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.”
Germany
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.
Curió Curió Turns Distance into a Collage of Voices
Luiza Monteiro sings in Portuguese to find her way back to Brazil, slipping between the characters a theatre stage taught her to inhabit.
Wolfgang Seidel, Eyewitness to the Kosmische
As a founding member of Kluster and the author of 'Krautrock Eruption,' Seidel reframes 'Zuckerzeit,' 'Sowiesoso,' and the broader krautrock movement through the lens of postwar German social history — and finds the English-language mythology wanting.
B-Movies, Bad Men, and The Notwist's Stubborn Optimism
Markus Acher discusses 'News From Planet Zombie', The Notwist's return to live-band recording at a Munich community space, and why thirty-plus years together still haven't settled the tension between political dread and stubborn hope.
Hans-Joachim Roedelius — Cluster, Harmonia, and the Endless After
With Cluster and Harmonia now recognized as foundations of experimental music, Hans-Joachim Roedelius considers a career built alongside Conny Plank and Brian Eno and insists, at ninety-one, that the only direction worth moving is further into the unknown.
The Intimate Machinery of David August's 'Hymns'
The German-Italian producer David August returns to the piano he has known since childhood on 'Hymns,' nine devotional improvisations treated with prepared strings and recorded to preserve every creak and breath of a century-old instrument.
Peter Baumann, Conrad Schnitzler, and the Fun of Destruction
The former Tangerine Dream keyboardist discusses his friendship with Conrad Schnitzler, a man who proudly announced, "I'm not a musician, I just make noise," the serendipitous origins of 'Romance 76', and a Berlin underground he considers irretrievable.
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.
Web Web's Blueprint for Spontaneous Kosmische Jazz
Roberto Di Gioia of the German jazz collective Web Web explains his philosophy of treating music "like a newborn baby," and why, when recording their sixth album, 'Plexus Plexus,' less preparation led to deeper focus.
Words That Float — Ingrid Laubrock Discovers Music Inside Koans
The saxophonist and composer transforms Erica Hunt's enigmatic fragments into 'Purposing the Air,' a double album that pairs poetry with four carefully chosen vocal-instrumental duos.
From Elaste to Compost Records — Michael Reinboth's Hybrid Esthetics
From launching Elaste magazine during the cultural upheaval of the early 1980s to celebrating 30 years of his stubbornly independent label Compost, Munich's musical visionary opens up about hybrid sounds, Detroit connections, and the art of musical fertilization.