- Artist
- Display Artist
- Various Artists
- ReleaseProduct
- Pop Ambient 2025
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 185 D
- Release Date
- November 29, 2024
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Vinyl 1×LP
Pre-order $30.99Read MoreKompakt496
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Estimated release date: November 29, 2024
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CD
Pre-order $16.99Read MoreKompaktCD185
Estimated release date: November 29, 2024
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Download
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Available: November 29, 2024
German techno architects Kompakt return with the 25th edition of their now iconic Pop Ambient compilation. Pop Ambient 2025 pairs some of the label’s most cherished return collaborators with some fresh faces that share in the Cologne label’s deep love of all things fsjdkfdsf and afhdjfhgjfdgg. Aside from the collection’s deep rooted history, it’s the storied collaborations that provide the biggest draw here. To wit, Sweden’s Sebastian Mullaert makes his debut alongside Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili for a lovely slice of skyward dub techno, while Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer draw immense beauty from buzzing distortion.
Press Release
Hello Everybody,
In recent years, the introductory texts for the Pop Ambient compilation series, which is released every year on Kompakt as the last release before the Christmas break, often began with the sentence "Every year again...".
“Every year again”, a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year.
25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven’t realised how - in pop-ambient contexts - time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense.
When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece Circles by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything - and I said: “...that's the reason why I'm still doing this.. .”
Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again.
Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024
And so to the facts:
- Leandro Fresco / Thore Pfeiffer – Goldwasserfluss
The intercontinental collaboration between the two long-standing Pop Ambient artists Leandro Fresco from Argentina and Thore Pfeiffer from Mainz is a regular part of the series. They open this year's anniversary edition with the usual filigree.
- Pass Into Silence – Mirage
The Japanese artist Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass into Silence returns to Kompakt 20 years after his legendary album “Calm Like A Millpond”. A master of tones that are as fine as they are stoic and crystal clear.
- Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert – Follow Me
For the first time, the well-known Swedish producer and DJ Sebastian Mullaert will be performing on Pop Ambient in cooperation with the Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili. Their piece “Follow Me” fits confidently into the intimate, familiar sound cosmos.
- Sono Kollektiv feat. Nathalie Brum – Periadriatische Naht
Sono Kollektiv is now a fixture on Pop Ambient, this time with Nathalie Brum. In particular, Luis Reich's characteristic flugelhorn always gives their sound that special jazzy touch.
- Thore Pfeiffer – Phase Locked Loop 1
Thore Pfeiffer is a master of shimmering surfaces and hypnotically meandering loops.
- Andrew Thomas feat. Julia Parr – Sunshine Night
An old friend from New Zealand is back with spherical sounds. Andrew Thomas, in collaboration with Julia Parr, sprinkles finely placed piano tones into distant soundscapes and even more distant voices.
- Segensklang – Artifacts of Synthesis
We are pleased that Segensklang will be there again this year after his brilliant Pop Ambient debut last year. Deep and beautiful.
- Ümit Han – Im Delirium
The Cologne producer Ümit Han is back for the third time. While he has so far explored the more emotional, soundscape aspects of the Pop Ambient universe, this year's piece "Im Delirium" rises to a pulsating mountain of sound with pearly, clear, effervescent sound crystals.
- Würden & Schäfer – Analysis Of Variance II
In their track Analysis Of Variance II, Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer embed a finely placed beat impulse in a soft bed of modulating soundscapes and pleasant psychedelic spaceyness.
- Max Würden– Circles
Max Würden once again shows his special feeling for one of the core statements of the Pop Ambient style spectrum. The abstract chord and soundscape movement between formal construction and emotional touchability, which seems like “pop music” under the microscope.
- Blank Gloss – Jennifer’s Convertible
The Californian guitar-ambient duo takes us into their sublimely beautiful sound cosmos with their usual aplomb. Maximum condensed transparency. Lightness - heavy as gold.
- Hendrik Meyer – Grün War Die Klamm
Another new addition is Hendrik Meyer. The versatile musician, also known for his MYR project distributed by Kompakt, leads us with a glistening, beautiful “wall of sound” determination into the eternity of a sunset that is only ended by the following track. Filmy Music.
- Triola – Zum Renngraben
Jörg Burger aka Triola combines his typical “handmade” impulses and accents with a multi-dimensional, digital sound scenario in a pleasantly smoky, blurred stonewashed aesthetic.
- Jens-Uwe Beyer – In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1
Jens-Uwe Beyer, a constant converter between ambient, art, techno and back again, closes Pop Ambient 2025 with a metallic, swinging, abstract sound sculpture with a baroque appearance. The track was created in the context of the exhibition “In Defense of Symbolic Value”, curated by Isabelle Graw at the Max Hetzler Gallery, April-June 2023.
As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned.
And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis.
Digital Tracklist
- 1 Goldwasserfluss 6:20
- 2 Mirage 4:46
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3
Follow Me
6:03
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Follow Me
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WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
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- 4 Periadriatische Naht 5:04
- 5 Phase Locked Loop 1 5:43
- 6 Sunshine Night 4:03
- 7 Artifacts of Synthese 6:28
- 8 Im Delirium 5:21
- 9 Analysis Of Variance II 6:55
- 10 Circles 7:13
- 11 Jennifer's Convertible 8:44
- 12 Grün War Die Klamm 8:28
- 13 Zum Renngraben 3:51
- 14 In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1 6:11
Kompakt
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- Artist
- Michael Mayer
- ReleaseProduct
- The Floor is Lava
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 184 D
- Release Date
- November 1, 2024
- LP
- CD
- Download
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- Artist
- Tamarma, Sebastian Mullaert
- ReleaseProduct
- Follow Me
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 185 S4
- Release Date
- October 23, 2024
- Download
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- Artist
- 9OASES
- ReleaseProduct
- Streetpoet EP
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt 492 D
- Release Date
- October 18, 2024
- Download
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- Artist
- 9OASES
- ReleaseProduct
- Streetpoet (Extended Mix)
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt 492.1
- Release Date
- September 27, 2024
- Download
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- Artist
- Gusgus
- ReleaseProduct
- Within You (Kölsch Mix)
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- FM X / Kompakt 13.1
- Release Date
- September 13, 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Michael Mayer
- ReleaseProduct
- Ardor
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 184 D1
- Release Date
- September 12, 2024
- Download
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- Artist
- Various Artists
- ReleaseProduct
- Kompakt: Total 24
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 182 D
- Release Date
- September 6, 2024
- LP
- CD
- Download
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- Artist
- Rex The Dog
- ReleaseProduct
- Laika
- Label
- Kompakt
- Catalogue Number
- Kompakt CD 182 S2
- Release Date
- September 6, 2024
- Download