Throughout summer, Claptone pairs up with numerous guests, as well as conducting many spine-tingling solo sets.
He opens The Masquerade account on 25 June with one such link up, inviting Boys Noize as his back-to-back partner. James and Mark of Solardo form their own tandem, as do David Penn and Ferreck Dawn and island favourites Andy Baxter and Jason Bye on the undercard.
Other pairings to look out for, include Hannah Wants and Paul Woolford (9 July), Hannah Wants and Lee Foss (16 July), Eats Everything and Paul Woolford (27 August) and Paul Woolford and Melé (10 September).
Later in the programme, Claptone teams with Flight Facilities. If you take a closer look, you might spot a few more combinations.
Aside from Solardo, who pop up four times, there's a number of other pre-packaged double-acts.
Groove Armada, Mambo Brothers, Tube & Burger, andhim and Tom & Collins all have bookings.
Other notable guests spinning, include Roger Sanchez, Purple Disco Machine, Nora En Pure, Martin Ikin, Arielle Free, Obskür, HUGEL, KOROLOVA, Paisley Jensen and the boys from JVNGLE, who'll play a DJ set.
Our masked host closes the summer with a back-to-back frenzy. He's joined in the booth alongside four separate DJ partners on 17 September: the Solardo boys, Chelina Manuhutu and David Penn.
Just for good measure, loveable rogues Andy Baxter and Jason Bye repeat their feat from the opening party on warm-up.
Week-by-week line-ups for the Main Room, hosted by HE.SHE.THEY., are still under development and will be released in the near future. Although the names of the DJs playing can be seen in the artwork above.
Anyone who likes things tougher, rougher, frayed around the edges and darker, should keep keep those eyes out for those. As always, we'll be the first to let you know.
The last remaining early bird tickets are on sale for all dates and can be picked up below.
