Sonja Moonear/ Taimur Agha at Output

After studying classical music in her youth, Sonja Moonear set aside the piano in favour of the turntables and
bought a Roland R8.

Surrounded by the Swiss mountains, Sonja immersed herself in the Geneva underground before finally infiltrating the ranks of the Weetamix residents in 2002. From that point on, participating in ever more ambitious projects, she was tapped by an international agency and started the road trip.

Moonear slowly began collaborating with artists like Luciano and Dimbiman/Zip, along with Dandy Jack as Junction SM. She has acquired an impressive international reputation, playing in clubs and festivals worldwide.

In the last couple of years she's been releasing her own tracks and remixes on renowned international labels such as Karat and Perlon. She runs the label Ruta5 and organises various events in Switzerland aswell as the ever growing Kiss Me festival. On top of that, she is a sound designer for the swiss-french TV.

This artist from Geneva evades easy categorisation however: her sets reflect an enormous wealth of ideas and creativity and lead her to perpetually redefine her style. Her musical background, eclectic tastes and enviable record collection have made miss Moonear a much sought-after DJ.


As co-founder, resident DJ, and primary creative director of Blk|Market Membership since its founding in 2006, Taimur Agha has been instrumental in building the rapidly growing New York dance community to where it now stands. A participant in the late ‘90s’ and early 2000s famed club residencies in NYC, including Sasha & Digweed’s legendary stint at Twilo and the equally illustrious era of Danny Tenaglia and Deep Dish at Vinyl, he weathered the club scene’s dissolution post 9/11 and the retreat to the underground, and when Bill Patrick, Nick Ac, and Dennis Rodgers parted ways at the end with ROBOTS, they handed the torch to Taimur and his partner Fahad Haider to become the new leading lights of a re-established dance culture that would take the city into its next nightlife era.

Blk|market Membership’s list of guests reads as a who’s who of contemporary artists from the era, hosting debuts from the Wighnomy Brothers, Cassy, San Proper, Jamie Jones, Skudge, Rødhåd, Mike Dehnert, Apollonia, and many more, as well as the returns of legends like Laurent Garnier and Scan X’s L.B.S. project, Carl Craig, Moritz von Oswald, Francesco Tristano, and a rare 2013 appearance by Dan Bell as DBX. Frequent regular guests include Margaret Dygas, Robag Wruhme, DJ Koze, and Innervisions’ Ame & Dixon; Secretsundaze holds current a residency, and they have been honored to host past residencies for Craig Richards, Scuba’s SUB:STANCE, Ostgut Ton, and Cocoon Heroes. Taimur’s personal DJ resume includes appearances at world renown locales like fabric, Panorama Bar, Trouw, Club der Visionaere, Renate, Ibiza’s Zoo Project and tiNI & the Gang parties, Vertigo, Montreal’s legendary STEREO, Chicago’s Smart Bar, Gipsy, the sadly-closed Arma 17 in Moscow, Paris’ Sundae, Dubai’s Analog Room, Romania’s Sunwaves festival, and many more across the United States from Hawaii to New York and around the world from Tokyo to Bogota. He has mixed alongside many of the world’s best-known DJs, including Craig Richards, Sasha, Digweed, Michael Mayer, Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Lee Burridge, Adam Beyer, Ivan Smagghe, Onur Ozer, DJ Koze, Marco Carola, Ben Klock, Scuba, Luke Slater and friends like Three, Bill Patrick, Francis Harris, and Alexi Delano. Locally, he has presided over most of New York’s most noted night spots, past and present, including a personal invitation to play at Danny Tenaglia’s loft, Output, TBA Brooklyn, LOVE, Wolf+Lamb’s Marcy Hotel, and an uncountable number of temporary addresses. Taimur and Fahad also now hold a monthly residency at the Standard Hotel’s prestigious Le Bain while continuing their underground activities.

As head buyer and head of distribution at Halcyon Records from 2008 until mid-2014, Taimur sustained New York’s struggling dance scene through difficult times and helped set the tone for its resurgence. His community-oriented radio show The Bandwagon ran 116 episodes during his tenure at Halcyon and helped to bring together labels and promoters from around the city, with appearances from his own Blk|Market talent and showcases for The Bunker, ReSolute, L.I.E.S., Deconstruct Music, Underground Quality, The Corner, Plan B Recordings, Voodoo Down Records, and more with a list of talent that includes Rhadoo, Fred P, Adam X, tiNI, Aybee, the Martinez Brothers, DJ Qu, Joey Anderson, Anthony Parasole, Kyle Hall, Function, Christopher Rau, Thugfucker, Reade Truth, Recondite, DVS1, Radioactive Man, Boddika, Gerd Janson, Juan Atkins, A Made Up Sound, Mr.Ties, Raresh, and Elbee Bad, and many of those previously mentioned. His A&R vision for distribution led to agreements with Novel Sound, Deconstruct, The Corner, Strength Music, Inimeg, Sonic Groove, White Material, Scissor & Thread, LAG, Blank Slate, Dystopian, and more. On the strength of these accomplishments, Taimur at last devoted himself full-time to his own DJ career, to the management of his labels Higher Frequencies and BlkMarket Membership, and to his still-growing nightlife empire. With eight years of history and accolades for helping to revive one of the world’s most important dance music centers, Taimur and Blk|Market Membership hold an esteemed position as architects of New York’s contemporary scene as well as guiding lights for its future.