Christian Löffler has fast become one of our favourite producers here at Uneek Ibiza. From discovering through the Cercle youtube last year, with his brilliant set at the amazing Fontaine de Vaucluse (check it out below – well worth a watch!), we’ve been following the German’s musical path since. We love the beauty in his tracks A Hundred Lights and A Forest (both 7 years old now), and when his new upcoming album Graal (Prologue) landed in our inbox, we dropped everything and gave it a listen.
It all started around aged 14 for Christian. Living in a secluded region, lacking a musical surrounding, he had to teach himself the essentials of making electronic music. Before long he developed his own deep and moving sound, colored with a melancholic undertone- Music for the soul & for the body. He also works as a visual artist, following the same approach when making music that he’s following when painting or taking photos. It is more about telling a story than making everything accessible right from the start.
Graal (Prologue), his new project, utilises both, but it was not born solely of his creative urges. It also stems from frustration, and a sense that while touring he no longer had the mental space or
down time to let his creativity flourish. Following an intense period of live concerts, where his music felt
stagnated Löffler would find himself solely focused on visual art – painting, drawing, and “some video stuff”, but absolutely no music. This return to his roots reminded him how it felt when he first started making music, and allowed him to “turn off my brain a bit, especially thoughts about what is possible or not”. In other words, it gave him freedom. He had a series of “sketches” on his touring laptop – “little melodies, or nice lines on my synthesiser, that were born on the fly” – built over untold hours in hotels, layovers, and long drives while on the road. “Music is made differently when you are somewhere else than in the studio,” he says. “They were rough ideas; very, very open.”
Freshly inspired, he set to work on these raw forms in a back-to-basics approach that also saw him return to
the software he used at the start of his career – Logic. “When I first started making electronic music, it took me one week to get a sound out of it. It was crazy!” he remembers. “But it was also exciting, like a new world opening up. Switching softwares – Ableton has been his first choice for years – took him out of his comfort zone, forcing him to virtually “re-learn” how to turn ideas into sounds.
The result is Graal (Prologue), an album that is named after the town he calls home – a windswept yet picturesque German outpost on the Baltic coast – and the rugged beauty and wonder of the area’s famed landscapes
shines through the whole record. 6 beautifully created and melodic tracks – “Like”, “Refu” and “Graal” are slow, deep and at times cinematic. “Running” (feat Josephine Philip) is a lovely vocal track.
For us, our two favourite tracks from the album, are, firstly, “Bird”, which is full of beautiful, warm sounds which explode to life half way through. This track was conceived during late-night jam sessions in gardens underneath starry skies. “Ry” is brilliant melodic techno that builds and builds. It reminds of tracks produced by the excellent Nathan Fake, and is perfect for a warm summers day.
https://twitter.com/uneekibiza/status/1102163694564401154
Christian played a live set in Brooklyn for The Lot Radio whilst on tour in NYC on March 2 – check it out here below;
Playing a live set at The Lot Radioi!
Posted by Christian Löffler on Saturday, 2 March 2019
For more info head to Christian’s website and social medias;
https://www.christian-loeffler.net
https://www.facebook.com/christianloefflerofficial