“I think a lot of my demeanor and my efforts toward a philosophy of radical acceptance are supported by listening to so much calm music.”
Known for his sonic-laboratory-approach, the Canadian producer is also known as the “Techno Doctor.” On his latest EP, however, he is slipping into the role of a director, scoring scenes from a Jodie Foster movie or Berlin nightlife.
Technically, the TC & the Groove Family frontman's latest release is his solo debut. In reality, it is as collaborative as ever. Incorporating soul and jungle, jazz improvisations and a live band, this is the spirit of a community - and a way of life - set to music.
7XIN's take on techno is raw, dense, and expansive. It is also highly emotional and political. Responses vary wildly: Most dance, some turn inwards, others cry. No one remains unaffected.
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Each cover for the Canadian producer's mesmerising new drum'n'bass LP is different, each one is part of a larger work. Some might be confused. But to 747, the concept of code as a paintbrush remains infinitely fascinating.
Sometimes barely a minute short, James Burns' ambient work hovers weightlessly at the cusp between clip and composition. Every piece briefly opens a portal into a world of blurry outlines, unresolved grief and softly lingering tones – one step further, and you'd loose yourself.
Tomkinson's bittersweet songs are inspired by the big screen, the big songwriters and the big feelings. As the “language of pure emotion,” music can connect us on the deepest level – why settle for anything less?
Maybe our narratives of the new are broken: Lingyuan Yang's latest album has the shape and the line-up of a jazz trio. Underneath, however, microtonal melodies, hyperreal virtuosity and constantly shifting constellations create a seductive sensation of inspiring disorientation.
"Now I barely feel anything // Don’t know if I’ll feel anything at all ever again," Sloe Noon sings. But only someone with a dizzying surplus of emotions could deliver these lines with such conviction. Her songs are sexy and fragile, like whispers sent through clouds of noise and fuzz.
“This band shares many aspects that make working together very rewarding. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.“
Using ChatGpt, sampling, and supposedly outdated technology, Superspace create hypnotic simulations of alternate utopian realities. Their 90s-inspired debut album sits snugly between chicago house, early Aphex Twin and meditative italo house. It's so nostalgic it sounds like nothing else.
The German duo are playing trippy house with a jazz mentality, treating the studio like the stage, blurring the lines between downbeat and dancefloor. Their latest jams were only supposed to yield one EP's worth of material – then they couldn't stop themselves.
The duo was inspired by a simple thought: As sound passes through us, it moves the liquid part of our bodies. There are moments in these first-take-improvisations which are held still far beyond any compositional logic – within the listener, however, the music is twitching with surreal delight.
After finally becoming pain-free after years of chronic issues, the New York drummer and percussionist is ready for his debut as a leader: Balancing precise motorics with mantric swing and oscillating between cool composure and naïve pleasures, this is spiritual jazz for the young at heart.
David Bixler's music is unmistakably jazz – inspired by it, taught by it, shaped by a deep and profound love for it. And yet, underneath it all, there is a constant process of questioning what seems unquestionable: How far can you go - the answer is negotiated anew each session.
Jeremy Delvila has always had a knack for minimalism. Born and raised near Paris, he also has the legendary “French Touch.” His new EP is based on the simple premise of making every single element sound as soulful as it possibly can.
Feeding his bass clarinet through an array of electronics, Ben Bertrand creates worlds of mysterious density and sensual suggestions. If Debussy had composed on the international space station, this is what he might have sounded like.
On paper the multitude of influences in Nadeem Din-Gabisi's sound cosmos – from sacred hymns via soul and jazz to old school hip hop – can be dizzying. In practise, they blend together all but seamlessly. Albums are like people to him - they are walking, talking contradictions.
Condensed down from much longer originals, two glacial ambient dreamstates for piano and electronics by Melaine Dalibert and David Sylvian reach beyond: Our human lives infallibly have an end, but this music of breathtaking stillness can keep playing forever.
Markus Rom puts the cables back into “cute.” His new album "As Late as Possible" comes at just the right time, creating a space where melancholic late-night post-rock meets blissfully stuttering prismatic melodies.
For Florestan, creativity is a mysterious and sacred space. His first solo album gently pulls you into this place with a suite of guitar pieces that oscillate between drift and focus, movement and contemplation, acoustic fragility and sizzling feedback.
“I communicate a lot through my eyes and gestures — it’s as if I had a baton in my hand, without actually needing one.”
Melancholy and euphoria are closely connected in the Paris producer's oeuvre. The dynamic tension of indie songwriting melts into the sweet magnetism of deep house grooves, creating pockets between dream and desire.
Sound, according to Andrew Pekler, always requires an act of decoding. Working with it, we can truly create new environments, and new entities inhabiting them. As his new album shows, it's a playful process of world building that never ceases to astonish.
“When I listen to my new album now, I feel immense sadness. Some of those songs just destroy me.”
Shadid's yearning compositions for piano, string quartet, and electronics exist in their own time-space-continuum. Heartfelt repetition and intuitive variation flow from a romantic ideal rather than a purist mindset: Music is not about counting notes but making each one count.
East doesn't just meet West on Shez Raja's “Spellbound.” They truly embrace each other. Driven by Raja's liquid bass lines and a hard-hitting drum n tabla section, the music oscillates between melodic lyricism and percussive bliss.
Downbeat has referred to Chris Cheek's latest quartet recording as an “understated gem.” The praise is justified, but feels like a misrepresentation: This isn't the sound of restraint, but music of great anticipation which elevates every subtle nuance to a moment of devastating beauty.
The Canadian quartet have recorded a collection of emphatically uplifting power pop anthems. In the best moments, they aren't just channelling their own emotions – they are creating dynamic feedback loops with anyone who listens to them.
“Every tool I choose has to add meaning, not just sound.“
"Words are incredibly powerful … but where do they fall short?"
For Nyah Grace, soul and rnb are not glossy aural comfort food. Her songs show both sides of life's coin: The ecstasy and the heartbreak, the pleasure and the pain, the “longing, mixed with a little bit of sombreness.”
Integrating field recordings and gentle modular synth movements, the pieces of the duo's second album embrace their urban surroundings. The music never gets photorealistic, however, capturing an emotional response instead - lusher than life and much more beautiful than the real thing.
Experimenting with compressors, EQs, and tape recorders, Maison Blanche is bringing the deep, jazzy vibe of 90s French Touch house into the present. His productions sound fresh and contemporary – while smelling as familiar as a strawberry-jam croissant on a Sunday morning.
South Korea's jazz scene is changing: The fractures of society are pushing artists to speak up, while new technologies are fostering sonic experimentation. Seoul is oscillating between tradition and hyper-modernity – and yonglee is eager to ride the wave.
As a classically-trained church organist, Hampus Lindwall plays four improvised masses each week. But none of them sounds like the pieces on his new album. Performed with endless inventiveness and energy, they make the instrument sound all but possessed.
What started out as performances of jazz standards resulted in a set of freewheeling trio pieces at once airy and intense – are these still "songs"?
The Hungarian producer's “Kraut Komet” has sent audiences dancing to its cosmic sequencer lines for years. As his new EP proves, his interest in the electronic side of krautrock goes a lot deeper still.
The Icelandic duo still believe in the power of music to mesmerise, intoxicate and scare the shit out of you. Their new album consists almost entirely of loops that don't seem to go anywhere. It's incredible.
Hailing from Akure, Nigeria, Feyisayo Anjorin has excelled as an author, screenwriter and singer. Spirituality and storytelling inform songs which feel like an African soul take on the gospel tradition.
For the South African rapper, the future has already begun. Her music and consciously word-heavy lyrics, however, aim to focus on the unchanging core of our human existence – creating connection and communion in the face of ever greater separation.
Sound artist Edu Comelles spent 5 years sculpting and continually reworking the pieces on his new album. They condense time into six soft meditations – fragile, fleeting, and never fully finished.
Music is the space where harpist-composer Brandee Younger can say what needs to be said. Her new album Gadabout Season started with rage - and then sublimated into a personal field of beautiful catharsis.
Stretching across an epic 26 pieces, DUMMY THICC's debut album is an ode to the groove. But these are more than just rhythm studies. Interacting with seductive keys and resonant strings, his drums are gateways to deep emotional moods.
For the French-Congolese artist, production is about vulnerability, DJing is about energy. By adding live percussion to her sets and relinquishing control, her vision becomes clear: This is not just about playing music, this is a performance.
“A black metal band playing in suits with ties would in of itself be a statement.”
Even into the third decade of his career, the impulse to create has never left the British soul legend. His first studio album in eight years radiates warmth and flows with effortless ease – the result of a trance-like approach to songwriting.
We need sonic literacy, Salome Voegelin maintains. Sound can provide us with a powerfully different view of the world: One where things sound and come together, where we can access the invisible and the indivisible.
"I never felt comfortable working with other people’s poetry. Not as they wrote it, anyway."
Society and the constant urge to visualise everything are the main sources for the Copenhagen-based artist's hyper-organic, behind-the-mirror compositions. It's a curse – but one they gladly use to their advantage.
The German songwriter and oboist has written a poetic album that takes listeners into their inner world. But although gestures and words are subtle, these pieces are always born from a burning fire inside.
“Is silence a right we'd be willing to die for? I'll be silent when I'm dead.”
"A great warm-up set can somewhat fly under the radar. But a bad opening set can derail a night."
Mt. Joy continue their search for the perfect song on Hope We Have Fun. But it's a perfection that comes through free association and letting go – there are worlds of deeply felt intentions within the unintentional.
“A moment of truth can ignite anywhere. What matters is the fire you bring to it.”
For Richard Poher, the didgeridoo is strikingly simple but offers endless potential. It allows for intellectual approaches while connecting us to the earth.
“I have to feel comfortable. Then, I just have to let go and play and listen.”
The French producer's hypnotic sonic dreams do not reinvent the rules of deep house. Suffused with warmth and a sense of wonder, they extend into worlds that retain their mystery yet feel like coming home.
For the British composer, film music can sometimes show things that aren't on the screen. On his latest project, an instrumental score to an imaginary Spaghetti Western movie, there isn't even a screen any more.
“If I could see Coltrane live I would be so excited I would faint.”
The guitarist and sound artist's ghostly drone works are testimony to an acute sensitivity to sound. This album isn't just called “The Other World” - it actually feels like listening to one.
The Canadian composer intended approaching her debut album with the most minimal concept imaginable. In the end, the pieces grew increasingly more orchestral, more lush, more sepiatoned – while still incorporating her pull towards the unknown and unconventional.
“The real question is: What sound do you want to create? It all depends on your curiosity and what pushes you to break barriers.“
The woozy, welcoming deep-house-textures of Gazur's new album stretch out into immersive epics. Partly inspired by the noises of Vietnam and dealing with tinnitus, these pieces get better by turning the volume down.
At first, translating the dark subject matter of a short story by Nicoleta Esinencu into music seemed like a journey into Eastern European history. As G.W. Sok and Pavel Tchikov eventually discovered, it turned out to be a stunningly visionary comment on the current the state of the world.
The Texas vocalist, composer and instrumentalist draws from her Mexican and Syrian roots for her intensely inwards-looking songs. The world is not just her oyster – it's a miracle of intimacy and utter freedom.
“Our dishwasher has some great polyrhythms! It also creates this melody which reminds my partner of the Curtis Mayfield song ‘Move On Up’!”
The left-of-center artist is using every tool at her disposal to keep her approach fresh: Scoring for film, tapping into AI, drawing from Mumbai's art scene and “working with atonal sources of sound, to create textural dance music that feels accessible and fresh.”
Electronic music is the natural home for Pawas Gupta. Still, in his productions, the idea of a band is always on his mind – regardless of the genre he's working on.
“There was a lot of smiling, but even more tears while recording this album.“
"Music can quite literally save lives."
Releasing two albums at the same time might not seem particularly minimalistic. But for Come Down and Mirror Ring, Canadian songwriter Ensign Broderick restricted himself to little more than his voice and the piano – in this vast emotional space, every single sound matters.
It don't mean a thing unless it ain't got those strings: After 15 years of relentlessly reinvigorating Swing, the Scottish ensemble have enriched their sound with a layer of nostalgic violins – be prepared to cry once, then cry twice.
Pavel Tchikov had to face emotional baggage from childhood for his duo with Dutch vocalist G.W. Sok. It translated to a work of brutal beauty, industrial beats, glistening strings, and naked poetry.
"Once it was just me and my handheld camera, the artists seemed to open up more."
Pasquinelli has been the emotional pulse behind a variety of formidable formations at the borders between jazz and post-punk and -rock. On his solo project, he is now drumming and collaborating with delicately drifting drones – an equally dreamy, intense, and otherworldly experience.
This band contains multitudes: The Young Mothers are playing spiritual jazz filled with beauty, fuelled by diversity and a deep sense of trust.
Too much coffee, a subversive humour and an un-spiritual approach to creativity drove the Irish trio's latest set of songs about feminism and dogs. The band's manic post-rock is as experimental as it is catchy, taking the pressure of their anthemic riffs to the point of explosive combustion.
As a resident of one of the world's most maximalist metropoles, Kalkotta's 303-and-drum-maschine explorer Varun Desai came to appreciate the minimalist mindset late. It's still a radical concept to him – but one which offers the reward of total freedom of expression.
Aubry's list of favourite sounds is long, extending from abandoned railway shacks and a river gorge in the Moroccan Atlas to old movie theatres and the hellbound chaos of metal band Portal. But don't get him started on the sirens of Berlin's fire trucks!
"This is the lesson we learn from music: it allows us to just be here, right now, present."
In this expansive interview on the occasion of her new album Poravna with improvisers Tony Buck, Axel Dörner, Noël Akchoté, and Greg Cohen, the Crotian vocalist and composer dives deep into all aspects of singing – from the sacredness of performing to the limitations of the body.
A shared admiration for Brazilian music from the 60s and 70s was the “North Star” for the duo's heavenly acoustic excursions. Expanding on short, sometimes 4-bar-loop ideas, these compositions are dreamy yet distinct, sweet but passionate, hazy but with intense focus.
Sasson's recent collection of songs deals with longing, hope, and inbetween sensations. These pieces are tender, but Sasson won't let anything stop them – not even having to play in total darkness for many minutes during a recent gig.
Translating their raw, propulsive electronic afrobeat to the stage remains a constant challenge for the trio. The real task, however, is to remain relevant: “Being an original artist today feels like survival.”
“Loss, grief and the process of trying to self-assure” remain the focal points of the Glasgow duo's beautifully poignant songs. This time, however, enriched by Adrian Utley's synths and rich string arrangements, they tap into even deeper and more powerful sensations.
“We can all benefit from listening to music and to our fellow human beings on a deeper level.”
Harrison Lipton's songs are deceptively soft, padded with gorgeous harmonies and dreamy grooves. But his diaristic and private take on lyrics lends them a relatably moving, and occasionally devastatingly heartbreaking quality.
With a unique aesthetic and style, KitschKrieg have made it to the creative top of Germany's hip hop scene. On London's Calling, they focus on collaboration and songwriting, while staying true to their philosophy: Being professional dilettantes with a minimal set-up.
The press release to the duo's latest explorations mentions Deleuze, Nietzsche, and the "planetary movements." The music, meanwhile, performed on small pipe organ and modular, is built on direct interaction, holding a space of gradually interweaving and shifting oscillations.
There has to be more to music than emotions, finds saxophonist Uli Kempendorff. On the new album with his quartet Field, there is. Casting a questioning mood between transcendence and the visceral, these pieces invite the listener to co-shape the experience.
As Black Loops, Riccardo Paffetti pushes his laid-back, futuristic Detroit love letters forward with live drumming and cool electro beats. It's cosmic man-machine music made by humans for humans.
Switching from keyboard to modular finally allowed Danielle Nia to realise what was in her head. Her ultimate goal: To shape her sound to the same degree as a string player or vocalist.
“In a song you can say anything you like. But I think it is important to say something that matters to you.“
Some people can use improvisation to talk to the universe, Rapturous Apollo Helios believes. But for the infectuous 21st century afrobeat of the Ruffcats, the main key is simply for the groove to never stop.
“It's a big thing coming,” Marina Sakimoto sings in the opening to her new album. But the music breathes a sense of intimacy and longing. Right in between nostalgia and euphoria lies the magic of her fuzz-drenched dream pop.
The 18 short pieces on Watras's “Almond Tree Duos” are pure, poignant, powerful in their immediacy. The emotional range is wide and the techniques diverse - but hope is always the overarching sensation.
"A musician can’t truly be an innovator without being well informed about the history and legacy of jazz and jazz musicians."
The Australian sound artist, currently on tour through Europe, has experienced sound in the most diverse spaces – including a huge disused fish silo. Still, nothing beats the calm and beauty of everyday noises.
Joining forces as it's me?, Matthias Tschopp and Jürg Zimmermann aimed at something in between experimental sound art, ambient, techno and jazz. Getting there turned into a journey.
Something's hidden in the basement, something sinister and hypnotic, flooded in strobe light, smeared with pulsating synth streaks. If you want to feel safe here, you've got to make the demons your friend.
The mostly Berlin-based trio are playing an airy, almost weightless version of motoric magic. Somewhere between Can and Khruangbin and forever indebted to the jam.
Merrick Winter's new EP is a collection of true, not necessarily real stories – picked up over dinner while riding the train, overheard on the street, drawn from life lessons imparted to him.
The Belgian producer's studio has recently gone through incisive changes. But it is never the hardware that counts – but rather the will to keep going and radically question himself in difficult times.
With thousands of kilometres between them, coherence was the main concern for Hans Bilger and Eli Greenhoe's songwriting process. As they soon found out, they weren't building bridges – but entire musical worlds.
On the return of his band Los Forajidos, the Venezuelan bassist hits a lighter tone than on the politically driven predecessor. His delirious, trance-inducing grooves between tradition, trap and robotic funk remain true to his core motto, however: Ancient to the Future and Future to the Ancient.
The Roboquarians' second album is progressive-punk-style Black Flag jazz: Free, but with intense intent.
"I’ve looked up and seen smiles. I’ve looked up and seen tears. Sometimes during the same song. Sometimes at the same time."
Joni Mitchell and Erykah Badu showed Adja how to not just believe in herself, but to actually believe herself. In her music, she is not afraid to extend her limits – she's not just an artist, but an athlete, too.
“If I had seen Hendrix live, or Coltrane ... I would probably have become a gardener.”
Picking up a variety of raw materials from Home Depot was the first step of the creative process for Nathan Davis's new piece. Gradually, the music grew into a micro-immersive space of Youtube samples, MaxMSP manipulations and suspensefully discrete, visceral sounds.
Connections and exploring the unknown are at the core of Vilhelm Bromander's approach to music. The new album of his Unfolding Orchestra is an epic spiritual jazz journey embracing the mystery of twilight states.
For his euphoric solo debut, the Struts' frontman studied great poets and lyricists. In the end, however, melody is still key.
“I have gigged when I felt like I have nothing to give. It's in those moments that the audience can carry you.”
Usually, Mobley can hear and project the end result of the creative process right from the start. For his new, speculative fiction concept album, however, he had to wait patiently for the right ideas to come.
Somewhere between The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Mark Isham's ambient jazz soundtracks and the clear bell tones and choir-like sounds of early Roland synths lies a place the Dutch producer loves to visit.
Konalgad's debut LP sits at the cusp between dream and nightmare, reliving and exorcising a dark phase in his life. And yet, these pieces move towards the light, not away from it – testimony to the ideal of physically playing, singing and moving his body while composing.
The Taiwan-born sound artist's Lost Communication is one of the most wondrous takes on animal sounds: Listening deeply, she is putting birds in the spotlight, propelling their song forward with beats, sweetening their signals with sultry soundscapes.
“The mixing stages can feel very sculptural. Arranging is more like painting.”
Growth is the key theme on the trio's new album. So why are their lovingly crafted, breathtakingly harmonised songs moved by a bittersweet undercurrent?
There is always potential for something new in the swing-oriented jazz of the British saxophonist. And yet, in our digital age, sometimes just hitting the stage with an all-acoustic band can be enough to grab attention.
The cellist and composer finds beauty in how sounds interact with the space they're born into. On his new album, every stroke of the bow and modular synth line is lovingly, laboriously shaped by hand.
Winn's new songs were haunted by a ghostly premonition. The devastating suicide of her father changed her as a person and an artist – but there was never any choice but to deal with it with raw honesty.
As a kid, the Swedish songwriter was addicted to books and played in nine bands at the same time. These addictions never ended, they just got sublimated: Words and music are never separated in her larger-than-life torch songs.
Gleb Kolyadin's Mobula touches on anything from minimal music to instrumental piano prog. That's because he believes that anything can be an inspiration.
Ukrainian producer Anton Somin talks the talk on the future of music - and his meticulously crafted, future-high, sample-shot rhythmical sculptures more than delivers on the promises.
The Israeli pianist and ECM artist had no intention to record a solo album. Listening back to two gigs of “miniatures and tales,” he discovered a spontaneous beauty beyond planning.
Recorded to analog tape and capturing the essence of twelve years as a duo, this third-eye-folk-music builds intimate spaces from guitar, kora and vocals.
Music, for Micah Thomas, fosters radical acceptance. Ahead of a trio performance at Ladbroke Hall, the pianist reflects on his views on collaboration and improvisation and how performing on stage keeps him sane.
"We need noise to keep us creative and push boundaries."
The British singer-songwriter loves the sensation of having her body taken over by music - turning into a medium for pure desperation and anger.
Ned Pegler sees no reason to fear for the future. On his deep new album he is tapping into the unknown and building instantly relatable visions of dance music from improvisations.
4D performances caught in a time loop: Using and breaking the spell of his loops, the British fusion master replaces improvisation and composition with his personal dream-logic.
Composer and improviser Kjetil Husebø had become estranged from the piano. Then, he connected it to samplers and electronics and started building alien worlds somewhere between structure and spontaneity.
The British pianist and composer is about to take his soulful modern jazz to stages across the UK. As always, the album versions will merely be a springboard for inspired in-the-moment actualisation.
In her music, Alonso weaves sonic objects of different spatialities into time-arresting drift-states. It's a place of pure experience - no one's judging.
In his new project, the Gilla Band guitarist explores twisted house, noise and making the foundations of his tracks sound fucked.
We call it interspiritual jazz: The soulful songs and blissful moods of these two multitalented polymaths extends beyond borders and genres.
To Alex Garnett, even after 100 years, jazz is still “finding its way.” Ahead of a quintet performance at Ladbroke Hall, the saxophonist reflects on the unique UK sound, the chops of a new generation and why his discography as a leader has remained fairly small.
El Leon Pardo's journey into music started with a mystical experience. On his psychedelic new album, he is channeling it through cosmic cumbia, spiritual jazz and dubbed-out electronics.
Sri-Lankan born Dilee D has found a new home in Chicago. A firm believer in the benefits of technology, his shimmering melodic house is inspired by the constant need to push the envelope.
At 12, Leonie Jakobi wanted to sound like Bon Jovi. Today, the singer has found her own voice, and her own style - and has come full circle on her new single.
"The world needs an understanding of complexity, of the coexistence of opposing thoughts and emotions. Nothing is ever just one thing."
With a background in jazz and inspired by Frank Zappa and Edgard Varèse early on, Jason Kriveloff's take on house was always going to be different. Recorded while going through serious health issues, his new EP is a triumph of life teaming with individuality.
A series of sonic postcards with an all-embracing reach and a profound emotional impact.
Debussy with contemporary grooves, Satie even dreamier than the original? Chris Gall is improvising the music of the great impressionists - looking for the link between himself, history, and the moment.
The songs of the Australian duo float in soft, psychedelic fluid – as if each note, every word and the next chord were sent to them from an alternate, liminal space.
The electro-acoustic composer talks us through the motivations and inspirations behind her latest collection of works.
Virtual and physical reality merge on this time-travelling fusion of rock, jazz, and electronica – a perfect representation of the present moment.
Equally wondrous, joyful, and sexy, Oliver Lutz's music is a celebration of his deep fascination with sound – be it from Coltrane, Tomita, fusion jazz or the singing of lyrebirds.
Saxophonist Tara Sarter doesn't believe anything is better than anything else. On her latest album, this simple creed translates to one of the most unconventional visions of the jazz trio format.
These electronic pop songs, influenced equally by Sinéad O'Connor, Patti Smith and Björk, are powerful in their courage to portrait powerlessness, universal in their intimacy, consoling by channelling pain.
Aiming for the border between divine ecstasy and extreme horror, the doom metal trio “saturate the acoustic space and overtone series in an attempt to sever the listener’s consciousness from the past and the future.”
The term “synth pop” doesn't do this collection of dark, mysterious, and weirdly glamorous songs justice. Inviting myriads of comparisons, it remains incomparable.
Soulful, sultry, and smooth, Tasha LaRae's Right Now is a feast for lovers of deep vocal house. Every track stays true to her goal: Expressing every emotion she holds inside.
Vega Trails are still playing subtle, spiritual trios between double bass, sax and space. This time, however, they wanted to see make their minimalist music as big as mountains.
Scott Walker’s Tilt “objectively” inspired the majestic trance-states of the New England fivepiece – never fully discharging, perpetually in a state of feverish suspension.
A caleidoscopic continuum from hip to jazz, a transatlantic bridge, a showcase for a highly individual band sound.
Olafur Arnalds is a fan, but Burial is an inspiration: VRAELL re-defines the borders between producer, songwriter, and composer.
Music may not be as important in an ADD world. But to accordion-and-guitar-weilding jazzrock-trio Broodmen, there is still no alternative to living jazz 24/7.
Terrible or incredible? The trio's hypertechnical metal turns towards storytelling.
The upcoming new DARGZ full-length is a family affair filled with warm soul, crisp beats and chopped-up contributions from London's new jazz scene.
Embracing multimediality, and multidisciplinarity, Gryvul navigates between radical sound art, Ukrainian folk-themes and inventive ensemble work.
Combinations over Content: The Swiss saxophonist is giving in to the moment completely on his new, entirely live-recorded album.
“Part of the role of an artist is to determine if an idea is worth exploring.”
The Brussels-based band's passionate post-rock-electronica finds an excitingly unstable equilibrium between sentimental analog nostalgia and loud, uplifting futurism.
With Spiral Deluxe, the Detroit keyboard player is shaping his vision of a bright future – between the acoustic and the electric, tradition and progress, jazz and house.
High Frequency Fetishism: On his fuzz-drunk solo debut, Denis Wanic of SUIR is affectionately piercing your ears.
Based on an old French theatrical production, the Tuxon, AZ band created a trip of latinamerican rhythms and deep songwriting - a challenge they wouldn't care to do again any time soon.
One of the great American gospel voices about the importance of natural harmony – and the cough drops The Blind Boys of Alabama swear by.
Is every sound we hear loaded with associations with our past? On the first album of his new project – a collage of beats, sequences, personal messages and blocks of sound - Matteo Liberatore is determined to find out.
No abstractions: Electro-acoustic improvisation in the age of fun.
The Dutch indie rock trio are finding beauty in a fucked up world - always looking for the suckerpunch in the most mundane things.
Pushing beyond autotune, Darci Phenix discovered the true potential of her voice on Sable – while retaining the dreamy, otherworldly spirit of her folk songs.
Utopian jazz: Music so beautiful that it makes you experience and long for a better world.
Experiencing the duo's debut album MestizX is “like downloading a mountain” - a mind-altering journey through trance-inducing vocals, multilayered drumming, naked emotion and psychotropic electronics.
The “rebel sound” marries true lyricism with a border- and genreless sound that is dark, powerful and uplifting all at once.
The melodies of the Japanese Acid-Fusion-trio keep falling down - but the effect is one of consolation and ecstasy.
“If more people approached communication the way musicians do, so many conflicts could dissolve effortlessly.”
Tradition and the present are caught in a burning, dream-like embrace in Rose Bett's songs. Each flaw and failing, each high point and low point – nothing is ever off the table.
Martial arts and creative remembering are guiding principles for the piano-percussion duo. Their debut album incorporates moments of intimacy, sonic sculpting and suspenseful drum rolls.
The deeper this single-note meditation goes, the more it creates the sensation that “we're all in this together.”
No plans, no concepts. Just honesty and vulnerability: On an impressionist, bittersweet new trio album, Mathias Landæus is once again surrendering to the flow.
WHO SHOT SCOTT's music may not be overtly political. Its dopamine-spike-frenzy gives it a soundtrack-to-the-next-revolution-quality nonetheless.
There is a lot of space in Füting's compositions – filled with echoes of the past, an embrace of magic and the will to break it.
Live, Xani channels the rawness of Hendrix and Paganini. On her upcoming studio album, she expresses feelings of loss and grief through krautrock.
Cuban folk, Nu Soul, dreamy acoustics and uplifting beats - everything flows naturally on the new JOHNNYSWIM album. Aptly, writing songs feels like water to them.
KARMÅ's music is a return to the core of club music: Alchemic, euphoric, and deeply spiritual. It is also simply classic songwriting.
Aggression and vulnerability blend in the trios' fuzzy indie rock. Revealing their darkest thoughts opens up a space of hope.
The Armenian diaspora continues to influence Kouyoumdjian's work. And yet, her ingenious use of field recordings roots her documentarian approach to the present.
From Protection-era Massive Attack via modular-synth-fantasies to stripped-down melancholia, Nite Kite is exploring personality over progress.
Energy is an inspiring potential in the crushingly beautiful feedback anthems of Mohanna. It needs to stay untethered by the egomaniacal creatures of the world.
Even after five decades, Fisher Turner is still just "making it up."
Using 3D ambisonic microphones, Barrett's current acousmatic works listen towards the future: Are we headed for beauty or dystopia?
Damascus and New York are the pillars of Kinan Azmeh's world. His intensely spiritual, ecstatically still music, however, is bound to no genre or place.
Nicole McCabe is learning to relinquish control. Intruigingly, that's precisely how she regains it on the mysterious, surreal-in-a-beguiling-way analog-synth jazz of her latest album.
Mehr's immersive installation SUPRA may sound enchanting. But its themes are serious: Unless we take action, we are headed for epochal changes.
If inspiration hits, the Romanian pianist can spend months diving into a composer's letters, and life story. Music is living and breathing – a dialogue with the past.
The post-punk band's new release captures them at their most raw and intense: Sounds cutting like knives, words turning to swords.
Inspired by mysterious photos by nanny photographer Vivian Maier, Harald Walkate imagines the narrative beyond the frame.
First, Febriani spent time in the Indonesian forest. Then, she translated the inspiratio into stripped-down, bass-heavy percussion-funk.
The London duo's haunting songs carry the DNA of 70s psychedelic folk and dreamy soft rock – with just the right amount of “roughage.”
“With the kind of tone I have, one bottle of Bourbon and two packs of cigarettes a day would probably help. But I am not that disciplined.”
Thorvaldsdottir's new work feels like a journey to the heart of sound: A slow stream of tiny particles, intimate cascades and reverberations tending towards the infinite.
Is the Swiss composer's new album a piece of ghostly resonances? A sculpture? Or is it just a space in which it exists as a sonic sculpture?
Music can just be a tool for having a good time to lisa tba. But she also uses it to support causes such as migrant solidarity and feminist struggles.
Sound is almost all-important for David Grubbs. His new collection of "distorted poems" is intense testimony to that.
The Tradition is to Break the Tradition: Petra Onderuf spices up jazz with Eastern European and Balkan influences.
Gabríel Ólafs imagines what a world of ice would sound like – rejecting the notion that there could ever be too much reverb.
Blending Yoruba culture and spiritual jazz, NIJI's Oríkì is a passionate, pristinely produced piece of deep soul searching.
"I’ve always been drawn to music that has different degrees of weirdness to it."
The French jazz saxophonist sculpts glacially majestic soundscapes – creative antidotes to the vicious cycle of noise he's observing.
The Moroccan-Yemeni singer has a voice and an on-stage presence that takes her audience on a rollercoaster ride. It's a blessing and a responsibility.
Inspired by an indelible Autechre performance and living alone in a mountain cabin, the French producer's music is pure exploration.
In his late 20s and mesmerised by Berlin's 24/7 party life, the German songwriter didn't get anything done. It turned out to be the most creative time of his life.
Recorded in an old underground water tank, Violeta García's new album was stolen, then returned – embarking on a journey of its own.
“The best way is to DJ like a producer and to produce like a DJ.“
Lauren's outsider nature shines through in increasingly minimal, life-affirming jams - but she doesn't call herself a jazz musician anymore.
A tiny tool caught every tremor and every hesitation of Garcia's hand. Her new album is a work of of fragile, heartfelt guitar noise.
For Iona Evans, sheer determination in the face of rejection and belief in the world you are creating are crucial.
Miramar's bittersweet bolero anthems find endless fascination in the "human social experience" and the relationship between joy and pain.
The Swiss-Australian pianist-composer is looking for a healing energy – inspiring both reflection and action.
“I strongly believe that community is key to fighting injustice. Music is one way to build communities.”
"I use music and concerts as a way to forget about current events, worries or concerns."
Jazz-Ambient-Rap-Drone composer Ralph Heidel still “fucks up a lot.” But he's confident “the audience still knows what I’m trying to say.”
For the Ghanaian rapper, hip hop is a case of “either you're living it or you're watching it.”
"Before we think too hard about freedom we should start by focusing on kindness."
In the spiritual jazz-house of the NYC multihyphenate, improvisation is a tool for tapping into the subconscious.
The legendary French composer and arranger (Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy) still writes music "like they did in the 17th century."
"I wanted every note to feel pure, unfiltered, and deeply authentic—a reflection of the soul and spirit of Qawwali."
Improvisation is everywhere on Ebba Åsman's hip-hop-infused torch songs. But she doesn't need to sound like her jazz heroes to honour them.
The Danish fivepiece's magical, multi-facetted jazz is held together by friendship, laughs – as well as lots of coffee.
"Sound is one of society’s core expressions. It’s one of its identification marks."
A conversation about “sucking music through the pores," becoming a sound field, and extreme sonic experiences.
“The process of DAW to Bandcamp to CDJ is starting to run out of mileage. Exploring new ways to present your work is going to be the fun part.“
"I lost a fair amount of my top end hearing so I gravitate towards bassy sounds. It’s a physiological response at this point."
"All the great improvisors worked hard at a compositional approach to improvising."
"You have to live a very full life to channel something meaningful to the audience."
From Blomqvist Sound to Blomqvist Archives
"I live right by the S-Bahn and listen to that for hours. It’s kind of irritating and comforting at the same time."
"Reacting in the moment is like meeting someone for coffee—you’re not going to recite memorized stories."
"My own voice isn't loud enough to be heard. So I'll let the music speak through big speakers."
"Each album has a different theme. On this album, the word “graveyard” was the theme.”
"Jazz has lost its meaning as a specific style. It’s a way of making music."
"Ego is not about being the best. It just gives me a lot of self-awareness and self-confidence to be able to express myself."
"Some of my music could be played by a child in their first year of piano study. There are so few notes, yet they say so much to me."
"We can’t just hide from it and hope it all works out."
“Maybe I’m just trying to fill a void, an emptiness. It’s addictive magic.“
"In a time when developments tend to draw people apart, creating something as a democratic collective is, in itself, a political act."
“My daily work consists of expanding my toolbox - so I can move from any given idea to any other given idea.“
"I want to make anthems for the place I am from for the people that share my background."
“Reimagining our songs in a nonlinear environment and creating a two-way interaction between ourselves and the audience is very exciting for us.“
"The owner of a jazz club told me that I should be careful that people still understood our music. But isn't the jazz club the right place for unbiased listening?"
"I wanted to record the lids of 20-30 coffins slamming shut. The label and sound engineer refused to help me."
"Writing feels like a bridge between the seen and unseen, between what we feel and what we want to understand."
"I try to sublimate negative feelings via music. When I come to my family, my friends, my tribe, I won’t put these things on them."
“Maybe new developments will happen in the area of how to perform this type of music.“
"Punk and Hip Hop stand for the same thing: breaking the rules and doing things your way."
"A great cup of coffee? Good beans, good grind, a summer day, a window, your new favourite song, and something to read."
“Avoiding trends and focusing on authenticity is key to taking electronic music into the future.“
"I’m still trying to figure out how to play things I learned as a child!"
For Seckou Keita, the Kora is a simple instrument channeling ancestry, secret techniques and storytelling.
“If you only have 3 or 4 elements, but they are used deliberately, you can unravel the flavor layers the longer you play the track.“
“I don’t mind being a fool. Sometimes that's what allows real music to happen.“
“Being an artist means offering a more or less unique experience that truly reflects who you are.“
"Hands rubbing on a balloon is probably my worst sound in the world. Should be illegal."
"There is only one rule: does the music have an effect on me? Anything that doesn't fulfil this rule can go."
“I normally am not loud and extreme. But I sometimes love to be that way whilst playing.“
“All soundlifeforms are welcome! No tonal racism!“
“In Brazil I make my beats way more percussive. In China, the clap is the most important part in the groove rather than the kick.“
“For my live album, I had to listen to 400 improvisations of myself.“
"I'd prefer a vision of diversity rather than merely showcasing the culture of rich civilizations."
"Intercultural collaborations push me to reinvent my role as a musician every single time."
"I can feel thrown off if a random love song appears in the middle of a breakup album."
"Playing improvised music with honesty and integrity is an act of defiance in a society that values shallow things and encourages our worst instincts."
“My love of this music never subsides. I just have to wade through a lot of shit in order to find it.“
"This album is a record of how my identity has been evolving."
“Autobahn is still special to me.“
"Controlling technology just with your mind sounds like the future. I guess we’re not so far away from that."
"The motorik beat is not just a rhythm - it's a way of getting lost in the music."
"The core idea of MM Works is the dynamic we get when playing together. That is hard to get online."
"I have tables full of machines. I had so much stuff Tresor was kind of annoyed."
"Music remains an irreplaceable and singular trance for me—a gateway to the fifth dimension."
"The recordings from Antarctica are natural soundscapes. But they have such a compelling narrative that they seem like a musical composition."
"Writing in Afrikaans for the first time was an eye-opening experience. I discovered a new kind of openness in my voice."
"Sometimes I feel that a hyper-object is millimeters from my face, moving at breakneck speeds."
"Sound design is is just one piece of the puzzle. Creating something emotionally compelling or memorable should come first."
"It all comes down to trusting yourself to be vulnerable, staying in the moment, and letting go."
“Every genre has its own rules. But somehow we always like to break them.“
“Improvisation forces parts of your personality out - whether you like it or not.“
"I like krautrock's non-dogmatic approach to music. Everyone has music in their mind."
“Animal sounds can be seen as a parallel layer of reality which we have really little access to.“
“I didn’t hear my tinnitus anymore when I stopped fearing it.“
"The future is just as beautiful as it is frightening."
"The performer is in conversation with the composer. It is NOT a one-way street!“
"When I’m feeling fragile, it becomes almost impossible to listen to music. It can be overwhelming and tear me apart."
"When words might be ambiguous, music has an intuitive, emotional power! Songs have both!"
"The overwhelming flow of information accelerates divisions within society, fuelling violence and destruction. The soundscape of the world follows the same pattern."
“Many of the new tracks really hit me emotionally.“
“The only reason I record my own music is to play it in concert.“
“It’s never right. It’s never mastered. There’s always somewhere further to go.“
"It’s when we stop trying to find answers and stay in the question that we really gain access to creation."
“Perfection never arrives. But something else you didn’t expect often does!“
“My fascination with the avant-garde grew as I learned of artists who really shook up expectations and social constructs.“
“I am often triggered by sounds of humans eating. But the sound of pigs enjoying their breakfast provokes different feelings.“
"I notice a certain darkness in AI generators. The word “fear” feels very relevant here."
“Everytime I sit behind my kora, I leave this world and enter another one.“
"I don’t need to sound like someone else—I’m happy with what my voice can do."
“We wanted to get people to move but also be affected by the sound - to think and feel it.“
"Singing is liberating. Speaking is something we have to do to get along mostly."
“Minor keys transport my thoughts to realms that are sublime and introspective.“
“Improvisation is one of the main subjects in jazz, and so it is in life.“
“Music and sound are physical events starting on quantum level.“
“The qualities of jazz can be an inspiration and something to strive for in daily life.“
"We feel closer to a group unconsciousness than to a group consciousness."
"I’m not an architect. I love starting from anywhere and being surprised by where it leads."
"There’s something about a rich, deep and rolling bassline that feels grounding."
“My neighbors mentioned they could hear me recording and that it sounded like an airplane was landing. That made me really happy.“
“I can't make music that seems like I'm living someone else's life.“
"I have a great faith in my adrenaline to help me when I need it."
"Through music, we express the parts of ourselves that words or daily tasks can’t reach."
“We can communicate with animals and may think they are interacting creatively with us. But I don’t believe that is their intention.“
"Plugins are more intuitive. You don’t have to read a manual before you start producing."
“Imagining a new world based on healing and care will require an endless capacity for improvisation.“
“There is a strange sense of being unfocussed in relation to everyday life. A phone call would be quite startling.“
“I’m most interested in the things I can’t do.“
“There's something irreplaceable that comes from live music.“
“Hooking up random wires to organisms is not convincing to me.“
“Writing can be very cathartic. But it forces you to deal with your feelings.“
“As a kid, listening to music through headphones was almost like a drug in the way it transported me from regular life.“
"As soon as I need to think hard about how to say this or what to do there, the magic for me is gone."
"I was fascinated by the idea of music where there was so much less happening."
"Key to me in improvising is toying with music’s affective simulacra to create impressions of a life of feeling."
“Jazz is a personal way of life - authentic and deeply rooted, yet free from the usual clichés.“
“I am excited to see boundaries becoming increasingly blurry.“
“I aim to project and propel the tradition. It's a lifelong pursuit.“
"There’s something irresistible about experimenting with dials and buttons. It’s not just play. It's how we learn."
“Drum brands mean nothing to me. But the quality of the sounds determines everything.”
"Part of the deal of being together in a band is actually being together."
"The beauty of DJing is in the live creation – it’s like painting with sound in real-time."
"It’s always important to acknowledge the roots of this music. It’s Black American Music."
“The control and precision you have in software and the endless possibilities with automation – they fuel my creativity.“
“My least favorite sound as a child was the banging of pots and pans in the kitchen. It used to send me into a fury.“
"I like to dig deeper into my own practice and find undiscovered territories."
"I use a lot of imagery to create situations that can be understood differently depending on what the listener wants to hear."
“There are many ways of defining what improvisation is. I don't think one definition is enough for me.“
“ I try to use all of my feelings and emotions while making music.“
“The most important moments are when I move from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence.”
"We don’t try to hold on to the music with a clenched fist, but rather in an open palm."
"I was interested in the parallels of making music and making pots."
"I often view my music as sculptures—frozen in time, capturing the essence of a specific moment."
"To some, if you can’t play a standard, you’re not in the club.“
“You can’t be liked by everyone. So I just focus on the people who do!”
"I couldn’t speak because it was too painful. So I put it all to music."
“Jazz is both about group communication and cultivating one’s unique individuality. That seems like a good philosophy for life.“
"No instrument can express who we truly are as authentically as the human voice."
"I’d rather work with my neighbors than famous strangers. This sentiment is something we all share in Scions."
“At a time when you can have control over every aspect of production, the human factor and the space in between make music stand out.”
“Timekeeping is not about following the right bpm. It’s about how it feels in your body.”
"I'm a kind of dreamer. I don’t like to express myself concretely and clearly all the time."
“The line between sound and music should be blurred. If there is a clear line, the possibilities become extremely limited.”
"There is no influence of technology on our performance. That's our signature."
“I don’t discard ideas. I revisit them years later with more appreciation and knowledge.“
"People would communicate and understand each other more if we listened. But that’s not humans' first reaction."
"Technology is pushing us towards new rhythmic possibilities we never dreamed of."
"The sound of refrigerators has always comforted me. When the fridge comes on, I have a real sense of home."
"You could call my entire process a preset."
“Being able to hear the silence in a room while hundreds of people share in that space is very powerful.“
"There were some dark and stressful things happening. But I kept on and things got lighter.”
"I’ve encountered profound bodily experiences through music. It’s a complex and undefined realm that goes beyond description."
"Words have their own melodies and weight. When we form sentences it gets heavier."
"Music is a gift that allows us to distill our emotions into sound. I need to use it daily."
"Taking a sound-focused approach to improvisation allows for unlimited growth."
"Most artists don't want to say anything. They just think: fuck, I need three more lyrics for our new songs."
"We often think of something being created as not having existed before. But we have infinite ingredients out there."
"Everything that happens in life is an inspiration to compose music."
"Some words fight the song. It's like the furniture won't fit through the door and you have to shave off a corner."
"If music has a certain amount of noise in it, I like listening to it more."
"I don’t want to travel where most composers go."
"Technology can become a supermarket. It gives you music made by statistics and formulas."
“As a DJ you can make people step out of their boundaries - how sexy is that for a job description?“
"We tune out the drone and humdrum of everyday life. But the sounds are still there."
“Music is about emotions, a narrative, a beginning and an end. Sound deals with what is there, what occupies the space.”
For Thanasis Kleopas and Theodoros Koumartzis, the Lyre connects science with art – allowing the heart to come to the fore.
"A lot of the records we love have little imperfections. They are not any less amazing for it."
"Making Art for Art's sake is becoming less important than building bridges."
"The matrix is coming. It's great and weird."
"My voice is an essential part of how I express myself and connect with others."
"What artists are trying to sell as spiritual performances is full of shit. But in a cute way."
"I do not regard my music to be an expression of emotions or feelings - but as an expression of musical ideas and of the unfolding of time."
"The voice manifests the body. The life pulse. The blood and the spirit. The here and now."
"There are many aspects of my new album that a professional producer would handle differently."
"Is there a pathway to interspecies communication? Maybe - I’m just not quite sure animals would have anything nice to say about people!"
"Sight without sound or the other way round would not be the full experience for me."
"Sometimes it feels like walking into a pub. Other times like stepping into a church."
"Listening means paying close attention. Hearing is more of a passive action. I feel some people mistake the two."
"As long as there are ideas that excite us we can keep doing it."
"Children in schools are told to keep quiet most of the day. From a healthy voice point of view this is not helpful."
It's an Organism: A Deep Dive into the Work of Hypnotic Improv Trio The Necks
"Music can't be touched or seen. It's important to deal with that."
“I believe that my new club Surreal is a unique experience in club culture."
"Many of us take our senses for granted. Seeing and hearing - what a gift we have been given!"
"When performing, I always lead myself into “trouble” at least once."
"Music is a place where I am fully there. Everything should be possible."
“When a group of people listen and search together, it creates that fluid place.”
"When I make my sounds, I always remember that they should take me to experiencing truth."
"I like the feel and smell of vintage instruments. It seems they have old spirits living in them."
"Hong Kong's discotheques in the 70s and 80s were the epitome of desire."
"I hate to stay in the same place for too long."
“Once the music is out in the world, you have to let it be and live its own life.”
"I abhor fireworks. I can’t understand why people willingly want to be in a sonic equivalent to a warzone."
“I used to be able to write ANYWHERE. Now I need a completely empty desk and three uninterrupted hours.”
"Connecting with tradition, but also forging your own path - it's a beautiful balance."
“DJing is the only time I feel fully switched off from the noise of the outside world.“
"Playing with plants amazes me every time. It's an entirely new genre of music."
"If original is something that’s never been done before, I don’t think anyone would enjoy it."
Holding Space via Sound: A Deep Dive into the Work of Producer and Songwriter Kelly Lee Owens.
"I have a lot of respect for machines and the sounds around us. I try to use them with my heart."
"There’s a tremendous structural freedom in electronic music - if you choose to take advantage of it."
"Since I started playing free improvised music, I have become more accepting of myself."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Bach eventually told me: Nah, sorry, not my cup of tea."
"At some point, equipment stops being inspiring and becomes a limitation."
Experiences Only: A Deep Dive into the Work of songwriter and producer Ty Segall.
"In an improvisation, every participant is putting a musical offering into the mix. All the others are called to respond to it."
"It’s really important to be curious about different sound languages to explore our own, and the common soul."
"I grew up with the whir of machinery in nearby factories. It never bothered me."
"Electronic music is escapism, it’s a dream, it’s fantasy, it’s the unknown."
“If we don't take steps outside our comfort zone, we will never discover the beauty of uncertainty."
“In architecture school I was creating stories of people who’d experience the building. It’s a very similar thing the DJ does."
“The main part of the ritual is the deadline."
"It's essential to dominate the technology, not let it dominate you."
“I don’t feel very spiritual. This gives me a bit of imposter syndrome.”
"I seriously cannot care about the current state of electronic music. It's absolute garbage."
"There are certain things I can’t express properly if I don’t sing them."
“You can only give a piece a certain length of time. You just have to take a chance."
"Having plants as co-creators is a new development in my creativity."
“We bring some fully fleshed, half fleshed and some bare-boned skeletons!"
“It’s an artist’s responsibility to turn their ideas into things that can impact and make change.“
“Music isn’t language. That’s crucial to its fundamental cultural function."
"Who wants to spend time in an environment that does not sound good?"
Organs, Tunings, Leaf-Blowers: A Deep Dive into the Work of Composer Kali Malone
"I knew that whatever was brought to the table would enhance the project, presenting ideas and perspectives I would never have thought of."
"The trumpet is always with me. It’s in my bed right now, next to me."
“There's a song of mine that I've recorded four different versions of. I still don’t feel I've captured it."
"Sometimes, interpretation consists in removing yourself from the performance."
"Sound, for me, is all reaction and feeling. I lose sense of what my body is physically doing."
"Every day you play a note, it's a totally different sound, a totally different universe."
“One of the things that attracted me to England was the rain!“
“Singing is very physical. Music making is very physical. Just watch us and you'll see the sweat!”
“Writing a song is a journey of many steps."
“An idea waits for me, almost in a patient way, to be discovered."
"Incorporating African fabric is more than the aesthetic. It is pride for my country of origin, it is celebrating the uniqueness and vibrancy of Africa."
"Some view the drum set as a collection of many instruments. That's a weird way to view it. To me, the drum set is one instrument."
"Our job is to connect all the dots. The output is the input."
“My process is too unpredictable for me to have any structure or routine that would help me."
"We share the same enemy. We are fighting the same enemy. So my heart was open to write about this topic."
"The sound of the melting Morteratsch Glacier deeply moved me. There is so much history in every drop."
"Your personal limitations are your identity, not the gear or instruments."
"There's a balance between embracing the vast potential of electronic music and using constraints to drive innovation."
"A machine can't truly be a collaborator because the basis of collaboration is in relationships."
"In electronic music, we are still pioneers."
"Human recommendations are central to the music discovery experience."
"You don't need infinite sounds. You need the right ones."
"I didn’t set out to be a musician. It felt inevitable."
"Sometimes, technology is seen as a new God. That’s a dangerous path to follow."
"Do I remember things? Of course I do. Do I repeat myself? Of course I do. There is nothing wrong with that."
"It would be interesting to play Bob Marley on buses, and see how that changes the experience."
"There is probably no music without some layer of improvisation. At least when it is played by humans."
"Me delivering a vocal is me giving back to life unconditional love."
"Some chords are always true, no matter what the lyrics say."
"Are we perfectionist? Yes. Do we explore different options? Yes."
"Writing your own music leads to the deepest exploration of improvisation."
"To regard instruments as non-percussive would close off a world of sonic possibilities."
"Singing is very compulsive – like hunger or some kind of physical addiction."
"There’s never a starting or stopping … it’s a never ending process."
"An architect creates works that occupy a space. I create sculptures that fit in the flow of time and perception."
"The term jazz is losing more meaning by the second."
"Every city has its own vibe. Berlin feels very raw and fresh."
"I like to use all my possibilities to offer music that is transformative."
"Recording this album was a liberating journey - akin to exposure therapy for a habitual worrier like myself."
"Being able to experiment with my voice without a microphone has been really interesting."
"I’ve had 40% of my tongue removed. I’ve had to learn to sing a different way."
"Misunderstanding is one of human beings’ most profound features."
"After the first record, I had no plans to ever record as Ceiling Spirits again."
"Singing has always been a mystery for me. It still is!"
"In the best moments, I am really transported somewhere else."
"Sounds will always carry a watermark of the place they came from or the creature who made them."
"When improvising, it’s almost impossible to be non-authentic."
"Songs as we create them in the western world are in effect mathematical equations."
"The trick is to let yourself be led astray in the right places."
"A great voice can sound good on a bad microphone. But a bad voice can’t sound good on a great microphone."
"Reading makes me want to write. Strong writers make me want to be a better writer. There’s not one without the other."
"It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I like to destroy it from time to time and put it together in a new way."
"The way we organize ourselves as a band has had to change to keep moving our music forward."
"The voice is such an exciting medium to work with. All at once it has so much power and flexibility as well as fragility and precarity."
"In electronic music, we are gods creating our own universe. It's total freedom."
“We need to express who we are to each other. Music does a good job of that.“
"Music in school shouldn’t be optional. It’s a part of our being."
"People crave human connection even more in this age of hyper-connectivity. I want to make sure I’m always present in my work."
"Live, people can really surrender to the music."
“Jean D’Arc armed herself to fulfil her mission. Sometimes music feels that way.”
"When someone feels something and they can convey it authentically - I’m so with them."
"The purpose of being an artist is to show what's inside you. But it's always good not to get stuck there."
"To live life is to collaborate."
“We try to keep that little light of mutiny burning.“
“DJing used to be very mechanical. So I decided to do the opposite: to give my audience everything.“
“The process of showing up fully to whatever it is, and bringing it all to that moment, creates something.“
“I find something magical in not knowing too much.”
"Turning to improvisation for me was a process of decolonizing myself."
“I actually think I am rescuing a song from death. I am tasked with its life.“
"Everyone’s personal history and ideas about what it means to be part of the diaspora are and should be very different."
“I love the initial burst when you get an idea. That's the best time to record it.“
"I am in dialogue with all living things in some shape or form."
"The idea was to invite a group of friends and retreat to this desert house for two weeks. In the end, Franz was the only one to commit."
"Singing is the most primal, fundamental, soul-expressive thing a human can do."
"The performance doesn’t really matter for me. I don’t even know how to perform most of the parts."
"If air makes us breathe, then the music that lives inside this air is also alive."
"If I’m not focused and putting my whole body into it, it doesn’t come out right."
"The music follows its own course. We don’t try to divert it."
"I once picked up Kraftwerk with my car and tooted the horn twice - a cover version of the introduction to 'Autobahn'. Nobody noticed."
“My first serious song was about my guinea pig that I had to give away. That was a very sad time for me.“
“I can do many other things than music. But it is what I get the most life from.“
“I see the end result, draw a path in my mind and start walking towards it.“
"If we'd shift our focus from sight to listening, our world would undergo profound transformations."
"I don't try to be different as a drummer. But I don't stop it either."
"We could never recreate this again."
"We’ve never had a drummer. Maybe that's why I put emphasis on percussive phrasing."
"There is something cathartic about beating the hell out of something."
"I can't say for certain. But we probably didn't get everything wrong."
"If you had told a Renaissance artist they were original they would’ve thought it was insulting."
"Being in the creative flow is the most tangible experience of what we don’t understand."
"Mixing up a negative world view with “realism“ can result in the reversal of progress."
"Fuck what the people want! Our music isn’t supposed to be comfortable."
"The human voice is deeply influential. We hear it even when we don’t."
"Songwriting, to me, is just letting yourself be led in new directions."
"We’re too inundated by sound made by humans or created by human endeavor. And it’s bad for us."
"It often feels like a song has been entrusted for you to write from the ether."
"This studio was an investment. But no customer will think I'm taking money for something that won't sound any better than it was before."
"Each clothing style can carry its own narrative about who we are or who we aspire to be."
"I prefer to dig, dig and dig in the same spot for a while and see what happens."
"Choosing constraints is a very important part of the creative process."
"Traffic is a block of sound, a block of noise. I feel drawen to that."
"Hearing requires more patience, and curiosity. It might help us discover information that is more precise "
"Recording has created ghosts who live among us."
"Sound is a beautiful, complex system of vibration patterns."
"Songs are an artistic expression. Not everything can be taken literally."
"I got to combine my love of basketball and music and play in a big dark empty basketball hall in Stockholm."
"Almost anything can fit in electronic music. But not everything makes sense."
"I've always felt that playing music comes second to exploring life. I consider it more as my job, not my 'life's work'."
"Records made in the 50s sound the best. Suddenly, punk came along and blew all that out of the water."
"Some of the time I may have a slightly unorthodox way of working."
"We are continually vibrating, resonating with the atoms that shape us. An eternal oscillation that courses through our essence."
"A few years ago the thought of never playing the violin again would have thrown me into a deep depression."
"Collaborations are almost never fun. They require concentration."
"Everytime I hear the old macbook air keyboard sound, I want to smash it to pieces."
"Sometimes I'll sustain really long notes and get a bit light headed. That's always a huge release."
"Having your studio work as ONE cohesive mind is something that I really encourage to those who want to level up their work flow."
"Silence helps us refresh ideas and generate new ones. It’s an important part of the journey of life."
"I'm still fascinated by electronic music. I still love the fact that it isn't real at all."
"If the reason for performing a task is heartfelt and honest, I can’t imagine how it couldn’t be art."
"The human voice is able to connect with us in ways that are beyond comprehension."
"This project needed a very precise plan. This actually set us free creatively as a group."
"In Iceland, the act of singing is always connected to memorable moments in our lives."
"Some people may think that this music could easily be performed by human performers with traditional instruments. This is not the case."
"You can learn anything from tutorials. This can also be overbearing and stand in the way of your own distinction."
"Sadly it has now become an AI arms race instead of designing ethically from the core."
"Music speaks directly to the soul and the heart. From there, it can also impact other areas of the body."
"I’m really attracted to intimate music. As if it’s a love letter."
"Making art is a way of saying: This is how I see the world."
"Banging doors and people shouting – those things can completely throw me and send my heart racing."
"A lot of us would be more creative if we had a different work life culture."
"People are afraid of really showing who they are. This is even worse on the dance floor."
Luke Gomm about a workstation with the power of a DAW in a portable drum machine
"I love a free vocalist who sings because they love to sing. I also love a horrible singer who sings because they love to sing!"
"I never think ‘this isn’t going the way I thought it would.’ I don’t have that thought in mind to begin with."
"I was so angry at a random man for shouting at me once. I just had to go home and write about him."
"I feel comfortable when I hear inorganic sounds like construction noises or MRI scans."
David Baron about an analog modular synth that encourages chambermusical layering.
"If I tidy the house and everything is neat, I can play and write music better."
"The promenade on South Street when the train passes overhead is the most all-embracing sound I can think of - a thrilling full-body experience."
"The great drummers you can hear a mile off. It’s like a signature – you just know it’s them."
"I don’t think you can ever really get to grips with improvising unless you accept yourself for who you are."
"Collaboration feels like a massage. It stimulates areas you couldn’t reach on your own."
"How precisely we communicate as humans is the very core of what makes our species stand out."
"I find being a sideman really liberating."
"I was invited by Bill Wyman to play table tennis, Andy Warhol invited us to his Factory ... We got drunk with Duran Duran. But we ended up nearly bankrupt."
"A song is a roller coaster. By the end of it, you should have enjoyed the ride."
"I don‘t like silence. It amplifies thoughts I‘m trying not to have."
"I start with what I hear in my head - never with a template."
"An orchestra is an instrument. In fact, it's the most wonderful instrument there is."
"Electronic music has its limitations."
"Making music isn’t a metaphor for relationships. It actually is relationships in action."
"I think my focus on lyrics is unusual. Sound and musical ideas are a distant second to me."
"Improvisation is the easiest route into letting the real you out."
"We’re just all chaos machines. I seem wired by it."
"My singing voice helps me speak about topics I wouldn't necessarily talk about in a normal conversation."
"Time signatures are like a fixed canvas. But the most powerful rhythmic musics are not structured under those same parameters."
"Being a producer can only come out of true passion. It isn’t something your learn."
"Words matter. Human communication and language possess incredible power."
Jake Mason of Cookin' On 3 Burners about an electric organ that brings a bit of butter and blues to rock and jazz.
"Analog instruments are a risky game. But that's what we like."
"Practical application with your own experiences is what makes the difference."
"Allow yourself to go to the uncomfortable place - that's where you could find gold."
"Songwriting is like fishing - you kinda go where the fish are."
"For us, progress is being in the studio every day, working on music and learning new things."
"I have a habit of making a big deal out something small. It doesn’t take much to inspire me!"
"Let’s experiment, fuck shit up + blow some minds."
"The delete button has become my best friend."
Balearic Vibes from the Bavarian Sausage Border
"I even think of my solo playing as being part of a big togetherness."
"Sound in movies is still underrated. Sometimes the sound takes precedence over the image."
"Songs have a sender and a receiver. They rely on shared experience. What happens when that fundamentally changes?"
"Once the music starts telling a story, I move onto puppetry."
"The body must move. It must avoid the churches of so-called intelligent music."
"I choose to study the mysteries, to go to see the other side."
"Sound is not bound to any timeframe, progression, or innovation."
"It is important to say something plainly if that’s the way it needs to be said."
"New ideas, leaving the safe zone. This is what we want. No?"
“The nucleus of our work ethic: The ability to tell the other what they created is absolutely terrible.”
"Detaching from the concept of “having a style” or “being from a school” has been quite a thing."
"To outsource human creativity to technology marks an end to the world."
"If only people knew how little we actually plan ahead."
A View to Unseen Landscapes
"I was scared of Max for Live. It felt like opening pandora’s box."
"My happiness and well-being are strongly correlated with my ability to create."
“My family was the first to hear the early sketches. Their reactions were profound and deeply emotional.“
"Music made of pre-cooked, store bought sauces is not going to be authentic. Or original."
"Every sound resembles bringing something to life and letting it die again."
"Ideas unexpectedly pop up. Sometimes I wish I could turn it off."
"It's a complex, powerful, beautiful relationship that a drummer has in a band. One that's all too often underappreciated."
"I’ve been using cheap, $100 passive speakers for my height channels. They work just fine."
“Maybe we need to make art as artefacts so the experience of it can be completely immaterial.“
“DJing, songwriting, and playing live music all use very similar decision-making processes.”
"Music vibrates through your ears and leads directly into your body and soul."
"I don’t find it exciting when a machine does it all for you - you may as well listen to YouTube tutorial music."
For Mitsune, striking this Japanese string instrument is like an arrow to the heart.
“Detroit has never left Vienna. But it's been very small-scaled. Time to change that.”
Ben Carey about a modular synthesiser with a unique sound and a heavy punch
"The very best songs come in the same time or less that it would take to sing them."
“Respect has to be paid where it is due.”
“Stop trying to make everything perfect. Nothing has more soul than an imperfection."
"If I could put on a helmet and translate my ideas directly into music ... I’d love to see where that takes me!"
Disfreq about an analog synthesizer with a sonically expansive dual filter
A plan for change from Eno's keynote at IMS Ibiza
"Editing is a drama. All your neuroses come into it."
“I’m often not taking field recordings. I'm documenting myself in the field."
"Our friendship is the most important thing. Music comes second."
“I was always more of a Blade Runner boy than a Star Trek fan.”
"The impulse to create something comes from all sorts of places and emotions … sometimes if I’m just bored."
“Every time you tell a story that's personal to you, people will find their own stories in it.”
For Reginald Chapman, the trombone is a rhythmic reinforcer – and an instrument of freedom.
“People tend to play their best when they're comfortable.”
"It was my dream to become a professional musician - but not at any cost."
"I could not find a satisfying way forward with just tonal harmonies. I needed something more."
"Music always has to do with emotions. If it doesn't, it doesn't interest me."
Golden Gratitude
"Songwriting is like working out. But instead of muscles, I’ll have a greater sense of awareness about unknown things."
"How are you going to practice the unknown? You can't do that."
"This is what we identify with: Having a revolutionary practice in art.“
“The melodies evolve slowly. Until, at some mysterious point, they are ready to be recorded.”
“With funk, great lyrics aren’t a must. It is acceptable to have lots of lyrics about “the Funk.”
“A computer, Ableton and a keyboard - and the world is yours!”
“I’ve been songwriting over 20 years. So no embarrassment left!”
"The main challenge for me is to not play the things that I know will work.”
“The creative state? It is when I feel in touch with what it is to be alive.”
“These songs are the first songs I ever heard. They are the reason I am a musician.”
"We are all made of music. When we make music, we are trying to find the way to our origin.”
"Failure is deeply integrated into my practice. I even named a track after it."
Open Line to the Other Side
“Using technology for the benefit of people is wonderful and nothing reprehensible.”
"My Spirit and my acknowledgement of the universe and all that surrounds me is key."
“We have to embrace new tech to stay competitive.”
“Most music that is considered forward-thinking is nothing but vain drywank.“
"Technology is a manifesting energy. You have to dance with it."
“Playing in a string quartet takes immense trust in your colleagues.“
"If there is a way to keep strict control of the process, we haven’t found it!”
“The song doesn't write itself. But it does sometimes express a preference!“
“There can be a tendency to always want to make something ‘better.’ But often that can go the other way.“
“I don't think God should take the blame if what I came up with sucks!“
“Music is totally not self-expression.“
"AI is pulling every single human element out of the process. It's re-harvesting everything that’s already out there."
"On the modular, there has to be a thought before any action. You can look for inspiration in a preset.”
"Just like we have no control over life, we have no control over music."
“To me, the visual rhythm of Metropolis is similar to the way music is thought about by a DJ.“
"We try not to get too caught up in the destination. We are thinking more about the mode of travel.”
“There's a perfect combination of boredom and pressure.”
"Ultimately you’re likely to never be truly satisfied - no matter what you do."
“I recorded at Jean-Michel Jarre’s studio - I felt like a kid in front of all those legendary synths!”
"If you have a clear idea of how the finished song should sound, you end up being disappointed."
“These songs felt like they were pushing through my veins.”
“For artists, or journalists, music is an endless stream of energy. We're constantly borrowing creativity from it.”
“The best music usually isn’t the most original, never-before-heard thing.”
“I’d take a laptop and headphones over a fancy, multi-room recording studio any day.”
“Lofi Symphony is my masterclass of interpretation.“
“I love the moment when entire musical landscapes are born out of nothingness.“
"The impulse to create is dialled into all of us within the band."
"It's best to get out of my own way, and let the song grow as it pleases."
"The best thing is when I hear someone play a record I made in '94, and they make it fit into a set today."
"Control is the last thing I need."
"Dance allows me to connect to music through another medium. It gives me a new perspective on composing."
Sophisticated and Sensitive, Shallow, and Self indulgent
“Lorde asked me to make some guttural sounds. She demonstrated this by basically turning into an amazing rabid animal.“
"Something sparks a memory - and everything about the song changes!"
"The widened spectrum of vibration, including sound, is the key element of material and immaterial existence."
“A studio should offer to you everything you need. Not everything you want.”
"My music works vertically, like playing Tetris, or Lego. It's about making something out of simple shapes and materials.”
“I feel the fear of releasing this album. But the need to share these experiences is stronger.”
“There is a wonderful world of unique and weird music that is being suppressed. We all have to do our part to free it.“
“Forcing myself will never help me find the right ideas!“
“Creativity is more of a state of being instead of simply producing a bunch of artworks.”
“Music is about emotions. It's crucial to prioritize them over structure.“
“If you take away all the tools, and leave only “creativity” you just have ideas - and no actual music.”
“Music expands a poem’s emotional reach. It is the place of wordless secrets, codes, maps and math.“
"There’s a misunderstanding when it comes to jazz improvisation: That you’re making it all up as you’re going along out of thin air.”
“Rhythm is the most fundamental aspect. Traditional classical conservatory training does little to equip you for that reality.“
“It's always comfortable working with musicians you know. It feels like an old couple.“
"I like having more colors in the crayon box.”
“Okay ... What malfunctioning old instrument can we work with today?”
"Being able to travel the world as a DJ seemed utterly ridiculous when I started.“
“The pleasure I get from creating a song is beyond every pleasure in life.”
“What tool can have a deeper impact on creativity? Learning. Learning will help improve the creative output for any artist.”
"I insist on creating new art when I improvise. I hate when people pretend to have a language and stick to that.”
"Creating feels less like something I do and more like someone I am."
“It's fundamental to play each piece as if it were the very first time.“
“If trying to get an idea is difficult, I’ll walk away from it.”
“Tracks in a DJ set can nudge and catch each other. They transition seamlessly into an eternal track.“
"I would like to create a piece that lasts several days but does not cause ear fatigue."
“I’m a total romantic. I find the idea of being surrounded by an unhealthy amount of cables appealing.”
“I love how someone else can take your idea and run with it.”
"I try to be organised. Honestly, I do. But it just repeatedly turns to shit."
“I dreamt of a record store where I would find my holy grail. I have now found a way to print that record myself - as many copies as I want.”
"This is my kind of “spirituality”: How we are all connected through communication."
"Production techniques and the creative outside of the song can work in tandem in a beautiful way."
“Collaborating potentially comes from our furious need to connect.”
"Often the magic happens at night. So it helps that I live in a country with only 4 hours of sunlight in Winter!"
“In some theatres they know if I’m coming they’ll have to hang extra speakers.“
“Listening to music, I've had broken bones, bruises, and a car in a ditch. Creativity can be treacherous!”
“The best make it look easy. But they deceptively display taste.“
“I try not to think too much about the creative state. I'm afraid of spooking it, and scaring it off.”
“Art is made of illusion. Books were the first examples of Virtual Reality.“
"At some point, machines take control – and drive me to paradise!"
“Dolby Atmos is really overwhelming. You have to be careful not to get addicted.”
“No Tongues is an experiment. Strict control is not really possible.”
"I let go of equipment that I seem to ignore. Well at least I try to."
"When I’m low on ideas I always try to buy new hardware or software to find new inspiration."
"Music is not about creating an illusion. It is about investigating what is."
“When our ego gets small, it loses control over what we are doing. It lets us work in peace without judging every step.”
“As long as people are on the same page and honest, people write how they want to write ...“
“Everything we are capable of imagining we can also realise.”
“If your idea works, great. If it doesn’t, onto the next one.”
"My work is sometimes weird - I need a collaborator who wants to go there with me."
"My ultimate goal is to have a band with as many tuning systems as there are instruments."
“Some of my colleagues think suffering is the best factor for creating. This is very different for me.”
"I’m selfish. I just want to find the best and easiest ways to make original music."
"Our task as musicians is to take composing back from those people who produce music out of purely economic calculation."
“A lot of my best lyrics have come from the seed of something dumb.”
"Lyrics are the toughest part. What do I really have to say that millions of people need to hear?"
"When I was four, the resonance of a bass drum made my chest and belly vibrate. Right there, something awakened inside me."
"If I act belligerently at a dinner party, I shouldn’t be surprised if I don’t get invited back! Music-making is similar."
“Unleashed creativity may appear chaotic. But it can be an infinite source of new ideas.”
"Electronic music allows any sonic fantasy to become reality."
"Touring performers are subjected to similar conditions as athletes."
“The more an artist concerns herself with being “original”, the more likely she is to sound like someone else.”
"Engagement is the key to a meaningful life. Otherwise, why are we here?"
“In Fado, souls are communicating – in their own unique language.“
“I’ve listened to all our songs at least 100 times until they come out.“
"Sometimes I walk through the city and inhale the noise. Sound is all around us, it is in everything."
“With some of my music, there is a mixed feeling. It's very familiar. And yet, I don't know exactly how I did it.“
“Songwriting has a magic to it that is unexplainable. It is sort of like god with a small g.”
Dubokaj about a powerful mixing console with a silky sound.
Mads Kinnerup about a module that bridged the gap between analog and digital.
Lake Turner about a bulky organ with an inspiring feel from a bygone era.
“Your soul is taking over your mind when you’re creating something aligned with yourself. Like an orgasm is only a few seconds when you make love.”
“Roots music was an important impulse on modernity.”
“Playing with greats like Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek felt like coming home.“
Patricia Wolf about a synthesizer with effortless flow and almost limitless possibilities.
"It was going to be an album I made for my 19-year-old self. I didn't want to worry about anything other than making it feel right."
“After the completion of each of our last 5 albums, I’ve said: I’m not sure if I’ll ever write another song, the well is empty.“
“No vanity. Everything has to support the goal of celebrating the music.“
“On my new album there's what I call a word vomit song. The chords, words, and melody all came out in ten minutes.“
“I have a hard time to really let people in. Through music I can connect.“
“Some of our tracks take ten years before they are released.”
"The songs that cause the most torture are usually my favourite tracks."
"I disagree that I focus foremost on sound abstractly. This music still has intense melodic, rhythmic, harmonic components."
"Sometimes I have the strange experience of watching my fingers play, and asking myself: Who is doing this?"
“I’m less productive the bigger the studio is.”
“My eternal holy grail? Trying to find the future of disco.“
Can’t Fake the Funk
Creative Flexibility, Flexible Creativity
"When I was in a professional studio for the first time, the possibilities seemed endless. I still feel they are."
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir about stretching collaboration to its limits on "strengur".
“A Juno-60 does not have many faces. But the few things a Juno can do are close to perfection.”
Moderat about the arguably most recognisable Drum Machine of all time.
"I would have no idea how to write a song if someone asked me to."
“We are already becoming cyborgs. Our intertwinement with machines is getting deeper every day.”
Theresa Wong about an instrument that feels like a soundbox with infinite possibilities.
“The most creative moments with equipment are when you don’t quite understand it.”
"It can be hard to know when a song is done. Especially when I’m posting sixty second fragments of half-written things online all the time."
“I was given 15 minutes at Abbey Road. I ended up getting enough stuff for 2 records.”
"The Doctor Who theme music shattered any preconceptions of traditional timbre."
"Imitation still remains a crucial ingredient for me."
"Bringing something fresh to a song is welcome. But you can‘t create a revolutionary national song if your brief is to write a romantic one."
"When I start composing, I almost never know where I’m going."
"What’s nice about music is the effort to uncover something so intangible. You’ll never be able to touch or see it."
"Every synth guitar, or midi guitar I’ve played, except for mine, completely sucks."
"We all hear voices in our head. They are private moments, some darker than others."
"One moment we are talking about our day, week, life. In the next, we are knee deep in sound."
"The idea of musicians as vessels for superhuman ideas is over rated."
"Music requires less personal interpretation. It doesn't require your intellect."
"I must create all the time. Doing nothing is something I just don’t know how to do."
"I'm a ditch digger in my own personal mythology: You just shovel dirt."
"It's important to remove the pressure that something should be perfect. It never is."
"I hear whole symphonies when the tube screeches and hallows."
"I wrote the majority of my record in a windowless room lit by a grow light."
"If the chemistry is right between director and musician, great moments of cinematic art can arise."
"I love losing control. I'm constantly looking for it."
"My remix is kind of like I’ve eaten a Debussy risotto. The rework is next day’s arancini balls."
"Often, I’ll be awake at night and my head begins to swim with ideas."
"It felt natural to write about extreme excess and greed."
Ancestral Connection
Tobias Fischer about an album that sacrificed itself for a higher goal.
"I knew this was going to be a challenge of the best possible kind - every note was dissected, and discussed."
"In the unknown, just guided by the moment – isn't that exactly where you want to be as a creative?"
"Getting started is like leaving the house: you just need one reason to do it. From there you can go anywhere."
"My pieces create spaces that one can enter, stay in and leave again. There is no true beginning or end."
Tobias Fischer about an album whose beauty turned into an object of hate.
“With live instruments and musicians, the music remains fluid until you record it.”
"Enjoy the failures as much as the successes. They are both pretty special."
"To make the music we want it to make, I have to resist certain temptations."
"Songwriting has been with me for so long. We miss each other if we spend too much time apart."
"Stars emerge, stars die. Just like working with analogue equipment."
Tobias Fischer about an album that was glorious and self-destructive at the same time.
"There are a million principles about improvisation. Some of them contradictory."
"Songwriting is one of the last forms of black magic left in this world."
"Once I've started working on a track, I can’t wait to finish it. It might be a bit like being pregnant."
“Instruments come first. What you might call creativity follows.”
"I am a classically trained flutist. Technology has completely changed my mind."
"30 seconds as a duo with Evan Parker realigned my atomic make up."
"Don’t get me wrong, I do like technology. I just have a very particular focus."
"We want to implement 100% of what we have in mind. Like a vision of a film."
"When my ex-husband listened to one of the songs, he broke down crying."
"I was messing about - which in turn became improvisation, of sorts."
"I think the element of surprise is fundamental. Isn't that why we make music?"
"It is not beauty that is going to save this world. It's music."
"I can cry my eyes out while I’m writing some of my saddest songs."
"Producers with the most broken, fucked up computers tend to make the best beats."
"Llistening to the environment is a different experience from listening to a pop song. It takes patience and practice."
"For us it’s really important to imagine the music before putting our hands on the instruments."
"Yes, I believe in the presence of spirituality in what I do."
"I hope to be able to make music on Mars one day."
"I often find myself looking ages for the right snare. It's a little bit like tinder."
"Music might be the most physical and direct earthly religious experience you can have."
"What if nothing comes? That fear now excites me."
"When a song is released it feels like it’s born again to me."
"We are very far from Prince’s vault."
"Technology can be in service of creativity. But the concept of surprise is human."
"In a film, I want the music to be the unspoken voice."
"Sometimes, the seed of a song will haunt me. I have to get it done to have some peace of mind."
"Sometimes technology stifles creativity. Especially when you're more into technology than music."
"Whether collaborating or working independently – we can expand ‘who we are.’"
"Life on earth never dies. It goes through stages of life and dormancy, remaining in a state of constant transformation."
"Music is as an instrument of union. It is a tool to demolish mind veils."
"What is the creative state like? I don't know. In fact, I'm not sure I would even want to know."
"Once free jazz exploded in my brain, it changed my perception of what music could be. It changed my life."
"I like it when it’s hard to tell if a piece of music is composed or improvised."
“The reason to collaborate is dangerous – to work with someone who is not ‘like’ you.”
"To know when a track is finished, when it feels right - that's a hundred million $ emotion!"
"Film music is like a magic trick - you know you’re being manipulated and the crazier it feels, the more wonderful it is."
"My rituals when writing novels? I have to feel good, and I can’t be hungover. When writing songs, I can be hungover."
"No amount of cycling, running, meditating, coffee or incense will help if you’re not happy inside."
"If a singer sings, “I love you,” and believes it, it can be the best line ever written."
"Sound challenges our beliefs of how the universe is supposed to be."
"I can reach part of myself in music that I can’t in other spheres of life."
"I'm like a sculptor. I look at the song and decide if it needs a different shaped nose or bigger ears."
"Africa is so rich in its native languages - and that’s a powerful thing!"
"You can transform a whole tone scale, a brown shoe, the blue sky or a rollercoaster.“
Into Non-Identifiable Space
"The experiment is greater than the plan. It always wins in the end."
Music helps a party. Music helps a funeral.
"We are god's creatures. Not selfmade egomaniacs."
"Medicine and music can help us live betters lives."
"Commitment is a very important act. It allows you to defend noble causes."
"I never like to build an archive of projects. To me it is one of the worst habits in music production."
"I hardly ever have ideas in advance. I create everything from scratch."
"If we ever know what we’re gonna do next, that's the day we should call it quits."
"House music is one good idea that you make last for 7 minutes."
"It doesn’t feel right to plan too much. It takes the fun out of things."
"When creating, a story is being told to the creator - not by the creator."
"Keeping fit is important to me because feeling good is essential. Unless you’re writing the blues."
"In the old days an artist would use her skillset for her entire life. Not so any more."
"Creating music is a regular, methodical searching for wonder."
"I have a lot of ideals. But being creative is not one of them."
"Jazz and Indian classical music superseded Western classical music - intellectually, expressively, technically, and spiritually."
"It's very hard to make the sound of a dental surgery appealing. But it's a challenge we are willing to take."
"Technology is meant to make sounds unique and personal. Sometimes, that means destroying a song."
"An idea comes to you as you wander the earth with a metaphorical butterfly net."
"Sometimes the ideal state and the creative thing are just taking a few deep breaths."
"I have one ritual only: My creative space needs to be clean."
"I worry about the day that technology will understand more than our human minds."
"By making cities quieter, they become more acoustically boring. A little noise is good for us."
"I prefer not to have too much of a concrete idea before starting."
"We have lost the ability to make decisive, strong choices in our art."
"We have a lot of "unfinished" projects. We somehow always want to start fresh."
"All the important plugins exist already. They just aren't 100% yet."
"Life is a spinning vinyl record. Listen - and you'll hear it."
"I don't want my music to engage your intelligence."
"Sometimes it’s only when a song is finished that I understand what it was trying to tell me."
"Fashion exposes the lies of what you speak in your lyrics."
"We're not better than other species inhabiting this place – we may even be worse."
"You don't have to reach a million people. Start local. Start with you."
"Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys taught me about intelligent lyrics."
"It’s about understanding when to remove sound as much as it is to know when to have it in."
Either and Both
"A computer that never crashes, that would have the best impact for me."
Keep the Flow Going
"It felt like we were sitting in a futuristic spaceship!"
"I doubt AI will offer much beyond saving time or small variations."
"I'm still waiting for a technology that enables us to create any sound simply by imagining it."
"I've sometimes thought: Peter, this could be your last project."
"It was like trying to imagine a color outside the visible spectrum."