Olaf Rupp Slaughters the Sound for the Greater Good
On ‘Fuzzy Logic,’ Olaf Rupp pushes a small amplifier past its limit and captures the wreckage at what he calls “the volume of a kitchen radio.”
Berlin
Peter Gall's Long Way Around the Drum Kit
The German drummer, a member of Web Web and Subtone, discusses 'Drum Seeds,' an album of drums, vintage synthesizers, and spring reverb made alone after his label asked him for drums and nothing else.
The Tape Remembers — Concepción Huerta's Very Small Gestures
The Guanajuato-born photographer and sound artist on the Buchla 200's own memory, the imagined celestial space she built for her signals to travel through, and a composition that took an afternoon to patch and several months to finish.
hackedepicciotto Find Their Clearing in Lichtenrade
Settled in the Berlin district of Lichtenrade after more than a decade of constant movement, hackedepicciotto discuss the making of 'Lichtung' — the German lyrics, the piano de Picciotto avoided, Hacke's return to teenage experiments, and "Draussen," a storm song with a home at its center.
Half Chance, Half Sculpture—arc rae on 'Bow and Arrow'
The Berlin-based French producer discusses 'Bow and Arrow,' a record assembled from improvised cello and randomized sample slices, and the working life behind it, in which every day at the computer is a straw pulled blind and most of them come up short.
The Groove-Centered Ease of Modha's 'At Your Pace'
The German production duo discusses their resistance to the music industry's rat race, the shift to collaborative live-band recording with trusted friends, and why protecting the raw joy of music-making matters more than chasing metrics.
Think Less, Do More — Aukai's Wager on Intuition
Markus Sieber's 'Chambers' came together across three days at Berlin's Funkhaus with no revisions permitted and no instrument off-limits, built entirely on the conviction that intuition knows more than planning does.
Against the Flattening — Weston Olencki's Southern Reckonings
The innovative composer discusses 'Broadsides,' an electroacoustic project set in the American South that treats traditional instruments as loaded cultural objects while pushing back against regional homogenization.
The Flesh of Sound — Bridget Ferrill Finds Beauty in the Tension
The Berlin-based composer's album 'Domschatzkammer' refracts instruments through one another, slows a Bach chorale beyond recognition, and transforms the harp into an emotional outlet shaped by catastrophe.
Ordinary Music — Okkyung Lee's Useful Composition
The experimental cellist discusses her ambient album 'Just Like Any Other Day (어느날): Background Music For Your Mundane Activities', a four-year project born from isolation that turned memories of Korean cinema and cheap-sounding synthesizers into companionship for daily living.
Dome Echoes — Sara Persico Captures Lebanon's Forgotten Architecture
A UNESCO World Heritage site built during Lebanon's optimistic 1960s but abandoned during civil war becomes the unlikely studio for 'Sphaîra,' an experimental sound artist's most ambitious work.
Resonating with the Infinite — Colin Self's Music as a Portal Between Worlds
Operating in self-imposed exile, Colin Self turned night into studio and meditation into medium, emerging with 'r∞L4nGc'—an album that speaks in secret tongues to commune with departed souls.