Niklas Paschburg An intimate night of solo piano Silent Green, Kuppelhalle, Berlin am 17.03.26

A century-old grand piano, a secluded house surrounded by the greenery of Brittany, no internet

connection, and a reel-to-reel recorder. L’Écho de Bretagne, the new EP by Niklas Paschburg, set for

release from fall 2025 via Nettwerk Music Group, is a solo piano record as essential as it is intense.

An album made of silences, space, slowness. A music that doesn’t chase impact, but truth.

If his previous work, Mexican Alps (2025), marked the first time the German composer and producer

created an ambient-electronic album without his instrument of choice, the piano, L’Écho de Bretagne

emerges as a direct response to that absence. “It was exactly the lack of piano that brought about the

need for this new record, which instead puts that instrument, so vital to me, at the very center,

stripping everything else away,” Niklas explains.

Born in 1994, Paschburg has shaped over the years a musical path deeply connected to travel,

nature, and introspection. From his debut Tuur Mang Welten (2016)

to Oceanic (2018), Svalbard (2020), Panta Rhei (2023), and the aforementioned Mexican Alps —

alongside soundtracks, remixes, and collaborations with artists like RY X, Hania Rani, Ásgeir, and

Bryan Senti — his sound bridges neoclassical, electronic, ambient, and pop-driven composition.

With L’Écho de Bretagne, the Hamburg-born, Berlin-based musician continues his exploration by

seeking solitude in nature, much like he did on Svalbard, but this time with an even more radical

choice: disconnecting completely from the internet, and switching off both computer and smartphone

for a while, in order to fully immerse himself in his new music. “I rented an old cottage in Paimpol,

Brittany, where I knew there was a grand piano,” he recounts. “When I got there, I discovered that not

only was the piano more than a hundred years old, but it was also of an unknown brand, never

restored, and quite difficult to play. But that gave it a unique character, and I didn’t give up. Sure, it

was an instrument left to its own fate, I couldn’t play anything too fast. But how fascinating was that?

I’m convinced that setting limits, instead of giving yourself total freedom when composing, can become

an extraordinary source of inspiration.”

As for the decision to temporarily detach from a life that demands we stay constantly connected,

Niklas describes it as both a creative and human experiment. “I had my laptop and phone with me, just

in case, but I kept them turned off. That choice made me want L’Écho de Bretagne to be a fully analog

work, even in how it was recorded.” A way of clearing the mind. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as calm as

I was during those days in Paimpol. Even though I was working on a very specific project and didn’t

have much time, that period was more relaxing than any vacation.”

Not that it was free of hiccups. “I’d borrowed a reel-to-reel recorder small enough to travel with me, but

after recording a session on the piano, I realized it wasn’t working properly, the sound was distorted,

full of crackles. I got worried, because I wasn’t near any big city where I could find a technician.

Luckily, I figured out the problem was the old tape reels I had brought along. That was the only time I

had to go online, to order new ones. But it was just for a moment. I shut everything off again right

after.” At that point, Niklas was waiting for the new tapes to arrive. He found out, completely by

chance, from a local UPS courier that they had been delivered to a nearby village. “Since my phone

was off, I couldn’t track the shipment. So one day I asked this delivery guy, who didn’t know anything

about it. But from that point on, we’d see each other daily and talk… That’s what being disconnected

also means: reconnecting with people around you, even strangers. It was thanks to that courier that I

found out where the tapes had ended up. And he even helped me get them back, writing directions for

me on a scrap of paper.”

But there’s another element that makes this new EP unique. L’Écho de Bretagne was recorded

entirely live; its tracks are all improvised, complete with their imperfections. This approach leads to a

sound that is pure, profoundly organic, and deeply authentic, intentionally preserved to give the

listener the feeling of a live performance happening in their own living room. The touch of fingers on

the keys, the breath of the wood, the tension of the vibrating string, all become part of the music.

There is no construction, only expression. “Even now, when I listen back to it, I feel that moment I

gave myself to step away from everything: from reality, from words, from noise.” The result is a

collection of suspended melodies and atmospheres, reflecting a state of the soul. A refuge from the

rush of time. A pause from the world.