Next up in our resident artist introduction series, we proudly present the Berlin-based live techno duo crouds. The project was founded by Andreas Schuller and Jay Nagel in 2017 based on their similar artistic idea of creating improvised performances of electronic club music. Before joining forces, both have been producing and performing live sets on their own. Andreas has been hosting events in his hometown Munich, including his latest and biggest one in early 2019, the Sonic Ground Festival for electronic live music. Jay’s background in experimental music composition enabled him to travel abroad multiple times as artist in residency, leading to an extended network and collaborations with local artists in Latin America and Asia.
When combining their experience on stage, crouds are presenting a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from house influenced slow-burners to psychedelic hard hitters with a recent interest in broken, layered percussion patterns. While always preserving the flow, the mood during a set can change drastically if the crowd is in sync – with unexpected turns willingly provoked.
During their performances, Andreas is working his modular system playing basslines and sequences, while Jay is responsible for polyphonic sounds and percussion grooves. They are driven by continuously refining their setup that underwent numerous iterations in the past few years.
In the last couple of years, the duo has performed in well-established locations such as Mensch Meier (Berlin), Harry Klein (Munich) and 44KW (Shanghai) but their affinity to play smaller venues to create an intimate atmosphere is as big as ever.
When it comes to production and sound-design they combine heavily processed field recordings, analogue synthesizers and hard-hitting drums resulting in their signature driving and psychedelic straight and broken techno.
Their debut album ‘Cabin Pressure’ will be released on Neuzeit later this month: a well-crafted fusion of melancholia and strong dance-floor oriented drum patterns.
Also make sure to check out crouds’ newest set, as they provide us with a great fourth installment of Sonic Ground’s Podcast!
https://soundcloud.com/sonicgroundberlin/sonic-ground-podcast-004-crouds-live