David August grew up in Hamburg, the son of a professional pianist, and began studying the instrument himself at age 5. His mother is Italian, and his father is the West German musician who first introduced him to piano. Classical training occupied his early years before his teens introduced the counter-pull of electronic production. He taught himself to DJ, started producing club tracks, and by the early 2010s had built an international reputation. His Boiler Room set from that era went about as viral as a DJ set could.
August founded 99CHANTS in 2018 as a platform for artists and initiatives at the genre-agnostic end of experimental music, and his own output has tested every corner of that premise. The beatless DCXXXIX A.C. gave way to VĪS (2023), his most expansive project to date, a multi-disciplinary work that threads sound, dance, and language into an elaborate performance that culminated at London’s Barbican Center. Across more than four hundred concerts at venues including Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and festivals including Sonar and Montreux Jazz, August moved further from the associations that first brought him widespread attention.
Hymns, released on 99CHANTS, is a contraction after VĪS's ambition. The piano had long been central to August's life, though, as the press materials state, he'd spent considerable effort trying to unlearn the formal language it represented. The album began with daily improvisations recorded to his phone, sessions he later captured more formally with microphones placed to preserve the piano's creaks, resonances, and mechanical character. August prepared the strings with objects to make notes buzz and rattle, exuding a percussive warmth that gives the recording a tactile quality distinct from most ambient works. The nine pieces are a personal accounting, concluding an extended period of contemplation.
Over email, I asked David August about the process behind Hymns, his relationship to the piano and his musical training, and what the album's devotional framing means to him. The text has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Donaldson: Over Hymns’ nine tracks, there's a lot of attention to lightly perceptible sounds around the piano. I hear the dampers against the strings. Perhaps some pressing and depressing of pedals and the shuffle of orienting yourself on the bench. I also detect a soft rattling ambiance not unlike the sound of a calmly buzzing snare head in quiet jazz recordings. How deliberate was all of this from the start?
David August: You are not the first to mention the unusual amount of noises on the album. I must say, it is hard to detach from them or look at them objectively, as this is how I heard the piano while recording. Most of the time, I was on headphones, so I could hear the amplified sound rather than the acoustic one. It is a big difference, and you handle the instrument differently because everything suddenly seems so noticeable. And if you mix it to fit a certain modern standard, you end up boosting frequencies and dynamics.
But yes, the noises and the ambiance around the recording were something I grew with while working on the music, and it felt like a natural companion. Also, the instrument I recorded on is about 100 years old, so there are some unavoidable mechanical deficits I had to live with.
But I actually never questioned these characteristics until people (like you) started to notice them. They belong to the natural habitat in which this music was made, and maybe they somehow create a less sterile experience than usual recordings. Listening to them now brings me back to that intimacy I had with the instrument. I hear my movements and breath. It feels deeply personal, as my body and the space are physically noticeable in the recordings, which is strange but also brings an honesty and fragility.
Michael: What is your process (or preferred mindset) for 'listening to the instrument'?
David: To me, listening to the instrument is about being in the absolute moment. Being 'there' as the sound unfolds and being an observer. Listening also means knowing where the sound might want to go next and following it. It is an impersonal approach to music that inspires me most, as it is more about the medium itself than about yourself. Your life experience will help you; you become the vehicle. But ultimately, it should always be about the music.
Michael: I'm curious about the 'hymn' construct. Not that I'm a churchgoer or connoisseur of the form, but I always imagined hymns—of the Protestant Christian sort—as following a style, meter, and arrangement that convey similar feelings, and are indeed similar. Part of this is giving the hymn an everyman accessibility—anyone can sing and comprehend the structure of the notes printed in the hymnal. With the album titled Hymns, and the songs carrying the title as a nine-song sequence, I admit I imagined something in line with this before my first listen. Instead, I'm surprised by the variety in texture, scope, and tempo from one song to the next.
David: I don't think you are the only one having this association. The word “hymn” in this context is meant metaphorically. Religion dominated the early use of this, but essentially, a 'hymn' is a song of praise. To me, these recordings are a devotion, but far more abstract. There is a strong personal aspect to this album, and in some way, I intended to honor an ancestral line of mine.
On the one hand, Hymn is a devotion to the instrument that brought me to this mystical universe of music. On the other hand, this album was made during a time when I was writing my other album VĪS, which is all about energy and origin. I was inspired by the idea of how light or energy is the source of everything. In a metaphysical way, that research influenced all my creative processes during that time.
It came naturally to give these pieces a devotional meaning, if this makes more sense now. They are a collection of 'offerings' with no hierarchical order. And although they were recorded during a time of global isolation, they intend to evoke light rather than darkness.
Michael: The press release states that Hymn marks a reassertion with "a musical language [you'd] tried hard to unlearn." Why would you want to unlearn a musical language, and what does that mean to you?
David: A lot of the music I know and that inspires me has been made by people who have no academic musical background. I felt my knowledge was an advantage in some way, but on the other hand, it was heavily restricting. You end up thinking about what is 'musically allowed' and what is not. You also end up being influenced by how composers have treated music in the past, always with a serious snobbiness. I just disliked that, and I found myself having to return to a blank page. Ultimately, your life experience is what will make your work more interesting than any class or lesson you take.
Michael: I think I hear Harold Budd swirling around in here. Perhaps Glenn Gould, Michael Nyman, etc. I guess all of that is a bit obvious to name in this context, so what are some inspirations that are less obvious, or even surprising?
David: I must disappoint you, there have been no inspirations I was aware of. If any at all, Keith Jarrett, for some of his techniques on how to treat dynamics. The process here was me sitting at the piano for days, just recording what came out of me, hearing what happened, listening to the instrument. There was quite a naive and joyful approach to it, and I let things happen without judging them. I didn't want to sound like 'this guy' or 'that composer’—I just accepted who I was in that moment. And it’s quite intimidating to listen back to.
Michael: "Hymn VI" is the club banger of the album, right? Of course, I'm being cheeky, but I think anyone aware of your role in dance music will hear this song with its muted four-on-the-floor pulse and think, "There it is!" How does club music inform this piano music?
David: Absolute main stage material! The rhythm on "Hymn VI" came from me tapping on the body of the piano and pitching it down an octave. It sounded very cool, I thought, but there was no intention to mimic any club references. I liked how the rhythm was carrying the chords. But I guess that even playing such a rhythm probably has its roots in my familiarity with rhythmic patterns.
Michael: Then, how does this album and the experience of making it affect what happens the next time you step into a DJ booth?
David: My intense period in the club environment was many years ago—we are speaking the years 2010-2016-ish. I haven't played officially on a CDJ since 2017, I think! My earlier works probably had a larger reach, hence my image that is still not fully comprehended. How I am approaching music now has little to do with trying to fit into genres or musical forms. It became a form of expression where I might do ambient, experimental, club, or dub; in the end, it’s about finding a purpose and a sense of belonging in it.
Michael: As a magazine editor, I get sent tons of music, and lately I've noticed a lot of solo piano landing in my inbox, often from unexpected places and people. It strikes me that the simple, tried-and-true piano is having a small renaissance. Are you feeling this? Is this a phase that you, and others, need to get out of your system, and soon you'll be back to sine waves and 808 kicks?
David: Interesting! I haven’t noticed this, actually. But in my case, this instrument was always with me since I was 5. And those recordings [for Hymn] were made in early 2021. There were just other projects and priorities that apparently had to come first, so it was about waiting for the right moment to release them. But the mixes you hear are actually the same as they were in 2021. It was just mastered last year. Not sure when I’ll be back to solo piano, but I feel musically all over the place, and I love that. There is a more 70s/80s Italian-influenced project coming out later this year. I have a lot of ambient/experimental stuff on my hard drive, along with a good collection of club material. Several collaborations, too, and some scoring projects. It's very colorful at the moment, and I want to keep it this way and not stick to a box or genre.
Michael: Finally, what's something you love that more people should know about?
David: I really love cooking. I am obsessed with it. It was the first thing I wanted to do when I was little; music came later. So it remained an instinctive and passionate medium for me. Coming also from an Italian family, I have found food and cooking to be omnipresent topics. I would love to open a restaurant at some point. Not necessarily to be there all the time, but just to build a place for hospitality and fulfilling tastes where people can come together. And cooking really is a bit like making music. You play with ingredients and understand what harmonizes well and what does not.
Check out more like this:
Arina Korenyu
Mykadelica
Comments