Found Sounds #6

2025 has been moving at break-neck speed and it became increasingly difficult to separate signals from noise, make sense of everything that was happening, or even keep track of what exactly was going on. On the plus side, something similar could be said about Berlin’s music scene: Despite all the turmoil around them, the artists and labels working in this city kept pushing the envelope. This instalment of the Found Sounds series is hence dedicated to many of the records that were not mentioned in previous editions—68 of them. While that sounds like a lot, there was a lot more that still slipped through the cracks.

Sebastian Solte’s bastille musique has become an important platform for adventurous approaches to contemporary composition. Besides interpretations of Boulez pieces by the Collegium Novum Zürich and Ensemble Contrechamps, pianist Maroussia Gentet working with Ensemble Cairn to bring compositions by Chopin and Ramon Lazkano to life, and  cellist Anssi Karttunen and pianist Nicolas Hodges’ recording the entire catalogue of Betsy Jolas, Sarah Nemtsov’s four-part »Tzimtzum« cycle was a clear highlight. Performed by Ensemble Nikel and the WDR Sinfonieorchester, these recordings are as intellectually stimulating as they are emotionally gripping.

With »Input (The Sofia Versions),« Stefan Goldmann followed an unusual approach: He provided different composers with electronic recordings that were transcribed by Adrian Pavlov, Daniel Chernov, and Lukas Tobiassen and then performed by the Ensemble 180°. This process of acoustic reverse-engineering had already taken place in 2015, but Goldmann also released brand-new material through his Macro label this year: »Live at Borusan Müzik Evi (Istanbul)« was the third in a series of site-specific concerts performed by the artist. The composer’s background in dance music shines through this ode to the hustle and bustle of the Turkish metropolis.

On his debut album »Abjad Dream (Piano and Electronics)« for Noise à Noise, Idin Samimi Mofakham enters into a dialogue with time instead of space: The pieces are based on translations of the titular ancient Iranian notational system. Also Chris Korda looked to the past for »Granularism,« released through Kervokian, asking the striking question: Do atonal and 12-tone musics have to sound dissonant? Korda doesn’t think so. These compositions for orchestral strings or solo piano are based on a theory outlined in a paper that provides a musicologist explanation for why they feel both full of friction and smooth at once.

Speaking of which, we have to talk about alternative tunings—which, in a Berlin context, always means Jules Reidy and Fredrik Rasten. Australian-born Reidy has kept dizzyingly busy, collaborating with drummer Andrea Belfi for the wonderful »dessus oben alto up« at the end of 2024 before releasing the solo record »Ghost/Spirit« on Thrill Jockey as well as a collaboration with clarinetist Sam Dunscombe for Futura Resistenza, »Edge Games.« The former saw Reidy work at the intersection of microtonal experimentation and pop sentiment, while on the latter the duo engages in a dialogue that is first cheerfully noisy and finally embraces the emotional qualities of venturing beyond well-tempered norms.

Like Reidy, Rasten primarily works with the guitar, is interested in alternative tunings and microtonality, and can’t possibly get much sleep considering the frequency in which he releases music. This year, he released two solo albums, »Murmuration and Stasis« for Moving Furniture and the self-published »Murmuration VII,« »strands of lunar light« for Aspen Editions with guest musician Ruben Machtelinckx and the Asterales collaboration »Fuse Modulations« on thanatosis as well as »Dragon’s Return« on VIERNULVIER with Oren Ambarchi, a belated score for Eduard Grečner’s 1967 film of the same name.

In his solo work, Rasten multiplies himself by working with several guitars played with an e-bow to create layered drone pieces that necessitate deep listening as much as they reward it. Whenever he slowly works his way through different tonal spectrums, his approach becomes reminiscent of Éliane Radigue’s. His collaborations are less conceptually strict, which is especially true for »Dragon’s Return.« Rasten and Ambarchi complement the sounds of theiir string instruments with the occasional vocal contribution or shells and flutes. It is a marvelous, deeply mysterious rescore.

Ambarchi’s Black Truffle has, among others, released installation artist Konrad Sprenger’s »Set,« the rare live recording »Metamusik Festival Berlin ‘74« by Salamat Ali Khan, and Christer Bothén’s stunning »Donso n’goni« in 2025. One of the definitive highlights this year was a wonderful album by dhrupad maestra Amelia Cuni with violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Deborah Walker as well as cellist Anthea Caddy and Werner Durand on saxophone. The two duos entered into a posthumous dialogue with a 2012 recording of the late Cuni. »Melopea« is a unique album in every respect—a meeting of kindred spirits, a sort of séance.

Speaking of both guitars and collaboration, Pedro Oliveira & Morgan Sully’s improvised pieces on »blue fifty-five« for the British label Blue Tapes are as atmospheric as they are anarchic. Researcher and sound artist Oliveira on baritone guitar and L_KW co-founder Sully on e-guitar cite artists such as Neil Young, Sunn O))) and Bill Orcutt as influences, and this very much checks out. Sully’s self-released »Phone Recordings« also feature him singing and aim for an outsider music style à la Daniel Johnston. For his work in glitchy and noisy electronics, consult his »Landscape Noon Studies« on L_KW under his Memeshift alias.

Ruben Mattia Santorsa’s approach to the guitar is no less iconoclastic. The three pieces on »Unpolished Clouds« were composed by Giulia Lorussa and are the result of a long-running collaboration between the two. As the inaugural release on Santorsa’s Dissonant Bear label, the EP has a manifesto-like character. It ranges from the atmospheric to the abrasive, exploring the untapped potentials of the guitar. The oud is a similarly old instrument, and also Aly Eissa finds new ways of playing it. On the aptly titled »The Fruit Fly« for Feral Note, Eissa’s playing is as virtuosic as it is lively—this is storytelling in motion.

The primary sound source of Michael Vorfeld’s album »Glühlampenmusik« for the ever-prolific Karlrecords, that also welcomed Martina Bertoni again for an album dedicated to the halldorophone this year, is just what it says on the tin: These literally electrifying noises were made with light bulbs. Similarly abrasive is Cedrik Fermont’s »Es könnte der Anfang sein« on his own Syrphe label. Following up on »The Dream Border,« a more song-oriented collaborative album with Dora Bleu and Periklis Tsoukalas, these two pieces opt for ear-splitting guitar drones and screeching rhythms. A beautiful tour de force.

Lucy Railton’s »Blue Veil« on Ideologic Organ is the first record to showcase her work as a solo performer since 2020’s gripping »Lament in Three Parts.« After the Berlin-based cellist had previously worked with other artists and focused heavily on electroacoustic techniques, the seven pieces prove that her music doesn’t sound restrained even when she only uses her main instrument and composes in the moment. Coincidentally, Judith Hamann’s »Aunes« on Shelter Press sees Railton’s colleague and occasional collaborator using more additional instruments and sound sources than before for a record that feels no less intimate.

Kai Fagaschinski’s »Aerodynamics« on Ni Vu Ni Connu is in a sense both a group effort and a solo album. For the first piece, the clarinetist got together with The Paranormal Clarinet Society to record a composition conceived as »a kind of acoustic 8-channel-installation,« whereas the second one sees him, per the title, »Surrounded by Idiots,« i.e. combining nine solo improvisations by the artist. Much like his colleague, Bryan Eubanks vastly expands the sonic possibilities of his soprano saxophone on »Songbook« for Sacred Realism to mind-melting effect; dialoguing with himself, his instrument, and electronics.

The Saviet/Houston Duo’s songbook is a more literal one: On »Lines We Gather« for Winter & Winter, violinist Sarah Saviet and pianist Joseph Houston perform pieces by Iannis Xenakis, Enno Poppe and Rebecca Saunders as well as other composers. However, with »Walking, Waking,« the album also includes a collaborative composition that showcases their suspenseful, playful approach. For »the mendelssohn-project« on Cologne’s sts|sts, organist Annie Bloch and violinist Emily Wittbrodt look even further into the past, recomposing Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s op. 37 and enriching it through improvisation.

Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko take their cues from an even older source. The duo had performed pieces from »Гільдеґарда (Hildegard)« several times in Berlin before eventually releasing their imaginative interpretations of abbess and mysticist Hildegard von Bingen’s songs on the Unsound label. It turns out that the exhilarating interplay of Saienko’s expressive vocal performance and Heinali’s impactful work with the modular synthesizer also unravels its power in a studio setting: von Bingen’s music has been reinterpreted countless times, but never before like this.

Speaking of the sacred, Lyra Pramuk picked up some spiritual threads on »Hymnal,« the inaugural release of the composer and vocal artist’s pop.soil label. Pramuk’s affinity for club music informs this work, but her experimental approach and the complex ways in which she works with her vocals let it defy categorisation. »Hymnal« has this in common with »Archaeology of Intimacy« by Marta Forsberg on Warm Winters Ltd. Nominally her poppiest album, Forsberg’s background in drone minimalism makes it much more than just a collection of vocal collages. Both albums have their unconventional treatment of the human voice and the tenderness they find in rigorous experimentalism in common.

»Archaeology of Intimacy« also features bassist Andreas Dzialoch, one of the founders of Hyperdelia. While the Berlin label has been taking it slowly in recent times, it has also become a bit weirder. Case in point: »Only birds know how to call the sun and they do it every morning« by Kaj Duncan David & Scenatet, a sort of digital art brut album that heavily features David’s manipulated voice. »Perfect Pattern« by Nic Krog is, for most of its runtime, also very vocal-centric. However, their Psychic Liberation debut opts for a spoken-word approach and an overall rougher aesthetic, drawing on industrial, noise, and club music.

Nicholas Bussmann also duets with a machine on his »little ideas« EP. Released through his own Grand Prix d’Amour as the first part of a trilogy, it features the seasoned improviser and Winfried Ritsch’s piano robot on three politically charged songs that are emotionally evocative: Lines like »Watching a genocide / From the beach« become twice as impactful when they are accompanied by the mechanical-yet-chaotic sounds emanating from his unconventional instrument.

For his 2018 album »Zwischen,« Jan Jelinek used the silence between words for a hörspiel. One of the pieces, sampling an interview with Marcel Duchamp, has been remixed by arbitrary owner Mads Emil Nielsen for a split EP. It also features a Jelinek remix of Nielsen’s »Framework 10« that calls to mind the meandering grooves of the Faitiche owner’s classic »Loop-finding-jazz-records.« Faitiche has released a variety of albums this year, including sound artist Andrew Pekler’s »New Environments & Rhythm Studies,« on which he picks up his critical but playful engagement with Fourth World fantasies.

While it is never quite clear if or when Pekler works with actual field recordings, Felicity Mangan has made a name for herself with her imaginative use of environmental sounds. Her Elevator Bath debut »String Figures« however might just be her most ambitious and accomplished work—elegant, multi-layered drones meet murky electronics and the occasional acoustic insight into life in the wetlands. Katharina Schmidt also abstracts field recordings for »Time Imagines« on Discreet Archive for two pieces developed for an installation work that are just as urgent, even at their most restrained.

The second part, featuring releases by Ignaz Schick, Gilles Aubry, Alejandra Cárdenas, and many more – will be released shortly.

Disclaimer: Kristoffer Cornils has worked with the respective label on the release of Martina Bertoni and Kai Fagaschinski’s albums.