Nick Höppner unveils Folk

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  • The Ostgut Ton artist has revealed full details of his debut album.
  • Nick Höppner unveils Folk image
  • Nick Höppner will release his first album, Folk, via Ostgut Ton on March 30th. Höppner is a longtime Panorama Bar resident, and until 2012 he was the manager of the club's in-house label, Ostgut Ton. Folk is his first solo album, though he did release an LP as part of the now-defunct My My project back in 2006. "I decided to call my album Folk because I feel that we all work with a sonic vocabulary that was developed by a relatively small set of pioneers 20 or 30 years ago, that took their cues from disco which was influenced by R&B, Funk, Soul, etc, down to the most primal ritualism of tribal drums," Höppner says. "This sort of traditionalism appears to have been passed on from generation to generation with everyone adding their own perspective to it, thus making it more difficult to trace it all back to a source. One can argue that a lot of it is passed through records but I feel the most important ways of experiencing, enjoying and learning about the music happens inside a club. I also call this 'folk' as the blueprint of this music was laid out on what were originally cheap instruments from a dusty thrift store—in 1985, the TB-303 was the equivalent of a worn out acoustic guitar. Today this is reflected by the immense and accessible power of creation found in a $500 laptop running a crack of Reason or Ableton." The album will arrive on vinyl, CD and digital formats. Launch parties will be held in Berlin (March 22nd, Panorama Bar), London (April 11th, Corsica Studios) and Lyon (April 19th, Le Sucre). We spoke with Höppner this week to find out more about Folk:
    How has life been since you left the role as Ostgut Ton label manager? It's been really nice, thanks. Instead of spending a lot of time in an office, I spent more time in record stores, behind the decks and in my studio. How does the overall mood of the LP compare to your previous singles and EPs? Hard to say, as it's quite varied, I think. If you’re familiar with some of my music in the past, I guess you will recognize I've done it, it's got my stamp on it. Maybe it all is a bit more accessible and lighter and less ornamental than the tracks I've released before, although there also are more dramatic and gloomy moments on it. I've also experimented with my own (heavily processed) voice on two tracks. I definitely wrote the music with an album, or better, an album experience in mind, meaning the album itself isn't excessively long and I wrote the music more or less in one go. I tried to keep it rather concise. What does 2015 hold in store for you? Apart from my debut album there will be remixes complementing it later in the summer. I will contribute a track to the ten-year anniversary compilation on Ostgut Ton and hopefully will close the year with a new EP. I'm also looking forward to going back to the studio and to hopefully touring places I haven't seen before.
    Tracklist A1 Come Closer A2 Paws B1 Mirror Image B2 Rising Overheads C1 Grind Show C2 Out Of C3 Airway Management D1 Relate D2 No Stealing Ostgut Ton will release Folk on March 30th, 2015.
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