Iconic German producer Stimming takes flight with his new album “Friedrich”

April 23, 2025

Stimming ’s soundworld has always been known for a high-level, brainy type of architecture. The artist takes electronic music to a compositional extreme where every single sound is imbued with meaning and nothing is unthought of. “For every track I do, I’m looking for the organic emotion within the computational machinery,” he says. The emotion is there on Friedrich’s every track, not least because of his collaboration with jazz-vocalist / spoken word artist Salomea and singer-songwriter Dominic Frecot on three instances. “Vocals are such a strong additional level. They are directly connected to what you feel”.

Amongst the many grand creatures of the animal kingdom, it’s not every day that the humble pigeon gets noticed – even less frequently does it get a homage. But in Stimming’s new album Friedrich, the ubiquitous, nearly invisible bird gets prominently featured in the album’s cover and videos because of its banality. “For me, the pigeon is the symbol to of? These normal life moments that are kind of small but if you look at them with a lot of attention, you find stuff that’s incredibly interesting,” says the German electronic music producer and musician. The symbol is somewhat recurring in Stimming’s work, from his iconic track 2013 “Taube auf dem Dach” (“Pidgoen on the Roof”) to the cover of his previous album, Ludwig, which also features a track named after it where it also got a track named after it. What the creature represents; a special attention to the minute – which, in Stimming’s world comes across as a particularly careful and considerate way of crafting sound, has marked his music from the start, “I’m not competing with pop that’s shiny and open, my music is about the details”. Friedrich continues to delve deep into the details, both sonic and existential ones, but in this exploration, Stimming uncovers more light than usual. “After 15 years of doing this full time I’ve come to a strange moment where I feel like I know what I’m doing finally, and it’s just fun,” says the artist. Instincts sharper than ever before, Stimming proceeds to navigate his world of abstract hardware and hard machinery with a newfound lightness, “A pigeon can fly – isn’t that beautiful?”

As a collection of experiences of the last three years, Friedrich’s scope is incredibly personal. It speaks of past relationships, parenthood and illness. “The music is how I express these very specific emotional states brought about by these different circumstances which I can’t put into words,” he says. All the way through Friedrich, it’s this carving out of a new path that characterises Stimming’s approach. While the musician has always experimented with instruments and gear – he’s after all one of the most respected reviewers of electronic music tools – it’s the way he’s layering and juxtaposing them, and the space he’s creating in between sounds that feels markedly different.

The tracks on Friedrich carry reminders to stay present, stay awake – to notice the subtlety in life. Ludwig that the artist let go of all expectations put on him as an electronic music producer, letting go of the need to make the music dance-able and leaping into a realm far more emotional. He navigated those uncharted waters by trial and error, then, which is why Ludwig feels extremely experimental. Here, on Friedrich, it is intuition that’s guiding Stimming.

All the way through Friedrich, it’s this carving out of a new path that characterises Stimming’s approach. While the musician has always experimented with instruments and gadgets (I don’t why, but Martin doesn’t like the word “gadget”, I think he somehow thinks it’s downgrading – can we change it to “gear”?) – he’s after all one of the most respected reviewers of electronic music tools – it’s the way he’s layering and juxtaposing them, and the space he’s creating in between sounds that feels markedly different. Sugar and Lemon sees Stimming combine two unlikely friends. The Berhingher Toro – a simple, toy-like monophonic synthesiser is brought side-by-side with Teenage Engineering’s OP-1, one of the most controversially expensive synthesizers currently for sale. “It started out as a joke,” recalls Stimming. The result of the whimsical experiment is an incredibly warm, catchy and entirely danceable tune. As the second track on Friedrich, it is a wonderful introduction to the rhythmic and often upbeat universe of the entire album.

Stimming “Friedrich”
Track List:

1. Promise (feat. Salomea)
2. Keys Don´t Match (feat. Dominique Fricot)
3. Sugar and Lemon
4. Golden Path
5. LemondropDisc: 2
1. Pulsar 144
2. Holz und Silber
3. Lucky Me
4. Face In The Clouds (feat. Dominique Fricot)